Halloween Photoshop Bonus Assignment

So Halloween is coming and you don't have any idea what to put on your pumpkin. Triangle eyes and square teeth? I don't think so. How about putting Aunt Martha's frightful face on it instead? You can, using Photoshop! Here's how!

Introduction

USING PHOTOSHOP TO CREATE JACK_O'LANTERN PATTERNS
This tutorial assumes that you know something about carving complex jack-o'lanterns using patterns. If you don't, then this project will likely be a bit more advanced than you can handle. If this is the case, I suggest going out and getting a simple kit from someplace like Pumpkin Masters, or visiting their website to learn more about it first. You should definitely do something simpler first, in order to get used to working with pumpkins this thin. They break very easily, and usually the only thing you can do when this happens is start over...a very disheartening thing when you have spent a couple hours on the project. For the rest of you gourd slicers, let's begin.

Step One

Step One, is to pick an image to use. Crop out the section you want to use and blow it up to about 300-600 pixels in width, maintaining aspect ratio. As long as it is not extremely fuzzy, and as long as the details are visible, it should be good. The example here is our fealess leader, JaxomLOTUS.

Step Two

The next step is to trace around the the head with a lighter color (almost always white) to outline the hair and other features. Then color in the rest of the background with black.

Step Three

Next, grayscale (or just go b/w) the image. It may also be necessary to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image to make the subject's features stand out.

Step Four

Next, use "Posterize" at a fairly low bits per channel setting (I used 3 for this one). If you aren't using a program with this feature, simply reduce the number of colors used in the picture to 4. It should start to look a bit more like a regular pumpkin pattern at this point!

Step Five

Now you need to reduce the number of colors in the picture to three (if it isn't already): black, light gray, and white. Use the color replace tool, or just draw over the dark gray parts with light gray. It is sometimes necessary to use the black color in dark gray areas to retain some of the face's features (usually the lips, eyes, and eyebrows). This image didn't really require much of that though...I got lucky. The idea is that when you are done, the white areas are holes in the pumpkin, the gray areas are areas where you will just remove the skin off of the pumpkin (allowing only limited light through), and the black areas are where the pumpkin will remain intact.

Step Six

Once you have reduced the colors you will need to clean up the image. Remove the speckles from the different areas by coloring over them with the main color for that area, and clean up all the edges. Be careful to not alter the edges so much that you alter the features.

Step Seven

Very important step!
**Make sure their are no unconnected black or gray areas in the middle of a white area! (You don't want to have to suspend a piece of pumpkin in midair!)
**Also, make sure that any thin gray or black areas are thick enough not to break off during carving. You may have to add some sections in order to accomplish this, but do so in such a way as to compliment the image without detracting from its integrity. This is where the artistic ability comes in.
**Finally, make sure that if there is a black area for hair, as in this image, that you outline it in gray as well, in order to keep it distinct from the background when the carving is finished.

Step Eight

Last Step! Your pattern should now look like a black & white version of what the final pumpkin will look like. The only thing left to do is to make a negative image for the pattern. Once the negative image is done, you should remove as much of the black outline as you can, but be careful that you don't also remove a critical section of the image in the process. Clean up the image and make any final adjustments. You are done! Print it off using "Full page" and "Maintain aspect ratio".

Tips and the Finished Work

Tips For Using These Types of Patterns:
Hollow out the pumpkin and scrape the inside to about 1/2 inch thickness. This is quite thin, so be gentle! When you are done you can alter this thickness to allow for more light to get through certain areas if you so desire, creating a shading effect.
When transferring the design onto the pumpkin, I find it helpful to outline it as I go using different colored markers to differentiate between the different areas.
Remember that the finished pattern is a negative image! You will be completely cutting out the black sections, and gently peeling the skin off of the gray sections. The white sections remain intact.
Peeling the skin for the gray sections is best done with a razor blade and a lot of patience. Remember, pumpkin juice is slippery so be very careful. (Knives+Lubricant=Blood and Stitches!)
Start early and be patient...transferring the image onto the pumpkin and then carving one of these beasts can take a couple hours.
When you are done, the pumpkin should look like this:
Hey look...it's a Jax-o'lantern!!

Here is the Mona Lisa, which I did last night (Oct.29, 2002).