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Here’s my take on Auntie Dot from Halo: Reach, an A.I. whose “physical” manifestation is never seen except for her signature diamond grid pattern.

Because I generally have the urge to post topical stuff when it comes to Bungie’s release schedule…

There’s not really any deeper meaning to the idea of Steve Jobs as a proto-gravemind, except that the concept was too weird to pass up, and he’d be even more strong willed than previously. If that’s possible.

Other participants in this topic:

• Caleb
• Jay
• Josiah

Let’s just start with this disclaimer: I’m sorry, but 95% of you are going to have absolutely no clue what this is even supposed to be.

That being said, it’s a Hurogok, colloquially known as an Engineer, from the Halo universe. Think of them basically as floating snake-turtles. With tentacles.

Anyway, I’ve entered my creation in an annual Halo pumpkin carving contest, and would much appreciate any votes you just happen to have lying around. (You can actually vote for up to five of your favorites, so you don’t even have to ignore the ones that are better than this!)

The Process

Also, for those of you who care, here’s a quick tour of the creation process.

1. I started with a specially-drawn, inverted, two-tone illustration for the pattern. (The black areas will actually be the lightest, as they represent complete cut-throughs.)
2. For the “darker, but still lit” areas, I just cut the skin off. The light will make it through just fine, and it doesn’t compromise the structural integrity of the pumpkin.
3. Then on the second pass, I can cut all the way through to create the highlights.
4. And finally the magic of a Maglite allows for a glowification test run.

Anyway, go vote!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you an important news bulletin.

My “Flood” pumpkin has taken 3^rd place in the 2007 Guilt O’ Lantern pumpkin carving contest! Go check out the results.

Thanks to everyone who voted, and we’ll continue with the Arachniturkey storyline shortly.

So here’s the final installment, featuring the appropriate lighting.

This also means that yes, it’s time to go vote! Just head over to the 343 Guilt O’ Lantern site. You get to vote for your favorite five pumpkins, which is good, since there are a bunch that are better than this one.

So here’s my first attempt at doing that whole “artsy” pumpkin carving procedure involving cutting at different depths to get different brightness levels when the thing is illuminated from the inside. (Cutting shallower also lets you get thinner lines without compromising structural integrity, which is nice.)

As you can probably tell, this is based off one of my previous “flood infection form” sketches. Therefore, being Halo-related and all, I decided to enter it in the annual Halo pumpkin carving contest.

Part 2 will show you what it looks like all lit up and pretty, and by then the contest’s voting should be open, so you can go support your favorite artist with a website that has albino and kraken in its name.

Yes, I know… More Halo, but Bungie deserves it.

Anyway, I’ve always found these little guys pretty interesting, so this is a sketch I knocked out during one of the breaks in class last night.

They’ve actually changed quite a bit since their appearance in the first Halo, so I may have to try out the other iterations at some point…