This past weekend was the holiday known as Halloween and thirteen pumpkins had to be carved for the decorating of a certain home. Now, this is well known to be a monumental achievement amongst anyone who has ever embarked on the traditional carving of a pumpkin. Fellow carvers are well aware of the time and effort required, not to mention total concentration.
However more recently with the growth in popularity of the holiday, many people (especially the crazies carving 13 pumpkins) have resorted to carving pumpkins by designs created and distributed by others. These designs are printed on paper and can be copied so that they can be posted to the pumpkin, outlined for carving, and then actually cut out. Although the creative aspect is left to the page designers, the pumpkin carvers are left to properly cut out or leave the positive or negative space forcing them to look for the figure and ground relationship of the design outlines.
The positive space is the space occupied by the form, figure, or object while the negative space is the space between and around it these things. In some carving cases, the negative space is cut away to emphasize the figure in the positive space. On the other hand, the positive space can be carved away utilizing the outline in the negative space to give way to the details of the figure. The design lays out this difference for the outliner making the distinction very apparent and easy to follow. However, the carver is forced to use only the outline as a mere guide through the positive and negative space. The carver is forced to find the figures relationship to the surrounding area as well as the surrounding areas’ relation to the figure. Without this, it is quite apparent that a single cut of the wrong space could destroy the design.
Pumpkin carvers rely on the relationship between the figure and ground to accurately carve the negative or positive space. Although they rely on prefabricated design, it is the reliance on figure/ground relationship that makes or breaks the design. In the process of pumpkin carving, carvers are forced to pick the design and outline it setting up a framework for carving. After the outline is made, the carver must implement the ideas, negative and positive space as well as figure/ground relationship, to carve the design. When carving mistakes occur it is because a lack of unity or failing to see the relationships causing the plan to be reworked or rebuilt (sometimes with toothpicks). Then the carving continues until the finished product is revealed.
The design process and design ideas are everywhere in society from simple household arrangements to building designs to pumpkin carving. The idea that creating takes thinking and reworking is fundamental to designing. Even when carving a pumpkin from a design, carvers have to consider things as simple as which pumpkin to carve what design on.
Image above borrowed from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/content/images/2004/11/01/witch_pumpkin_470_470x353.jpg
Images of the pumkin carving designs can be found at these links:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/t_template.asp?t=http://www.dltk-holidays.com/halloween/images/bpatternwitch.gif
http://www.dltk-kids.com/t_template.asp?t=http://www.dltk-holidays.com/halloween/images/bpatternwitch2.gif
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