Watercolor Pumpkin Varieties

1. Introduction to Watercolor Pumpkins: Hi sweet friend, welcome. My name is Volta and the artists behind color snack, I specialize in food illustrations, animations, and I also recently wrote a book. I'm super excited to welcome you into my latest class called watercolor pumpkins and squashes. This class is perfect for beginners or intermediate students. If you're not super comfortable with drawing, don't worry about it. I will upload a PDF of line drawings that you can trace so that you can just focus on the fun part, which is honestly painting with watercolors. In this class, we'll go over a few of the basic watercolor supplies and techniques. And then I'll share a couple of different ways of how you can sketch pumpkins. And then we'll dive right in into painting our watercolor pumpkins and squashes. If you're super-excited about all things fall and pumpkins, I welcome you inside my class. 2. Recommended Watercolor Supplies: Alright, so for this class you will need the following art supplies. So definitely some watercolor paper. This is the brand that I recommend. Canson. It's £140 paper. Honestly, I've used this for years and all of my in-person or virtual workshops. And sometimes even just illustrations that I know will only be scanned and not sold as originals. So it's very good and dependable paper and also not super expensive. For this class, I recommend grabbing one of these sheets. If you get the nine by 12 size, I usually take a sheet. This folded in half, fold it again and then just tear it up. That way just gives me like a smaller, more manageable size to work with. So you could, for this class unique and do one sketch on one of these sizes. Or if you want to challenge yourself, do you want on a larger scale? For watercolor brushes? Brush will do. These are the ones that I like. I like the Princeton heritage. These are more like I'm really good quality. They're a little bit of an investment, but they're very good and dependable. A cheaper version of these is also Princeton, but it's the snap Princeton snap brushes. Why I like these is the bristles are very much more synthetic, which means that they don't hold a lot of water. And so they're more they're also more springy here, which allows me to do like little details a lot easier than these more traditional brushes that are kinda, you know, they're very much like softer and they hold a lot more water. So it really just depends on your preference. I've come to really like these, even, especially in my illustration work, because it allows me to do details in a really nice and easy way. These are the brushes. And then finally, for the watercolor paints, this isn't working. Here we go. The watercolor paints, I use one of these palettes that I filled up with a whole lot of different watercolor paints from tubes. So I use, I have a mix of Daniel Smith, Holbein, and also core. This is another, the brand that I really liked. And what I would recommend if you're just getting started, definitely. Just use whatever supplies you have on hand. It as long as you have some close approximations to the colors we'll be using, you'll be absolutely fine. I, so I have filled in separated these different partitions based on like warm colors here and then a cooler colors here. And then my blacks and browns are in the space. So it's just kinda like a nice way of having these colors partitioned in a way that makes sense. Alright? And that's pretty much it. You, of course, you need a jar of water. And another thing that I also use when I paint is a towel or paper towel. So it just allows me to, if I'm painting, I can dab off some extra water if it's too watery. The brushes do water in it and that is kind of a nice way to, to have that nearby. 3. Basic Watercolor Techniques: And now we'll do a couple of basic watercolor techniques that will help us in the class. So we'll get started with the most basic. And if you're just brand new to watercolors, I just wanted to keep it super simple. So this one is called wet on wet. And I'm just loading up my brush with a little bit of water. And I'm painting like a little circular shape. You'll see that it has a nice listen to it. Now I'm going to grab any colors. I'm going to pick this orange, very fiery red, orange. And I'm just going to gently drop my color so gently touching the surface with the water. So I wanted to show you that because there's a layer of water here and we're dropping in pigment. So a lot of watercolor paint from my brush is going inside of the shape and it's creating this very soft kinda like look and feel to it. Whereas if we were to go directly, you know, grab some paint and painted directly on dry paper. See you instantly see the difference. So the edges are much more pronounced here, whereas there are a lot more softer here. So when we're painting different shapes, depending on the look that you're going for. You might want to paint out a little bit of water first so that it has that nice, kinda like soft watercolor look. Or if you'd