One of the first things I noticed was that I didn't have a whole round melon to play with. One side of it is quite ugly. I think this is because it lies on the ground when it grows(?) The other side is nice and green though (I picked the darkest one they had).

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/pics/photo/2010/08_melon/32.jpg
http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/pics/photo/2010/08_melon/34.jpg

First I made some random hacks:

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/pics/photo/2010/08_melon/21.jpg

I was surprised by how difficult it was to get down to the pink stuff.

The cat:

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/pics/photo/2010/08_melon/22.jpg

(The eyes and mouth don't show very well. I guess they're too small?)

Removing some stuff to make a clean white background:

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/pics/photo/2010/08_melon/29.jpg

(The horizontal "lines" seem to be part of the material. They are not the result of me cutting lines like that.)

I tried to make some red triangles (grass?) below the cat, but the white stuff was too thick and hard:

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/pics/photo/2010/08_melon/36.jpg

After resting a while I had another go. This time I thought about how I have done carvings on wood and have used a pencil to draw things before carving. I got the idea to try the same thing here, and it worked surprisingly well:

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/pics/photo/2010/08_melon/39.jpg

It's much easier to cut when you have an idea of where to put the knife before actually cutting:

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/pics/photo/2010/08_melon/40.jpg

I had a go at a "swirl" pattern:

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/pics/photo/2010/08_melon/43.jpg
http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/pics/photo/2010/08_melon/45.jpg