The Great Pumpkin

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I have been obsessed with pumpkins of late. I don’t want to put them out yet, I just want to buy them. You know, so I’ll be ready when I do want to put them out. Then, I had a thought. What if I shared  pumpkins with you? Specifically, how to get the great pumpkin?

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing how to make some fun and interesting pumpkins with you. Today, I’m sharing how to paint a pumpkin. I’ve got a lot of pictures, so grab a drink, sit back and enjoy!

If you follow along, you might remember I bought a few of these canvases awhile back.

Mainly, because I love the built in frame.

The canvas slides out of the frame, so the first thing I did was paint the frame.

Next up, the canvas.

First, give tithe a base coat several different tones of beige, white and a tiny bit of brown.

Be sloppy and loose here.

You are just wanting color for the background.

 

Once the background is dry, it’s time to paint your pumpkin.

Step one, make a skinny zero in white.

This is the center of your pumpkin.

Next, using white paint, paint “c’s” on the left side of your skinny zero.

Start the first “c” slightly higher from the top of the zero, ending the “c” a little shorter than the bottom of the zero.

Paint the next “c” the same way, slightly higher at the top. Slightly lower than the bottom of the first “c”.

Repeat these same steps on the right side of your skinny zero, only reversing the “c”.

Woo hoo, you now have your pumpkin outline.

Let the fun part begin.

Using your white paint, lightly paint the entire pumpkin.

You should be able to barely see the pumpkin outline.

Once you have your pumpkin shape, it’s time to give your pumpkin a color.

I chose to use two different colors of blue for my pumpkin.

For this step, your paint strokes should be loose.

A little wiggly, a little loosey – goosey!

Use a little of one blue here, a little of one blue there.

Mix it up!

Paint your skinny zero first, followed by each individual “c” section.

You can see the how loosey- goosey my paint stokes are here.

Once I had my blues complete, it was time for a little definition and highlights.

I used to different colors of brown and black.

In this step, you will use very little paint.

Paint on your stem first.

Then started lightly painting on an outline of the the skinny zero and “c”‘s.

You will notice that I didn’t outline the entire pumpkin, and my paint is lighter in some spots.

Darker in others.

Once that is done add white highlights , here and there, no rhyme or reason, to the pumpkin.

To “ground” your pumpkin, paint white below your pumpkin, no floating pumpkins here!

Also, I added a little gold for a little depth.

You can also add what I call curly Q’s to the stem of the pumpkin.

One last finishing touch, take a brown ink pad and run it along the edges of the canvas.

It’s okay if you get a little messy here.

In fact, you want to!

Here is the finished pumpkin. Easy right?

However, I know that there are a few out there swearing that you couldn’t paint this.

You could always use tattoo paper and print your design off and transfer it to your canvas.

Or maybe decoupage?

No matter which method you use, you too can make the great pumpkin canvas.

I can’t wait to share more pumpkins with you in the next few weeks!

Until next time….

               Tammy