Sculpting is what can take a carving from awesome to incredible. Where scraping removes the skin to create a flat glowing area, sculpting carves into the pumpkin wall to varying depths. This creates gradients of brightness that give your carving real dimension and shading.
Gloves are strongly recommended for this step.
Your primary tools here are ribbon clay tools. Their curved loop edges cut smoothly through the pumpkin and leave a clean, even surface, much smoother than the wood carving tools. Use the flat edge for removing larger sections, the round edge for more detailed areas, and the tight curved edge for small tight spaces. The C-shape and U-shape wood carving tools can be used in tighter areas where the clay tools won’t fit easily.
Always carve away from your body, removing small amounts at a time. Rotate or lay the pumpkin on its side to keep yourself in a comfortable, controlled position throughout.
How deep should you go? The deeper you carve, the brighter that area will glow. Areas left at skin depth will glow dimly. Areas carved halfway through the wall will glow more brightly. The goal is a smooth gradient from dim to bright that follows the shading in your stencil. Check your printed stencil to see how quickly the shading transitions from light to dark in each area. Some gradients are steep, like the ridge of a nose where the bright highlight and dark shadow are close together. You go from thin to thick over a short distance. Others are wide and gradual, like a forehead, where the shading shifts slowly and your carving depth should increase gently across a larger area. Take your time. You can always remove more, but you can’t put it back.
When you think you’re done, or want to check, do the light test. Take your pumpkin to a dark room and place a light inside. This is where you’ll see what needs more work. For areas that look too dim and are safely away from any cut holes, I’ve found it’s usually more effective to thin the wall from the inside. Use your gutting tool or spoon rather than trying to carve very deep from the outside. A little thinning from the inside can brighten a large dim area quickly.
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