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If you're one of the top 2000 active users from the past month, visit your account page and vote for the Best of October! Winners will be announced next week.
I hit the polls at 7am this morning to cast my vote for the next President of the United States. Picking a winner for the Pumpkin Carving Contest was much harder, so I decided to enlist some help. After picking a top six, some guys who happened to be available weighed in on their favorites. From that, I organized this final list:
1. ReNaeNae - Dirge from the Xombie series
RubberNinja: "I believe this one is the best carved out of all of them. The lighting gives the outlines a nice bold contrast to the skin and really makes the whole piece stand out. Very carefully carved."
MindChamber: "The Dirge Pumpkin feels the best executed one, on account of the crisp steady cuts. Looking closest to its subject matter."
PsychoGoldfish: "This is the cleanest example of pumpkin carving of all the contenders. The choice of a white pumpkin with green lighting just adds to the overall appeal of this entry."
Ansel: "Renaenae's is very nice technically and artistically... it's a very good drawing carved very smoothly. The variance between shades and thicknesses make it look really incredible. I'm not sure whether it's
original artwork or whether it's based off official art for the series, but it's excellent."
2. phantomZ - Madness from the Madness series
RubberNinja: "I choose this one simply because it's a clever, yet simple creation. They were clearly thinking outside the box yet still within the limits of their artistic medium to create something that really stands out and is true to the original source material."
PsychoGoldfish: "This gets bonus points for going beyond a simple carving and creating an actual scene. This probably would have been my #1 choice if there was more actual carving skill represented, vs just dressing up the pumpkins."
Edmund McMillen: "So good i could actually see myself sticking my dick in it, nice work."
3. ArykSB - Steve from the Tankmen series
MindChamber: "Tankman was not as clean as dirge but second cleanest and had required more detail."
PsychoGoldfish: "This one gets mad props for carving skill. The narrow font and lines couldn't have been easy to cut out as clean as they are."
Ansel: "The Steve one has a lot of detail and is very well done technically. There's differing thicknesses for contrast and a lot of very fine lines-- looks like it was difficult to do..."
4. super-sense - Dad 'n Me from the game
RubberNinja: "I like this one because it gives off this nice rough, jagged yet solid look."
MindChamber: "Dad 'n Me required the most detail, but was the sloppiest."
PsychoGoldfish: "The line work on this carving is great. My only gripe is the lack of smoothing in the exposed pumpkin meat makes it look a little sloppier than some of the other entries. I think seeing this in person would probably have been a lot cooler."
Ansel: "super-sense uses the same kind of technique, never actually cutting through the pumpkin, just thinning the shell to let more or less light through. It's not an original drawing, though, and not as cleanly done."
These runner-ups will each receive an t-shirt and some stickers:
5. JoeyBang16 - Radical Wrong Doers Mascot
MindChamber: "Rwd looked the great and was pretty close but way simpler than the first two." (MC ranked RWD 3rd on his list).
Ansel: "The RWD one I like because of the use of marker for the black area... it keeps the eyes, mouth, and letters very bright and makes them the focus, but also gives the shape of the black areas as well, if you're looking. Also, it's about the RWD... for such a rounded, simplistic mascot, I thought more people would've tried it."
6. Overtired - Pico from the Pico series
RubberNinja: "A very nicely carved piece of typography, complimented with a rather well done mascot. I still think better measures could've been taken to make pico stand out on top of the piece, as his lower jaw seems to be lost in the lighting. Because of this he somewhat loses his form."
The above winners should all PM Bob with your address, shirt size, and shirt pick from the store.
Other great pumpkins:
perfect-insanity - Madness Loader
Rebel666 - Madness Clown
Techno - Penicorn from the store
newnerdproductionsTM - Chocolate Man and Crippleboy from the Nameless series
swaenK - George from the Angry Dog series
ARAE - Blockhead from the Blockhead series
Goat-Man - Edible Castle from the Edible Castle series
cyotecody555 - Pwanchi from A Pwanchi Halloween
Chronamut - Pissy Cat from Cat Gang
nikkinack - RWD
catman03 - Alien Hominid
I-ILG - FBI Guy
JonBro - Steve from Tankmen
GcpFTW - AngryFaic
GreyGreySilver - AngryFaic, Mastermind & Blockhead
ArykSB - Emoticons
NG Halloween Layout, Logo and general Logo:
st1k
A-Wahl
Rebel666
SirBrodrick
Nicholas-Deary
Also check out this Behemoth thread full of great Castle Crashers pumpkins and costumes.
Results for the Halloween Flash-Off will be posted later this week.
