Ok, I am still pretty proud of the pumpkins we carved this year however I also man enough to admit that my carving skills suck compared to others. First off, we used templates that you trace onto the pumpkin and then simply follow the lines cutting at a single depth the entire time (all the way through baby!). Now, some pumpkin carvers are more dedicated to the craft than others and they use a variety of techniques to acheive gordish nirvana. I am not one of those carvers.
One cool technique that can generate neat effects is leaving different depths of rind in place because the candle light can travel through some thicknesses so you get a "shading" effect when the pumpkin is illuminated. However, some people don't even settle for this simple effect. These pumpkin artists use the soft mushy shell of the pumpkin as their sculptor clay and create works of art that are better to look at in the light of day than at night. One such sculptor of all things pumpkin is "Pumpkinggutter" - check out his work, it is pretty darn impressive.
