Stuck on what to carve on your pumpkin this year? Well, today you will learn how to carve your very own simple Pumpkin Cyclops! This will take some time, so get ready!

note: I am not a professional and I am doing this on my own best judgement. Please use common sense when working with sharp tools as they are dangerous. Also, all images were taken by hand, so they might be a little wonky. If you need clarification, I would be happy to help.

Supplies

I don't have any special supplies, so I searched around the house until I was happy with what I came up with. This is what I found

Some paper towels

A mini screwdriver kit

A potato peeler

1 Pumpkin Masters multitool

1 fruit knife

A small container for the guts

And of course a pumpkin!

Step 1: Design

When starting out, you always want a clear goal. So, I drew this design of a cyclops to start out with. Try drawing something that will be simple and easy to work with. Don't draw on the pumpkin, do it on a piece of paper so you can reference it. You can also print out images that you find online that look close enough.

Step 2: Setup

First, you want to lay your paper towels onto a flat surface ( like your dining table). Then, wash/dry all your tools and plop the pumpkin right onto those paper towels.

Step 3: Peel the Pumpkin

Use the potato peeler to peel off the layer of pumpkin skin on the side you'll be working with. That way, you have access to a blank canvas to carve your design. Do this on the paper towels as to have a easy cleanup.

Step 4: Rough Draft

Attach the flat head to the end of the screwdriver and outline the brow line, nose, and the eyeball. You can "eyeball" the placement ( pun intended) and scrape out a medium deep outline.

Step 5: The Mouth

Outline the mouth with the same depth as the rest of the pumpkin. Make it fairly large to fit teeth and other features

Step 6: Shaping

Shape the nose so that it slopes outwards. Also, trace a gum line on the mouth and add other small details to the eyes.

Especially remember, once a bit is gone, it's gone. For good. So be careful when shaping/cutting

Step 7: Adding Teeth.

Following your sketch, add the teeth accordingly by outlining them and adding depth to them. They should at least be visible in some way.

Step 8: Eyeball Details

For this step, you will need your sketch and a picture of an eyeball. Switch your big flathead screwdriver for a little flathead as this is one of the finer details. Outline a smaller circle inside the eyeball for the iris and then punch a hole through the center for the pupil. Add other details as you see fit.The eyeball will look way better after this step. That's all for the facial details!

Step 9: Removing the Pumpkin Guts(optional)

This step WILL get messy. Cut a hole in the back with the fruit knife and scoop out all the guts and put them into the small bucket. The seeds can be roasted for a tasty snack.

Step 10: Weatherproofing(optional)

This step will help your pumpkin not rot faster. Grab a jar of Vaseline and rub it around the carved edges of the pumpkin. This will stop rot for a good extra amount of time.

Step 11: Cleanup

I really shouldn't be telling you how to clean up, so just remove the pumpkin bits from your tools and workspace as you see fit.

Step 12: What I Learned

So during this process, there were a lot of mishaps along the way that I didn't take a picture of, so I'll just list them here so next time, you know what to do and not to do ( at least for me)

1: Make your outlines shallow, so then if you accidentally slip while tracing, you can use the potato peeler to scrape off the layer with the mistake

2: Once you put the Vaseline on, DO NOT touch the pumpkin as a) it will rub the Vaseline off and b) now your hand is covered in Vaseline.

And 3: Your pumpkins will be scavenged by wild animals (shocker!) They won't do too much damage in the first few days, but as time goes on, bits and pieces of your pumpkins will start to go missing due to deer, birds, rabbits, and other animals. The most damaging animals will either be deer (for their ability to yeet pumpkins around with their antlers/mouth ) and squirrels, for their ability to strike anytime, super quickly.

Step 13: What Next?

After spending countless hours searching online for pumpkin carving, I feel like you could apply the same basic idea to a variety of Halloween's creepiest characters such as the likes of Frankenstein, the Grim Reaper, zombies and much much more. The only thing holding me back from buying zillions of pumpkins would be my lack of $ right now and my free time. Also yes, you technically could make a life-size pumpkin monster but that would require lots of planning and other materials that I currently don't have, but someone actually managed to do.

Okay, that's it for the What's Next section!