Pumpkin Carving by Ray Villafane

It wouldn't be Halloween without carving a few pumpkins, but artist Ray Villafane's pumpkin sculptures stand out among the patch.   Despite using this long-time Halloween favorite as his medium of choice, Villafane's creations are anything but traditional.  

Villafane's ghoulish gourds feature precise sculptural work and intricate detail.  Sometimes fascinatingly life-like and other times comically exaggerated, his unique jack-o-lantern characters are full of personality.  

Based in Arizona, Villafane was an art teacher for several years before leaving education to pursure a career of sculpting action figures and collectibles.  However, it was during his time in teaching that he discovered his sculpting skills led to a unique talent and passion for carving pumpkins.  For years Villafane carved and sold pumpkins to parents of students before posting photos of his creations on the Internet to wide acclaim and thereby inadvertently creating a second career for himself.  He began carving pumpkins on commission for special events and then it wasn't long before he was invited to show-off his talents on television shows.  He eventually created his own staffed studio and even created a website dedicated to teaching others his method of pumpkin carving.

Villafane's methods are just as interesting as his creations.  He discards the normal pumpkin carving tools in favor of implements normally used in sculpting clay.  He usually doesn't usually bother with cutting open and gutting his pumpkins, instead focusing the outermost layer, carving the outer skin.  This method has its own special challenges.  If he carves too deep he will break into the center.  Thus, pumpkins with thicker skin and "meat" are typically selected.  Another challenge is one much more familiar to most amateur pumpkin carvers.  It isn't long before decay sets in and the pumpkin begins to shrivel.  Villafane uses this pressure to his advantage as a source of inspiration.

During other seasons Villafane turns to other mediums including snow and sand with similarly breathtaking results.  But each year as Halloween nears he returns once again to the pumpkins.

Check out some of Villafane's amazing work below...

Halloween Update: Cousin Eerie

Since they're taking so much of my time away from blogging, I thought it would only be right to share some of my Halloween projects with you.  My first (nearly) complete prop for this year is Cousin Eerie which is obviously based on the host of Warren's Eerie Magazine! 

I came up with the idea for this prop shortly after last year's Halloween festivities (That's usually how it goes, just as soon as one season is over it's time to prepare for next year!).  I thought it would be kind of creepy to have a character sitting in the dark just kind of laughing to himself.  I had just recently started collecting Warren's Creepy and Eerie magazines, so I thought it would be cool to incorporate one of those characters.

I was very pleased to find that the mask company Trick or Treat Studios produced an excellent Cousin Eerie mask, so it wasn't long before I placed an order...  And the mask sat on my shelf for several months.  It's a bad habit, but I typically don't feel like building props until two or three months prior to Halloween.  So in the meantime I sat down and drew up some "concept art" - something that I hadn't done before, at least not for Halloween props - to get my ideas down on paper...  Plus, they're fun to draw!

Flash forward:  The months went on and on and I finally realized that I could not wait any longer to start on prop-building.  It was time to take the mask of the shelf and construct a body.  When I first started building props I stumbled upon some great plans for building life-size figures out of PVC pipe.  I've been using these same plans ever since.  It takes a little while, but soon you end up with a rough "skeleton" for your prop.  Once I finished the frame work it was time to begin bulking the body out so it didn't look too gaunt.  I've found that chicken wire works great for creating lightweight chest cavities and other body parts.

I usually glue my PVC pipe together for additional structural support.  However, if you are going to attempt to try this yourself, I recommend taking your time with this particular step because the glue dries and hardens very quickly.  Make sure that your figure is positioned exactly how you want it before gluing.  Another tip:  glue the non-moving joints first to allow you additional time to get posing and dressing correct.

The clothes all came from the local Goodwill store.  I was really lucky to pick them up all in one trip.  With some slight modifications I was able to emulate Eerie's garb quite successfully I think.  I suppose I should also mention where Cousin Eerie's hands came from.  It's very difficult to find creature hands that match up with a mask unless it's a package deal.  Luckily, Ghoulish Productions has some zombie gloves that match the mask's flesh tone closely enough.

Come Halloween night I plan on having Cousin Eerie sitting on the edge of our yard display, his features illuminated only by a television screen.  He will be blissfully gazing into the television set which will be playing a loop of old black and white horror movie trailers, chuckling to himself amidst all of the mayhem...

Look for more Halloween updates in the future!

"Bookworm" - Eerie

A Stroll Around the Corridor...

I got bored the other day and decided to take some pictures of a portion of my collection of masks, busts, and action figures and then put them through some filters...  Enjoy.

"One for De-Money!" - Eerie

EC Comics met its untimely demise thanks to the creation of the Comics Code Authority...  But horror comics were resurrected in the the late 60's in the form of the comic magazines. To escape the curse of the Comics Code Authority, Warren Publishing printed in the magazine format.  The magazines Creepy and Eerie gave readers illustrated tales of terror in black and white on a bimonthly basis.  Featuring a roster established artists of EC fame along with budding new talent, the comics remain highly influential to this day.

Warren Publishing was a something of a spiritual successor to the EC legacy in many ways.  Like the EC Comics, each story was introduced by a "host" who usually made wise-cracking commentary on the plot using puns and dark humor.  Creepy stories were introduced Uncle Creepy while Eerie's hosting duties fell to Cousin Eerie.

The quality of the comics began to wane in the later years as the original creative team left and editors came and went on a regular basis.  The magazines began to rely on reprints of the early stories to stay afloat until they finally ceased publication in the early 80's.