like to have more control than definitely just paint on dry paper and it'll come down like, I'll show you different ways of using, will use both of these techniques. But it really, ultimately, there's no right or wrong way as long as you are using a technique that resonates more with you. Alright, so then the next watercolor technique, oh, and another thing that I wanted to show here. So this is the wet-on-dry where we added water. You could also do a layer of say. So right now it's wet, wet on dry right now, right. So I'm adding a little bit of color. But you can also do wet on wet again through this technique by grabbing a different color and dropping it in here into this area. So instead of painting with just water, we added a little bit of color, and now we're adding a second color. And it's a really nice way of mixing these two colors on the paper. And of course, if you would like to have kind of like a more homogenous look of the two colors. You can mix them in your palate, and then that way you will get an even distribution of these two colors mix together. That's a fun way. You can either mix your colors on the palette, are on the paper. Again, it depends on the type of look you're going for. Sometimes this kind of playful, more abstract you look is more fun. Otherwise you might need, if you need a more even distribution, then you can use this method of mixing the colors in the palette. Alright? And then the other technique here that I like to share is say I'm going to just grab a little bit of paint. This is alizarin crimson. Want to your standard Red's? Right now. I'm painting it on dry paper and it's a very flat shape. So I'm going to clean off my brush, make sure it's clean. And also I'm going to remove just a little bit. So I'm using this towel to absorb just so that it's not dripping with water. And I want to lift off a little bit of a highlight. So I'm going to imagine that my light source is coming from this direction. And I'm going to press down on my brush and liftoff, have to clean it again. And repeat this motion a couple of times until I get this area nice and light in the way that I like it. Basically, this is a really easy way to add dimension to whatever is that you're painting. So essentially we added some color, but now we're lifting it off so that we have this kind of more of a 3D look. It's a very simple technique. I love to use it a lot because it instantly transforms your sketches from them looking flat to having a little bit more dimension. And also just very appealing on the eye whenever you have an area that is darker in value. So here you have more of the watercolor to water ratio, whereas here we're introducing some were removing the color and introducing some water. So it's very much a lighter version of that color. So another way to represent that to you is if we do, the next technique is like an array. I call it like an ombre gradient technique. So if we do like a little rectangular shape, clean off the brush. Again, I am going to just gently dab it off so it's not dripping with water. And I'm going to come right underneath here and applying pressure on the brush. And so essentially I'm going from left to right but also dragging, dragging downwards. So if you're noticing, maybe if it's not dragging us easily, you could add just a touch like maybe a drop of water on your brush to kinda help introduce more of the watery element. So essentially, similar to this situation, we have a darker area and a much lighter areas that color the same color. The difference is we added more water here and less water at the top. So this is a more saturated version of that same color. So that's a really fun way. And then another technique that I wanted to show you as glazing, you do need to let you are shaped dry first before you do that. So this one that I painted is already dry. So I'm going to show you it's essentially like adding another layer of color on top. So I'm just going to grab maybe a darker or actually let me do, let me do a magenta. I'm doing magenta. I'm going to grab some and then now I'm just going to basically paint over it. But I wanted to show you that if you want to add some texture or a design on top of what you're painting, allowed to dry first and then paint over it. So add either another layer, the same color that will punch up the colors, or add a different color on top. So you can slightly see the orange definitely warms up this area of the magenta here. Or if you want to add some little quick burst brushstrokes and patterns and whatnot. Um, otherwise, if you do it while it's still wet, they'll just bleed into each other, which is kinda like what happened here in this example. So let me show you if I do quick shape here and then back to my magenta. So if I do the same technique, same brushstroke, few little. So it's definitely different look and feel. So this one is more controlled, more organized, and this one is a little bit more chaotic. Both are fun, both could be useful. So I just wanted to give you some options