2015 Jack O Lanterns

Halloween was yesterday and as usual most of this week was spent carving jack-o-lanterns. Each year I try to step up my game and I felt like I had stagnated a bit. But this year I am very pleased with how things came out. Even better, the supergirls at home have been doing these with me and have done their own the last couple of years. This year the ones they produced were unreal, equal if not better than mine. Here we go.

I don't think I had ever done a Marvel lantern before and so I thought I should go classic. I use the phrase 'my spider sense is tingling' all the time at work so thought this would be the way to go.

Technically this was pretty simple, just a matter of doing a lot of scraping.

The Flash has become a staple in my house. The supergirls and I watch it and love it. So I thought a Flash lantern would be timely.

This one was a bit trickier, trying to figure out the carving style. The 'speed lines' were a late addition. Super-wife came up with the idea of a lighting gradient going fomr light to dark. Thought that added a lot of energy.

This required a lot of careful scalpel work and a lot of thinning of the pumpkin from the inside.

Given the main villain of season one was the Reverse Flash, I thought a battle of the lanterns would be fun.

I probably should have thinned this one out more.

I decided that reverse speed lines would be a nice touch.

I simply reversed the stencil I made for the Flash to create a Reverse Flash. This one was the reverse of the last, so didn't have to think too much on the design.

But this was really the effect I wanted. To have the two speeding towards each other.

I am pretty psyched with how this came out.

 I am sorry not to have an 'unlit' pic of this Rei Ayanami (from Neon Genesis Evangelion) jack o lantern. This is my favorite anime and amazingly the middle Supergirl at home loves it as well. I knew this one wouldn't last long given some of the thin parts of pumpkin just hanging out in space. Sure enough this morning it looks quite rotted.

I am most impressed with how the illusion of the floating double zero came out. Lucky to have pulled this off.

Carving these is always a fun family time.

The supergirls at home have been helping and doing them the last couple of years. The oldest pulled off this snow leopard lantern this year. This might be the best of the lot given the precision work on the spots. Call me a proud papa.

The youngest did a Bill Cipher (from Gravity Falls) with a little help from her old man.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!