And the winner of the Pumpkin Carving Contest is ...

by Griffin McElroy on Oct 31st 2009 3:50PM

It was a hard fought battle with 120 contenders, but the grand prize winner of Joystiq's Annual-ish Pumpkin Carving Contest 2009 is ... Antonio F.! His conceptualization of the Worgen starting zone from the upcoming WoW: Cataclysm expansion is one of the most impressive gourd-based works of art we've ever seen. We imagine you guys feel the same way -- this pumpkin placed first in the poll by a huge margin, garnering 3,303 votes!

The first prize winner, with 2,309 votes, is Dennis C.'s equally well-rendered rendition of the Borderlands box art, which we've posted after the jump. Congratulations, you two -- and a heartfelt thanks to everyone who took the time to send in their lovingly crafted Jack O' Masterpieces! We'll be emailing the winners shortly to inform them about receiving their bounty; for the rest of you, have an unbelievably happy Halloween!

The 2009 Joystiq Pumpkin Carving Contest

Source

Tags: halloween-2009, joyswag, jpcc-2009, jpcc09, winners

Reader Comments (73)

I abstained from voting personally because the rules were not as precise for the inking of the pumpkins, though both of those are still truel wicked. (They were my bets for first and second too)

Where did DSG come in? Joystiq readers want to know.

She was at a solid third when I voted yesterday evening.

WOW! To me the winner should have forsure been the borderlands pumkin. The fact that it was completely carved and looked amazing is what got me to vote for it. This pumpkin was good but it was way to inked up!

i, too, thought the inking was BS. cheaters always win. BOO!

The Borderlands pumpkin, while nice, has some issues with the anatomy of the character, notably with the arms. His left forearm is disproportionately puny and his right arm is too short and is folded strangely (since the box cover cuts off at the wrist, the pumpkin carver tried to fill in the rest of the arm, but lacks the artistic ability to properly recreate the arm realistically).
Also, the grand prize winner was (to my knowledge) a completely original design. The Borderlands pumpkin was just a copy of someone else's artwork. While it does require skill to effectively translate/copy a design into a pumpkin carving, originality and artistic ability should, and did, get the edge.
Not trying to piss all over the Borderlands pumpkin, but I thought it was worth pointing out why it was rightfully not given the grand prize.

Also, I originally thought the inking was a bit too much, but when you look closely (at the lighted image on the left), you'll see there still is a lot of carving done. The ink just adds more depth to the composition.

@Brendan

nope, not an original design:

http://www.gamingangels.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/worgen_sm_art.jpg

Both were nice. Preferred the Borderlands due to carving. Great job everyone! The pumpkins were awesome!

Dead Space girl should've won.

DSG! DSG! DSG!

damn right

This is bad news... for Dead Space Girl.

WHY DID SHE NOT WIN?!?!?

i bet she's screaming right now.

Maybe she just settled down with a good book instead, eh Sly? Ever think of that? Get a good little read in, ehhmmmm?

Reading? Does reading the walls of text in Left 4 Dead count?

if by "settled down", you mean "screamed at" and if by "with a good book", you meant "everyone who didn't vote for her", then i agree 100%.

Though my love for DSG is well known, I believe that those whom should have won were chosen.

That said, any chance I can get that DSG pumkin? I have some...*ahem*...plans for her.

Though I was looking forward to see how Dead Space Girl would do, these guys are the winners hands down. Just look at how much time, effort and talent has gone into these carvings

Congratulations Antonio F and Dennis C! You guys definitely deserve it.

You're all off your fucking rockers. Pumpkeena was the true winner in my heart due to the beautifully done SotC-esque art and texture, with a tiny Wander for good measure.

Can I get an official pronouncement that I came in last? I really wanted that guaranteed lifelong blindness / Virtual Boy 'appeasement' prize I'd heard about...

I thought yours was like ninth. Even if you were tenth, it's still tenth out of 140, which is pretty good yeah?

2 first prize winners?

No. 1 Grand prize and 1 first prize.

wow my friend made that one lmfao.

i still think DSG should have won. oh well

That's pretty damned good work.

Artist be proud!

Inking is cheating.

Yeah it's kinda Like blood doping in the olympics...

no it's nothing like that, because that shit is illegal, it's not cheating if it's allowed.

I agree. I thought this was a carving contest. I could just as easily carve a square into a pumpkin, and draw an awesome picture on it. Granted, that's not what the winner did... but inking was the reason the pumpkin didn't get my vote.

I kinda liked the Borderlands one better, it had more carving and less drawing.

But meh, they're all infinitely better than I can do.

Thats not carving, thats drawing.

...you mean it's both, right? I'm pretty sure it's more than just a drawing on a pumpkin.

wait wait...he carved a hole for the sun!!

Thought it was a carving contest, not drawing. oh well. Congrats! Pretty much all the entries were great!

Damn, I had such skill...

Jeez, I voted for this one, but I wouldnt have if I knew it was inked.

Inking is pretty lame.

So basically what your saying is that you didn't bother to look at what you were voting for?

Pretty much. I took a quick glance through the finalists and voted for the one that I liked the most without realizing it was a drawing. The "background" is also the same colour Id expect a candle to emit from the inside.

I dont think it's unreasonable to assume that a "pumpkin carving" contest would only involve pumpkin carvings.

It was carved... the entire background is carved, while the foreground is uncarved, and "inked" for shadows. The only parts with ink are the darker shadow areas, all the rest is pure pumpkin carving (or in the case of some areas, pure non-carving).

I voted for the Katamari pumpkin. Honestly, they were all fantastic, but I felt that The King of All Cosmos had gone above and beyond the call of duty.

Just wanted to say thanks. I really appreciate it!

No, no, thank you!

All the people complaining that it was inking and not carving. I challenge you do something better than or equal to that. Yes there's some ink on the pumpkin, but there's also subtle carving to make it stand out. I doubt any of the people that are complaining could do anything remotely resembling the winners. Art is art.

I disagree... Obviously the votes showed for themselves.

Simply for the sake of argument, I'll point out that it wasn't a pumpkin art contest, it was a pumpkin carving contest. Personal preference, I'll also point out that I think WoW is remarkably lame so I'm amazed it won by such a margin or if the ballot box was spammed. Also, my opinions are lame so who cares anyway.

The grand prize winner did a remarkably awesome job, regardless. It does have plenty of carving as well, so I suppose it's more of a combo platter. At this point I'm more curious as to what 10 games that powers that be will choose to bestow upon the winners.

@markez

lol at your second reason.

I'm guessing they'll get 10 copies of Battletoads.

Hey Battletoads was an awesome game.

Art is usually bullshit, masquerading as pretension. This is illustration. I know because unfortunately it's my job to.

You can't classify a painting largely created with oil as a sculpture, and this doesn't count as "carved artwork" when the majority of it is created in ink with just tiny parts cutout.

I'd be happy with one copy of Battletoads, let alone 10

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And the winner of the Pumpkin Carving Contest is ...

The 2009 Joystiq Pumpkin Carving Contest

Reader Comments (73)

Posted: Oct 31st 2009 3:55PM Kadamon said

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