Halloween is the best holiday because it lets us be crazy creative. During the spooky season, hauntingly haute make-up looks, over-the-top costumes, and carved pumpkins take over the world. Ah, yes, the carved pumpkin. It’s the Halloween season’s official symbol. Everyone looks forward to going to the pumpkin patch every fall to pick out the perfect pumpkin to gut and carve. It’s essentially a crime to humanity if you don’t have a spooky pumpkin. But while we content ourselves with triangle eyes and crooked grins, artist Alex Wer’s cool pumpkin carvings are changing the game.
Alex Wer is an award-winning pumpkin carver who does custom pumpkin carvings inspired by popular culture. He’s carved so many things on pumpkins that they’re all organized by category on his website. The versatile pumpkin carver’s so good with his craft that he counts celebrities as fans of his handiwork.
His catalog of pumpkin carvings include portraits of well-loved characters.
The pumpkin carver’s journey began on Halloween 2009, when his wife asked him to carve a jack-o’-lantern bearing her company’s logo. In 2013, Alex’s creative carvings first gained recognition when he was awarded with the inaugural Geekie Award for Best Art/Craft. By the time 2017 rolled around, his carving work had gotten so popular that he decided to quit his day job to focus on his “orange empire”. His leap of faith paid off tremendously, because he’s carved pumpkins for Netflix, ESPN, and Legendary Entertainment to name a few. His cool pumpkin carvings also landed him a feature in People Magazine.
Alex Wer creates his super cool pumpkin carvings by following a technique he designed himself.
When you look at Wer’s pumpkins, you might find yourself a bit confused. Because his work doesn’t look like it’s been carved. They look more like… shaded drawings on a sheet of paper. To create carvings that are faithful to the inspiration of the design, Wer devised a clever technique to achieve stunning results. His “4 colors” technique allows him to include all the intricate details he needs to properly render his subject.
“One area is completely cutout. Two different levels of depth. And finally a layer untouched for the darkest portion of the image,” Wer explains. “I found this style gave me great versatility and the most realistic final product and seemed to impress my clients!”
Depending on the design, Wer estimates that he spends up to 6 hours to make his cool pumpkin carvings. And it seems that the pumpkin carver is trying to challenge himself.
“I have now moved up to 5 layers of carving… always trying to get that ‘perfect carve’!”
You might be thinking something along these lines: It’s such a waste of his talent because his canvas is a vegetable that will inevitably rot. Yes, it would be a shame if Alex’s cool pumpkin carvings don’t last for more than a few weeks. That’s why he doesn’t use perishable pumpkins. Instead, this monstrously talented pumpkin carves uses faux craft pumpkins which don’t rot. This way, his cool pumpkin carvings last forever.
His pumpkins have also paid tribute to music greats.
The Pumpkin Geek has also immortalized heroes, villains, and The Empire.
Okay, it’s time to pick up your jaw from the floor. You can order you very own custom jack-o’-lantern via Alex Wer’s website. It seems that we’ve found the real Pumpkin King!