here. Then let's see the other, the last technique that I want to show you is a cast shadow. Sometimes I like to add those. Actually, I like to add those pretty often. So I'm going to use the same shape, the circular one. And I'm going to use Payne's gray, but any gray or a diluted black will work. So I'm adding a little bit of water into my gray so it's not super dark. And essentially so since the light sources as hitting my object from this direction, it means that it's casting a small shadow on this area right underneath it. And you could either just add a few little brushstrokes or it can also clean off the brush and soften, soften this area a little bit, soften these lines. So basically we're introducing a little bit of water softening this area. And it's kinda, it's diffusing that shadow so it makes it look a little bit more natural, more realistic. And similarly to this, I know I wanted to show you basically how to soften any lines. If you have a harsh line here, say that you sketched a line and maybe you want it to look a little bit softer. So we're going to use the same technique we use here on the ombre example. I'm going to clean off the brush and I'm going to come right here. And basically I'm introducing a little bit of water, which means that it's softening this edge. So it makes it more like watercolor and flowy. So anytime you feel like you want to introduce that softness back into it, you absolutely can. It might be a little bit harder once it's dry. So for example, this one is completely dry. But depending on the type of paper that you use, it definitely is possible to do that. So I wanted to show you, again, I'm using Canson watercolor, £140 paper. I really like it. It's very dependable. I think paper is gonna be very important element and having a good experience. So as you can see here, definitely can still soften, soften these harsher lines after they have completely dried. 4. Sketching Pumpkin Shapes: I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a huge fan of rescheduling things. I know sometimes it's necessary. I just I'm so eager to get to the colors, but I do want to show you how I approach sketching some of these shapes. But good news about sketching pumpkins is that they come in different shapes and sizes. And really there is just a couple of things to keep in mind, but they're never gonna be perfect. Spheres are perfect shapes. They're gonna be irregular and very much organic. I use this Staedtler HB pencil and also the high polymer eraser from pentel. I've just found that this type of lead is really nice. It's not super dark so you can easily erase it. But let's see, for the sake of the demo, I do want to use maybe a more pronounced pencil so that it shows up on the video a little better. Let's see, just going to grab this has answered is the one, the one I found. So this is what I'm gonna be using. But for whenever we're sketching it on watercolor paper, these shapes and ready to paint. I recommend this pencil or the sled HB. It's very light in it. Once you erase the lines, you have not a fan of, of a pencil lines that'll be really easy to get rid of. So to sketch the standard, we're gonna go through all of them. And also all these shapes are going to be available as resources in the resource section where you can download the PDF and trace. That'll be the easiest version of approaching this, where you can just trace the shape and then start painting. But to paint some of these so the pumpkin easy way to start the sketch is if you start with the middle part. So you know, kinda pretend that this is like an oval. And then you start creating like half ovals that build upon or like come one after another. And it also one thing to keep in mind, you want to maybe decrease them in size a little bit too as you're completing the pumpkin. And then here in the center are going to have a couple of curved lines for the stem. And then you can also add a few little curved lines to show the furthest partitions of the pumpkin on the other side. That's kinda like a simple way of approaching this sketch. This is a really fun pencil. I like that it comes in different color, has different colors inside of it already. So let's see this then you have, you know, maybe like more narrower partitions of the pumpkin. So then your oval is gonna be kinda like more Ellen gated. Then you're gonna do also have oval shapes or curved lines to kind of build up your shape. So that's another one. We got the little stem as well. Let's see, for some of these squashes that's gonna be more of like kinda like a circular shape. You want to search thoroughly, see the partitions, but it's kinda like circular shape. And then you have the little stem here in men for this cash all squash, where it really is so like it comes bent in so many different ways. So you can approach it as like new sketching, like a wavy curvy line. Then you're, you're as if you're sketching almost like a raindrop. You're coming in here and then having this like very Ellen gated type of neck