Best pumpkin ever! Take 1

Great News! I have tomorrow off! One of the things I thought would be nice to do tomorrow is to tackle one of the goals I set for myself in a previous post. I think I'll hold off on the cavity goal for now, noble as that goal is, to focus on my other goal: carving the best pumpkin I've ever carved. Notice I said the best pumpkin I've ever carved, not the best pumpkin ever carved. And as I mentioned before, that shouldn't be too hard considering the many mediocre pumpkins I've carved in my lifetime.

Today on my way home from work, I stopped by a farm that sells pumpkins and picked out a beaut. Now, I should clarify that this pumpkin is a practice pumpkin. I mean, it's been a year since I carved a pumpkin and I think I'll have to practice several times before really going for the title. Here's a picture of the pumpkin I carved last year:

That picture was taken (with my friend Brady) at a pumpkin carving party I co-hosted last year. It was a pretty simple design (from a stencil) but I added some glitter glue freckles which I thought gave it an edge. But it's still pretty elementary, I'm not going to lie. And yet, if I remember correctly, I struggled with it. Which makes me think I should start with a simple design tomorrow.

I've been looking at stencils online, and these are a few I can choose from tomorrow:

I'm thinking since I'm a beginner, I should start with the tiger, right? I'll post pictures of my first practice and let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!