Are You Cut Out for Pumpkin Carving?

Nothing really fancy to show lately in the way of illustration, but I did carve a pumpkin the other day.  I've always wanted to learn how to carve fancy things on pumpkins like faces and other intricate images.  Information on this technique was very lacking.  After much searching on the internet though, I was able to glean enough information to finally try carving my very own face onto a pumpkin.  I used a permanent marker that would bleed in order to transfer the image onto the pumpkin.  I then used an exacto blade to trace the lines where I would cut so that when peeling back the skin it would have clean cut edges.  I also used some cheap wood carving tools to help peel the skin off and carve into the pumpkin.  Once all was more or less equally carved away I put a flash light into the pumpkin to know where to carve more away to create lighter spots.  Most people at this point would carve all the way through to create the lighter spots on the face, but I was too nervous so only carved deeper than the surrounding areas.  I think it turned out pretty good though in the end.  I would suggest  anyone try this technique if you can get a good lighted image.  It took a long time, but was fun and makes for a great conversation piece.