situation. And then the little stem at the top. Let's see. And then another one is like your butternut squash shapes. That's gonna be kinda like almost like an hour glass. So you're going to start with an oval shape or circular, half a circle here at the top. And you're going to extend it, maybe make it a little bit wider at the bottom. Then it goes in like this. So you can kinda look at this as to who we're trying to sketch out to rain drops that are connecting. But of course, we're not going to have this inner part. So this is just the shape. Or like if you think of it as a figure eight, that can work to actually that might be easier. And then you're just extending these lines and adding a little stem and you have your squash shape. Then the last one is like the very kinda like flatter pumpkin shape. And that's for the Cinderella one. And the way we'll approach that is, again, start with a middle one, the middle shape. And that's just going to not really like an oval, but more like it's gonna be rounder, right? So we're, we're trying to showcase that it's squished a little bit and then have this other. So basically like building up a bunch of curved lines on top of each other or following along. And then doing a few little extra curves here in the back. And he held a little stem. That way it makes makes it look that it's more like the squished at the top, so it's wider in this way. So basically these are like your standard pumpkin shapes. As long as you keep in mind that you can start with like a sheep in the middle and then you build off. And that's gonna be easy to approach any of these. And just remember that you can play around with how they're how you size them to make these a little bit wider. It really is. I like to encourage you make your own version of these pumpkins. They don't have to be exact representations, but I'll show you how to paint all of them color wise to. It's gonna be really fun. So stay tuned. 5. Baby Bear Pumpkin: This pumpkin is called the Baby bear variety. And I'm using the Princeton heritage number eight brush for this. Because this area is, so the way I sketch a pretty large, I'm gonna do the wet on wet technique. So I'm just going to add a little bit of water first inside of these shapes. And the baby, their pumpkin, it's kinda like you're one of the most classical shapes of pumpkins that you see. So it's basically going to have, it's going to use, I'm using kinda like a warmer yellowish orange. If you don't have this particular exact color, note, don't worry about it as long as it's something similar. So you could have an orange add mix in a little bit of yellow to connect, give it that more, more of a yellowy orange look and feel. And then I also have this new gamboge orange. Just a touch of it. Kinda like punch, punch it up a little bit. So let's see. I've got my color mix here, and I've got already added some water. Inside of these shapes. You'll see that it's starting to Kearney Lake, very softly spread. Inside of this area. You can absolutely. I can show you on this side, added barely any water. So you can absolutely use both of these techniques. But if you add a little bit more water in here, or start with significant amount of water and then you drop in and drop in your oranges, then it'll look very much like playful and watercolors are not necessarily have that even distribution of the pigment. Which I'm kind of going for more of a playful look and feel. So I'm just painting each of these shapes. And I do want to lift off a couple of highlights and then I clean off my brush. And I'm just going to pretend that my light source is coming from this left hand side. Clean off the brush, lift off, clean it again, lift. And maybe on the side as well. So basically it means that the light source is hitting these these particular pumpkin partitions on this side, but the light isn't affecting these areas, so I'm going to leave them painted like this. Then that's pretty much it for the stem. I like to the pumpkin stems. I like to use either a yellow ocher or like a sandy brown. So I think the official name for this color is yellow ocher, but it's essentially like a very light brown, kinda like sand color. So I like to mix that with just a touch of green, like whatever green you have in your palette. And it gives you that like, kinda like more desaturated, kinda like muddy green, but it is like a perfect color for the pumpkin stems. So I'm going to paint that. And on this as well. I want to lift off a little highlight here, some clean off my brush, and then lift off just a little area on. So basically we want these highlights to match wherever it is that we're placing them. And another thing that you're wanting to remember, watercolor will always, sometimes bleed into the areas that haven't dried yet. So you can grab a paper towel and usually just gently dab that off. But I like Wendy's small accidents, happy accidents as Bob Ross would say, hopping because it's just like part of the creative process and the watercolor look and feel, having