Halloween amps up creativity on so many levels – the costumes, the parties, the decorations and the pumpkins!

With their sinuous stems and richly textured orange-colored flesh,
pumpkins offer Halloween carving enthusiasts a fabulous canvas to create
art. Have you ever tried your hand at pumpkin carving? Well, you’re
about to find out that there are carved pumpkins, and then there are Ray Villafane’s extremely outrageous carved pumpkins. Artist, Villafane is hands down, the best pumpkin carver in the world.

I almost dropped my laptop when my friend posted this collection of
amazing pumpkins on facebook. Pumpkin carver, Villafane explains how he
works his truly scary magic. and he offers up some tips for creating
pumpkins. Here are some of the highlights from his tutorial:
“If you want to make [carve] a good pumpkin you have to push the
limits…when strolling through a pumpkin patch, stay on high alert for
thick pumpkins. Of course, you can’t actually tell how thick a pumpkin
is until you cut into it, but as a general rule, thick pumpkins are
heavy pumpkins. “Pick up three pumpkins of the same size,” Villafane
advised. “If one feels much heavier than the others, it’s got a thick
wall…Go for an oblong shape rather than a perfectly round shape.
Villafane finds that a taller, oblong shape is best for carving faces.
“The best is oblong and, if you can imagine, compressed,” he said. “Find
a pumpkin that’s been lying on its side so it looks compressed, and so
it has a ridge running from top to bottom. You sculpt the face along the
ridge.”
Along with sharing his genius with the world, Villafane also gives
back to his community. The master pumpkin artist teaches kids how to
carve pumpkins. He routinely visits schools and teaches young children
his carving techniques.