Sunday night, RMNB reader Charlie went viral in Caps cirlces for one of the most amazing pumpkin carvings you’ll ever see.
Using a methodical, careful carving technique, Charlie etched a realistic portrait of Alex Ovechkin into a jack-o-latern. The detail is incredible.
Take a closer look.
In an interview, Charlie talked about their strong art background. For six years, Charlie went to the Idaho Arts Charter School. Then, as a freshman at the University of Idaho, Charlie took a sculpting class where they learned wood working, welding, and clay sculpting. Charlie was never taught how to carve pumpkins, but picked up many of the skills needed from that class.
Charlie has created several other stunning works of pumpkin art including Nicklas Backstrom, the Capitals Weagle logo, a Stanley Cup, the Vegas Golden Knights logo, and our Russian machine avatar.
Before making their final pumpkin, Charlie showed off, step-by-step, their process for making one of these beauties.
The subject matter was Braden Holtby.
“It’s a pretty simple process,” Charlie said. “It’s mostly just time-consuming to do. The first thing I do is decide what picture it is I want to carve and how I decide that is I try to figure out exactly how much I hate myself. Then because I’m an artist and I hate myself a lot, I choose the most complicated picture I can.
“After that I print it out and sort of outline the different shades in simple shapes with a pen,” Charlie continued. “After I’ve rid the pumpkin of its innards, I use thumbtacks to attach the picture to the front of the pumpkin. This next step is arguably the most important step: I chug a Redbull while contemplating if my love for the Washington Capitals really extends this far. The answer of course, is always yes, so then I use a tool from my expensive clay carving set that I used when I was once upon a time in art school. I poke tiny holes along the lines that I drew to create a weird outline on the pumpkin, 74% of which Will Not Make Sense once I remove the paper.”
“Then i go ahead and pull that paper off and try to make sense of all those stupid holes. Once i’ve figured out what’s supposed to go where, I do my best to keep my hand steady despite the 24oz of Redbull I have consumed and I use an x-acto knife to connect the dots so to speak.”
“The first actual cutting I always do is the parts that will be pure white which i cut all the way through.”
“Next, in small sections I use more of my clay carving tools to peel off the skin of the pumpkin in the places that will need to be scraped.”
“I go from the lightest sections to the darkest sections and do my best to blend them up. Basically i then repeat that process until I’m so sick of looking at this pumpkin and I’m sure I’m gonna royally screw it up and hate it.”
“Finally, I thin out the back of the rind from the inside, put a light on in it, and touch up what needs to be fixed.”
“Then i show it to everyone i know in hopes of praise and validation because I just spent three hours carving a freaking pumpkin because I’m crazy.”
No, you’re not, Charlie. Just crazy brilliant.
