How to Carve Pumpkins like Ray Villafane

It’s been a very busy fall this year with introducing Ray Villafane’s 3D Pumpkin Carving Tutorials on DVD and with my carving at the White House. I hope that you had a very Happy Halloween.

People Learn how to Carve Expressive Pumpkins
in the style of  Ray Villafane

Lots of my customer/students have been having fun learning how to carve pumpkins with Ray Villafane’s Pumpkin Carving DVD. It is really not as difficult as it seems to carve pumpkins with expressive 3D faces.

At first it seems totally daunting. But when Ray Villafane breaks in down into a series of easy to follow steps, anyone can do it. Really! Well. anyone who wants to do it.

I have had so many student/customers send me emails telling me how pleased they are with their first attempts at carving faces after watching Ray Villafane‘s DVD tutorials.

One student told me that he thought carving faces would be too difficult. He though that he had to be an artist to sculpt pumpkin faces. But when he saw how Ray Villafane breaks it down into steps he thought, Wow, maybe I don’t have to be an artist. He told me that he was so pleased with their pumpkin carvings and how they can’t wait till next year to show off their pumpkins at Halloween.

Take a look at photos of pumpkins that some people have carved after watching the DVD lessons by Ray Villanfane .

First Carved Pumpkins after Watching
Pumpkin Carving DVD Tutorials by Ray Villafane.

Here is the first pumpkin face carved by Luis Rodriguez. It’s fun isn’t it? Luis tells me that his fiancee loved it!

First Pumpkin carved by Luis Rodriguez after watching Ray Villanfane’s pumpkin carving DVD

Here is another pumpkin that Luis had some fun carving after that.

Luis Rodriguez having some fun with his carved pumpkin

Kari Betlesky sent me a photo of her first expressive pumpkin face that she carved after watching Ray Villafane’s 3-D Pumpkin Carving Tutorials. Here is what she had to say:

“I was very impressed with this cd. I used a little from what he taught from 2 different carvings. Can’t wait til next year to try the pony tail carving.
Btw-I love your website. – Kari”

Kari Betlesky’s fun first 3-D pumpkin carving

Here are more outstanding pumpkins carved by Simon Muscat after watching Ray Villanfane’s 3D Pumpkin Carving Tutorials.

Pumpkin faces carved by Simon Muscat

Simon Muscat carved this Happy Faced Pumpkin

More variations of 3D carved pumpkins by Simon Muscat

Fantastic Job Simon! You’ve been busy. Thanks for sharing your photos.

In Ray Villafane’s DVD, he tells how to pick a good pumpkin for this type of carving. But sometimes, based of availability of pumpkins, you end up with a pumpkin that is too dry and meat that is too thin. That’s what happened to Sharron Nickerson with her first 3-D pumpkin face carving. But, she still made the best of it. She did a great job of carving some stitches in the side of her pumpkin face.

Here is what Sharron had to say,

Hi Nita,

I gave Ray’s Video a try, unfortunately I had a not so good pumpkin. I believe I could have done a much better job if the pumpkin was fresher and had thicker meat.

Because the pumpkin was stringy and shallow I had a problem with one of the eyes. So I filled in the eye and create some stitches on the cheek to try to draw away from the bad eye. I still got some great complements on my first 3D pumpkin.

I cant wait to try another one when I can find a better pumpkin.

Thanks for hooking me up with Rays Video lesson. I can see with a little practice

I will be able to create some pretty cool pumpkins.

Thanks again

Sharron Nickerson”

Sharron Nickerson still made the best with her first try carving a 3D pumpkin face as taught by Ray Villafane even though her pumpkin was quite dry.

Great job, Sharron, Kari, Simon and Luis. Thanks for sharing the photos of your first pumpkin carvings with us.

I’d love to see your pumpkin faces that you carved after watching Ray Villafane ‘s Pumpkin Carving Tutorials. Send me your photos and I may add them to my blog.

Because  pumpkins will still be available over the next couple of months, it’s the perfect time to get a bit of practice for next year. The face sculpting techniques in Ray Villafane’s 3D pumpkin Carving DVD are also useful for sculpting other material like clay, sand or even daikon and apples. You can use these skills at times other than Halloween.You can still get Ray’s pumpkin carving tutorial in my shop on this website.

You might also enjoy seeing the article that recently appeared about Ray Villafane in the Wall Street Journal. you can also view a short video about Ray and his carving that appears on the Wall Street Journal website. You may also have seen Ray on Martha Stewart, on Food Network’s Halloween Wars and Outrageous Pumpkins.

3-D Pumpkin Carving Tutorials by Ray Villafane are Available Now.

If you learn and practice now, imagine the amazing pumpkins you’ll be carving for next Halloween!

Ray Villafane ‘s 3D pumpkin carving tutorials are available here on my website as of the writing of this article.