How to Draw a Pumpkin
There’s no better way to get into the fall spirit than learning how to draw a pumpkin! This step-by-step tutorial will make the whole process a breeze. When you’re done, check out another pumpkin craft, like this Paper Pumpkin Wall Decor. This post contains affiliate links.
It’s that time of year again, when the fall crops are coming into season with all their beautiful colors and textures! These seasonal changes are the perfect inspiration for a little illustration tutorial. Let’s take a closer look at one of this season’s most iconic crops – the pumpkin!
Pumpkins have such great personality, as they come in so many sizes and shapes. I love to choose subjects from nature when teaching beginners to draw, because you really can’t get them wrong – nature itself is so varied that any way you draw them is true to life.
Whether your pumpkin drawing comes out tall or squat, smooth or bumpy, light or dark, there’s an actual pumpkin that looks just like that, too!
So let loose, let go, and have fun learning how to draw a pumpkin!
Oil pastels are the perfect medium for this drawing. Their smooth blending quality will help us achieve the rounded appearance of the bumpy pumpkin, while their overall smoothness captures the texture of the pumpkin’s shell.
If you haven’t used oil pastels before, this is a wonderful simple introduction to teach you how.
Oil pastels lay onto the paper thickly, and we’ll be rubbing them around to blend them, too, so I recommend a heavier weight paper for this drawing activity.
Cold-pressed paper has a nice texture that grabs the pastel and supports the blending action. If you don’t have access to cold pressed art paper, choose another strong option such as cardstock which won’t tear easily while blending.
When you’re done, turn these into stickers, glue them into an art journal, or draw them directly into your Fall planner pages!
How to Draw a Pumpkin: Step by Step
Supplies:
- Cold pressed art paper or cardstock
- Pencils – preferably hb and 2b
- Cotton swab (such as Q-tips) or napkins/paper towels for blending
- Oil pastels
Instructions:
1. To draw the rough outline, we’ll use an hb pencil which makes lighter marks. If you don’t have a full set of drawing pencils, you can really use any pencil for this, but try to use a light touch so you don’t end up with a lot of gray getting into your colored picture.
Start by drawing a tall oval shape.
2. Next, draw a half oval shape on the right side of the first oval, with its open ends touching the first oval.
3. Draw another half oval on the other side of the original oval.
4. Draw two more half-ovals, one on each side. This completes the main part of the pumpkin.
5. Next, we’ll draw the stem of the pumpkin. Start by making a shape like the number 9 touching the top of the pumpkin base, on top of the first half-oval you drew.
6. Draw an outline of the round part of the 9, but instead of continuing the outline straight to the bottom of the 9-shape, connect it to the half-oval on the opposite side of the pumpkin.
7. Draw the end of the stem by imagining if the round part of the 9 would continue to grow outward past the part that connects to the pumpkin, as shown.
8. Draw two bumps, one on each side of the stem.
9. Draw a leaf coming out of the stem.
10. Take a yellow pastel and fill in the oval shapes.
11. Continue until all the oval shapes are colored in yellow, as well as the two bumps on top (which are really the tops of ovals we can’t see)
12. Color an orange border inside the edges of an oval shape and add a few orange strokes in the center of the oval.
13. Do the same for the rest of the oval shapes.
14. Use a cotton swab or napkin to blend the orange border with the yellow center.
15. Blend until the shades are mixed and look smooth.
16. Repeat until all the pumpkin sections are blended.
17. Use a brown pastel to draw a thinner outline around each oval part.
18. Gently smudge the brown outlines so they blend with the orange.
19. Fill in the leaf and stem shapes with a green pastel.
20. Smudge the leaf and stem to smooth out the color.
21. Use a 2b pencil (those are the standard ones, or you can use any dark pencil) to trace the pumpkin’s outline for a neat finish. You can also skip this step if you prefer a softer look and you’re happy with how the pumpkin looks without the outline. Use the same pencil to add vein details on the leaf.
And you’re done! Doesn’t that look just like a professional illustration?
How to Draw a Pumpkin
Materials
- Cold pressed art paper or cardstock
- Pencils – preferably hb and 2b
- Cotton swab (such as Q-tips) or napkins/paper towels for blending
- Oil pastels
Instructions
1. To draw the rough outline, we’ll use an hb pencil which makes lighter marks. If you don’t have a full set of drawing pencils, you can really use any pencil for this, but try to use a light touch so you don’t end up with a lot of gray getting into your colored picture.
Start by drawing a tall oval shape.
2. Next, draw a half oval shape on the right side of the first oval, with its open ends touching the first oval.
3. Draw another half oval on the other side of the original oval.
4. Draw two more half-ovals, one on each side. This completes the main part of the pumpkin.
5. Next, we’ll draw the stem of the pumpkin. Start by making a shape like the number 9 touching the top of the pumpkin base, on top of the first half-oval you drew.
6. Draw an outline of the round part of the 9, but instead of continuing the outline straight to the bottom of the 9-shape, connect it to the half-oval on the opposite side of the pumpkin.
7. Draw the end of the stem by imagining if the round part of the 9 would continue to grow outward past the part that connects to the pumpkin, as shown.
8. Draw two bumps, one on each side of the stem.
9. Draw a leaf coming out of the stem.
10. Take a yellow pastel and fill in the oval shapes.
11. Continue until all the oval shapes are colored in yellow, as well as the two bumps on top (which are really the tops of ovals we can’t see)
12. Color an orange border inside the edges of an oval shape and add a few orange strokes in the center of the oval.
13. Do the same for the rest of the oval shapes.
14. Use a cotton swab or napkin to blend the orange border with the yellow center.
15. Blend until the shades are mixed and look smooth.
16. Repeat until all the pumpkin sections are blended.
17. Use a brown pastel to draw a thinner outline around each oval part.
18. Gently smudge the brown outlines so they blend with the orange.
19. Fill in the leaf and stem shapes with a green pastel.
20. Smudge the leaf and stem to smooth out the color.
21. Use a 2b pencil (those are the standard ones, or you can use any dark pencil) to trace the pumpkin’s outline for a neat finish. You can also skip this step if you prefer a softer look and you’re happy with how the pumpkin looks without the outline. Use the same pencil to add vein details on the leaf.