those natural bleeds. Another thing I wanna do here, to this pumpkin, I just want to punch up the partitions. So I'm just gonna, I'm adding more of this lake gambles your darker orange in here. If you don't have this exact color again, you can add a drop of red. But I just want to make these stand out a little bit more just so that you can see those separations a little better. Now, I'm not a super huge fan of how you can see these lines. Very, they're very pronounced so we can grab our brush, dab it off a little bit so it's not drenched in water. And then we can just soften and pull in. Essentially like blend in these additional brushstrokes, the colors that we added into the rest of the shapes. So it has a much nicer and smoother transition. There we go. And that's it. We have our first Pumpkin, the baby bear pumpkin. 6. Autumn Gold Pumpkin: This next pumpkin is called Autumn gold, and it's another one of those classic shapes. I'll be using this number eight brush again, is it's got a pretty big area. And for this one, the autumn gold pumpkin has more of like a, like a deeper orange. So I have one in here. If you have a more yellowy orange, just add a touch of red, and that will work. So I'm just going to mix in a little bit. I'm going to add a couple of different oranges into my mix just to like give it that more of an interesting look. Let's see for this one, we can do the wet on wet technique again. So adding a layer of water first. Just enough that a Glisson's on the page. It's kinda like this. And it did make an accidental drop here so I can erase that are lifted off with a paper towel. So I'm just going to cover this shape with water. And then now I'm going to add this kind of fiery, reddish orange. So let's see how it's spreading out really nicely. Inside of this shape. Can add maybe like a yellowy orange, mix it in. Here. Whenever I paint for fine. I like to drop in different. Now from using an orange resemble. That's what I'm painting. Has to be orange. I'll, I'll mix, I'll add, I'll drop in like maybe a little bit of yellow, a little bit of this kind of yellowish orange to just to kinda give it more of a more interesting and playful look. And then of course we want to lift off a little bit of a highlight here. On this side. A couple of these little partitions, maybe, maybe the center one as well, just a little bit. Here we go. Let's see. I'm going to maybe add, drop in a little bit more of this, like reddish orange. To enunciate these partitions again. Make them pop. Here we go. And then back to the stem. I'll use this mixture of green and yellow okra together and paint in this area. And of course it can lift off little tiny highlight on here. And if you are, if you're, when you're painting, you're seeing some of these kind of marks that aren't super smooth on kind of like a cauliflower effect, can always just come in and brush over it with a wet, damp brush so it's not dripping with water. You're just like smoothing it over. There. You have it. The autumn gold pumpkin variety. 7. Cinderella Pumpkin: This next pumpkin is called a Cinderella pumpkin. And it's one of those like, very like, kinda like squashed ones. We will be painting that. Got it already sketched out here. And let's see, I'm still going to be using this number eight. And the color for the Cinderella pumpkin is very much like a reddish orange. So I'm even going to add a touch of red. And so this orange to really make it look super, super orangey. And let's see. Yeah, I think I'll just paint this on dry just to kinda switch it up a little bit. So I didn't add water first. I'm just painting the individual pumpkin partitions. You see that this orange is very much kind of like a reddish one. So now I just dipped my brush a little bit in water just to make it have more of a variation. So it's not super, super saturated, so it looks a little bit more transparent. I'm just introducing by introducing a little bit more water, you'll get that look and feel and also helps with paint. So anytime if you're painting and you're seeing brush marks inside of the shapes that you're painting. That just means you need to add a little bit more water. And then those will, will disappear. So like you'll smooth it out that way. So water is definitely your best friend. In this scenario. I think in most scenarios, probably because drinking water super healthy. Yeah, definitely. Err on the side of adding a little bit more water than you think you need n. Because if you have too much, you can always lift it off with a little paper towel. So let's see now, got my shapes painted. Maybe. I'll darken these partitions a little bit more so you can see individual. And of course we're gonna, we're gonna lift off a few highlights. So again, the light source for me, it comes from the left side only because I'm a lefty and it's a lot easier for me to do this motion if you are a variety. I know. Feel free to add your highlights on the other side. Hello areas here. Also, I want to blend in these darker lines so they don't