This year’s pumpkin carving is “The Last Voyage of the Whaler Recompense”.
There are two parallel worlds clashing here. A bit of “Moby Dick” meets “War of the Worlds”. The Whaling Ship Recompense is on the open sea, full moon behind it, and has sent out three small longboats after a massive sperm whale (at bottom). The three boats are men from another world come to attack the whale.
Not so fast.
The alien Mothership, to the left of the Whaler, has in turn sent out *her* three smaller ships. And those men from another world have come to take vengeance on the longboats. The nearest ship, upper right, has one of the longboats in its tractor beam, and is lifting it into its hold. One sailor is about to be sucked inside, and the rest of his crew and their boat is rising behind them.
It’s a four foot wrap around carving on a hundred pound Atlantic Giant Pumpkin
It took about five days, four to eight hours a day. (I don’t get out very much).
My favorite part is watching people bob and weave around it looking for all the bits of the story and putting it together themselves, because you can’t see it all at once. You need to engage withbit a bit like sculpture.
After twenty five years, I now just carve by feel. Deeper you go, the brighter it is. You carve in negative. When I am done, I scrape the ever-loving hell out of the insides, going from three inches thick to about a quarter of an inch at the thinnest.
Brightness comes from carving deep, and also from thinning.
osin144 on
This is so fucking cool, amazing work. It was hard for me to tell from the video, but at first I thought you carved it from the inside out, which was really blowing my mind. Either way, it’s very compelling imagery.
HighlightOwn2038 on
Ok that… Is the most beautiful pumpkin I’ve seen
crabbycrayfish on
Holy ship!
BagDiligent3610 on
Wonder if some heavy coats of epoxy would preserve this. With some LEDs inside for that “Beam me up” effect
7 Comments
I did the bat signal this year
This year’s pumpkin carving is “The Last Voyage of the Whaler Recompense”.
There are two parallel worlds clashing here. A bit of “Moby Dick” meets “War of the Worlds”. The Whaling Ship Recompense is on the open sea, full moon behind it, and has sent out three small longboats after a massive sperm whale (at bottom). The three boats are men from another world come to attack the whale.
Not so fast.
The alien Mothership, to the left of the Whaler, has in turn sent out *her* three smaller ships. And those men from another world have come to take vengeance on the longboats. The nearest ship, upper right, has one of the longboats in its tractor beam, and is lifting it into its hold. One sailor is about to be sucked inside, and the rest of his crew and their boat is rising behind them.
It’s a four foot wrap around carving on a hundred pound Atlantic Giant Pumpkin
It took about five days, four to eight hours a day. (I don’t get out very much).
Happy Halloween!
Some more photos:
[The whale in the foreground with the Whaler behind](https://imgur.com/gallery/last-voyage-of-whaler-recompense-maybe-moby-meets-war-of-worlds-5cxQgcg#OILF9a5)
There’s a full moon behind the whaler, lighting the sails from behind.
[Daytime photo for scale](https://imgur.com/gallery/last-voyage-of-whaler-recompense-maybe-moby-meets-war-of-worlds-5cxQgcg#WgoGEAF)
It is a one hundred pound Atlantic Giant. After carving it weighs less than half that. The walls are less than a half inch thick at some points.
[The two motherships](https://imgur.com/gallery/last-voyage-of-whaler-recompense-maybe-moby-meets-war-of-worlds-5cxQgcg#QqwNRG8)
Parallel worlds. Both ships come from “another world” to harry and attack the defenseless. For the Whaler, it is payback time. Recompense.
[Two of the longboat crews](https://imgur.com/gallery/last-voyage-of-whaler-recompense-maybe-moby-meets-war-of-worlds-5cxQgcg#e519t8f)
Each crew has six or eight men, oars, ropes, harpoons.
[One of the smaller alien ships](https://imgur.com/gallery/last-voyage-of-whaler-recompense-maybe-moby-meets-war-of-worlds-5cxQgcg#Nmr3FVK)
Each mother ship sends out three smaller vessels with their crews bent on destruction.
[The full carving wraps four feet around](https://imgur.com/gallery/last-voyage-of-whaler-recompense-maybe-moby-meets-war-of-worlds-5cxQgcg#qNy7zhh)
My favorite part is watching people bob and weave around it looking for all the bits of the story and putting it together themselves, because you can’t see it all at once. You need to engage withbit a bit like sculpture.
[I make a mess. Of all the tools, I use the 4” paring knife most](https://imgur.com/gallery/last-voyage-of-whaler-recompense-maybe-moby-meets-war-of-worlds-5cxQgcg#00iLo0p)
I spent five days, four to ten hours a day, stinking up the living room with pumpkin.
[What it looks like when carving.](https://imgur.com/gallery/last-voyage-of-whaler-recompense-maybe-moby-meets-war-of-worlds-5cxQgcg#6ljousy)
After twenty five years, I now just carve by feel. Deeper you go, the brighter it is. You carve in negative. When I am done, I scrape the ever-loving hell out of the insides, going from three inches thick to about a quarter of an inch at the thinnest.
Brightness comes from carving deep, and also from thinning.
This is so fucking cool, amazing work. It was hard for me to tell from the video, but at first I thought you carved it from the inside out, which was really blowing my mind. Either way, it’s very compelling imagery.
Ok that… Is the most beautiful pumpkin I’ve seen
Holy ship!
Wonder if some heavy coats of epoxy would preserve this. With some LEDs inside for that “Beam me up” effect
Shame it’s not permanent