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#48032
Pumpkin fanatics know of Ray Villafane's work. You may have seen his epic pumpkin sculptures on his Villafane Studios website. His skills have won him the prize more than once on Food Network Challenge: Outrageous Pumpkins. He's even stopped by our humble forum to say hello.

Looks like Ray is going to be offering an instructional video for those who would like to learn the tricks of 3D sculpting on fruit flesh. He just raised enough donations via the Kickstarter website to fund production of this DVD. You can find a video pitch for his DVD project here:

Ray Villafane's 3D Pumpkin Carving Tutorials

An update from Ray...
Ray Villafane wrote:Thanks to everyone who supported the project. I am really excited to begin production on this DVD. In this DVD I will not only walk you through EVERYTHING, but also include some neat eye candy such as time lapse videos and other never before seen aspects of my carvings. In addition to the individual DVD sales I was also able to book some carving demos and instructional classes in some major US cities(as well as Bermuda:)) If you live near NYC, Chicago or LA, I will be posting details soon on dates and places where you can watch me carve live! In Washington DC I will be going a step further and not only doing a demo but holding actual carving classes at James Parker's Veggy Art. Details on all of these events will be posted soon. I will also post a couple of short teasers to you all once I get pumpkins in hand(September). Bring on HALLOWEEN!!!
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By nosferatu
#48044
I would sell my already heavily mortgaged soul to have half of Ray's talent.

His talent is unquestionable and his carvings are of another world.

As for the tutorials, I don't think I could face the heartache and disappointment.

I hope that he too, publishes a book sometime.
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By CorpseBride
#48222
I am going to get my grubby little hands on this for sure. Thanks for sharing Ryan! I attempted a 3-D pumpkin last year, but safe to say it was a complete failure. I really love the classic cut out pumpkins, says Halloween to me. But who doesn't love art that pushes the edges of the norm!
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By amandap80
#56196
His work is amazing. This was my first attempt at any freehand scrap away last year:
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I wanna try again this year and scrape more away for a more sophisticated look.
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By keifferone
#56279
amandap80 wrote:His work is amazing. This was my first attempt at any freehand scrap away last year:
Image
I wanna try again this year and scrape more away for a more sophisticated look.
Looks great for a first attempt.
By Tj
#56451
Ray Villafane is a hero of mine. Everything he sculpts, regardless of media, is simply amazing. I have always thought if you want to see the just how talented he is, look at the Western Ghost Rider he sculpted from the "Ghost Rider" film (for Sideshow Collectables). To sculpt fire from clay...

And then his pumpkins; I remember first seeing them and just being in awe... I didn't know you could do that to a pumpkin! Those things are just unreal, they blow me away every time I see them.

I should also point out that he's a very nice guy as well; he used to frequent a statue forum and when a member received one of his statues from Sideshow with a piece broken, he asked for their address and hooked them up. Oh, and have you seen what he does with sand?
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By Zombie Pumpkins!
#56453
Oh yeah, Ray's got skills, no doubt.

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From what I've seen and heard from him, he does seem like a nice guy. And I've enjoyed watching him work on the Food Network challenges. His recent full size zombie sculpture was amazing... made of pumpkin... a "pumpkin zombie" as opposed to a "zombie pumpkin." Even Rob Zombie approves.

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#72644
Ran across this video of Ray today. I think he sums up our craft perfectly when he says:

"The fact that pumpkins are temporary art is an added bonus. It's kind of like that holiday dessert that you only have once a year. I would bet that if you had it once a week you would not appreciate it as much. Your memories of it are really heightened and you become more emotionally attached to it."

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#72692
I also agree with what he says, I'd love to carve once a month though. just to keep my skills up. I kind of felt rusty this year. But that all changes Saturday!!!!