look super jarring. And then going to paint the stem with my mix, yellow okra. See this yellow ocher and a little bit of green. Or you can also, there's definitely you can add more green or just keep it green for your stems, For keep them just kind of brown or gray. That's the beauty of painting pumpkins. They come in so many different shapes and sizes. Like the possibilities are endless. And I do want to lift off. Let's see if I can. Tiny highlight here on left-hand side of the stem so it matches the rest of the shape. When one thing to note like, right now, you'll start to see in my sketch, There's like these watercolor bleeds or the cauliflower effect where an area's drawing faster than the one next to it. So that's, there's a little bit of water here. So that's why you're seeing this shape. And sometimes that could look like a really fun effect. It's definitely like more like a flowy water Calvary look. Other times you may not be a fan of it because you want, maybe you want it to look more uniform and smooth. So you can always you can always get rid of those if you don't like them. Sometimes I do. It just depends on what I'm painting and the subject matter. I think for pumpkins like this is great because it definitely adds to that, like organic look and feel. I paint a lot of food illustration. If I want something to look more realistic, then I'll definitely blended out or smooth it out so that it looks more like the object that it's supposed to. 8. Blaze Pumpkin: This pumpkin is called the blaze variety, and it actually has 22 colors to it. We're going to start with a little bit of yellow. I'm going to mix that in here. My palette, just a little bit of water and I'll do a drop of maybe a little bit of this yellow ocher just to make this yellow more natural. So it's not like super vibrant, but more like a one that you will see on a pumpkin. So basically mixed in just a little bit of that. A yellow ocher, which is like a light brown color. And I'm going to paint the yellow kind of covers a part. Some kinda like the wider parts of this. The partitions are the pumpkin I'm painting on dry is going to cover these areas. So the orange, you'll see that orange kinda goes into the, these little lines that divide the partition. So it's basically like has almost like a layer of yellow underneath. But then we're going to add orange right next to it. So let's see. Now, I'm going to grab it's not like a super worried reddish orange. It's more like a yellowy orange. So maybe even using a little bit of this mixture here and just adding a touch of orange, something like this. And then painting that because this these areas are still wet, it'll create a nice kind of accidental bleed. So I'm essentially just adding this orange around or along these lines. And then some, another detail that you could add here. While this is still wet, just add a couple of little droplets of this orange and kinda in the middle of the yellowy parts to create those little specks that you see on this particular pumpkin, pumpkin variety. See, it's going to look something like this. You're welcome to leave it. You know, if you have some white areas where the paint didn't cover it. I think that's also a cool look. But if you want to fill it in, you can just go over and going to smooth out or add some, a little bit of water into these areas to cover them up In, in the stem. Let's see. I'm going to switch it up and just going to use a little bit of this green. And definitely want to lift off a couple of little highlights here on the stem and also on the pumpkin itself. Because we're doing two colors, mean the highlight won't be as, as pronounced because it's only the yellowy part. So just as long as you have like a couple little areas we lifted off just to give that impression of the highlight that'll work. And sometimes it will happen that your highlight like you added it but it disappears. And that may happen if the area next to it is still wet. It's not dried yet, so you can just always reinforce it. 9. Cushaw Squash: This next pumpkin is actually a squash, so it's a cost. Shaw. I'm pronouncing it correctly. If not, I apologize. But it's going to have two colors. So we're going to have green, green area here at the bottom. So I'm just going to add a little bit of water. And I'm using the number six snap Princeton brush just to switch it up a little bit. I kinda, I do prefer this a little bit better because I feel like I have a little bit more control with it. So I'm going to grab a little bit of green, maybe mix and just a touch of lists yellow ocher into it, just very lightly and add some water to dilute it. So that'll be this area here. Like these, these particular squashes because they are very fun to paint because they have such irregular shapes. Very much like kind of bent and whatnot. Then let's see. I might soften, soften this line here. So with a clean brush, I'm coming in and kinda like blending it out or softening so it's not like a super harsh transition. Then for this top portion, I'm