Good afternoon faithful Minions. Today I show you how to make your own Skeleton Jack o’ Lantern. Please let me know what you think by adding a comment or sending a message to me at scarydad@scarydad.com
Happy Haunting!
Supplies/Tools needed:
- White foam pumpkin
- Pencil (with a good eraser)
- Black acrylic paint
- X-acto knife
- Box cutter
- Dremel (optional)
- Sand paper (optional)
Start with a good pumpkin. Make sure the seams aren’t obvious on the face of your Jack.
Sketch your skull onto the pumpkin. Don’t draw the lines too heavily. If you mess up, the eraser actually works pretty well to remove the pencil lines. As a tip, the top of the nose should cross about the middle of the eyes. The upper jaw should line up with the middle of the eyes as well.
Use the box cutter to remove the larger pieces of material from the pumpkin. This foam is really hard on blades. Save your X-acto for the smaller corners and for cleaning up detail work.
Use a Dremel with a sanding bit to smooth your lines. If you don’t have a Dremel, go get one when you’re done reading this. If you still don’t have one, you can use fine-grit sandpaper. But a Dremel is much more fun to use. Just sayin’
Use your X-acto to cut the spaces between the teeth. Use a fresh, sharp blade and be very careful. Use your fingers to support the foam from the inside taking care not to nick them with the knife. Unless you want to offer a little blood sacrifice to your new creation, then by all means cut away. Seriously though, if you aren’t careful you can easily tear the pumpkin and/or hurt yourself. Take it slow and easy.
When you are done, go back with the pencil eraser and remove any errant sketch marks that didn’t get cut out. Then go grab me a beer. St. Arnold Oktoberfest is really good this time of year. That’s right, go on…
Realizing that Skeleton Jack would not be lit most of the time, I decided a bit of eye-shadow might make him pop a little bit. Add acrylic black paint to the inside edges of the eyes and nose, and just a little bit of an outline of the teeth.
Paint your stem black too so everything matches.
Stick a LED candle inside and there’s your friendly neighborhood Skeleton Jack.
Enjoy!