going to use this kind of yellowy orange. But again, I'm going to dilute it with tons of water because I want it to be light so that I can do another layer of glazing on top. Let's see. You know what actually not the way. The way that this one goes is we're going to add quite a bit of this yellow ocher in here. So first I'm going to paint with a light version, light value of this yellow okra. And then we'll add the more orangey layer on top. See here. Very light. I like these because they have, not only do they come in different shapes, but also the colors are like, very like there's variegated ones and multi colors to him. So really fine. Let's see. Well, while I'm here, I might as well like lift off a couple of areas for the highlight from the left-hand side because my son, the source is coming from this direction. I'm just like lifting off. There we go. Just like a little bit just enough to give the impression of that there's a light source. Okay, now after we have this base of the yellow ocher, now I'm going to use this yellowy orange. And I'm essentially just going to start adding, I'm going to go from this. Yeah, I'm going to turn it around and start dropping and then maybe make these lines can be wavy, kind of following along the size or the shape of the squash. And because this area hasn't dried yet, it's kinda spreading out. But it it looks, I really like this look is it looks very much like the actual kind of squash. Because the colors are not super like exactly separated. They are blending into each other. And then for the green part, I'm going to go back and add mix in a little bit more of the green. So it's more saturated. And essentially I'm going to continue like these lines, but in green. And they're going to follow the shape again of the gourd or squash. Just like approximation. Got a couple of wavy lines. And see to make these connect a little bit. So I'm going to clean off my brush and I'm just going to pull in or try to blend in these colors a little bit so they look more more cohesive. This little transition. Here we go. Maybe a touch more, just more green here. So essentially, you know, I wanted to make sure that the first layer was of a lighter value and color so that when you add a second layer, we're kinda sort of glazing. We glaze here where it was completely dry, but now this area was like dropping in the color. So this is a lot easier. So you basically working from lighter to darker areas? Because it would have been a lot harder if we were to lay the dark color first and then we're like, Oh, I need some wider or lighter spots and it's a little bit harder to achieve that. So that's why it's recommended to do lighter first and then add in your darks. Let's see for the stem just going to use this green. Lift off a little bit here. Maybe add in a little, look kinda darken up this area here a little bit. 10. Blue Jarrahdale Pumpkin: This next pumpkin is called a blue jar. Do I wanted to mix it up a little bit and show you how to paint a different color. So another cool thing about pumpkins is that they are not just orange, the common like so many cool colors. Definitely muted, like blues and even like burgundies and greens, yellows. I mean, they're just so gorgeous and even white ones. So for this color, I am mixing in. So grab any kind of blue that you have in your palette. Maybe it's like a ultra marine or cobalt blue. And I'm also going to mix in a little bit of Payne's gray. So maybe for you if you don't have that exact gray, a little bit of black. So essentially we're just trying to get like kinda like a cool blue color. So I have a couple of options in here and I'm just mixing a few of them together. The Payne's gray is definitely like a cooler gray color as you can see here. So I'm just kinda cooling it down even more. But as long as you can you just have like a blue in your palate. It will definitely work. Just don't don't get hung up on it looking like having the exact same shade as mine. Because you may you may have access to different colors. So I'm just kinda mixing in a couple of blues and the Payne's gray to like get this like very moody blue. Think I am going to use the wet on wet technique here. So I'm just going to add some water first and drop in. Drop in this color, this bluish gray or grayish blue rather. So I started with a little bit of water and then I kinda went went into wet on dry. I'm only because I already have so much water in this area that I can easily pull it. Or it'll soon as it touches that area to pull in the water. Which basically means that I don't need to necessarily cover the whole area and water first. You can just get started with one shape and go from there. Or being directly on dry paper, whichever appeals to you the most. So that's essentially our blue giardia pumpkin. I do want to lift off some highlights. Lift off a couple of areas here. On the left-hand side. Here we go. Then this dam is kinda like a greenish add, maybe a touch of this Payne's gray into the green. Just get like a really grayish, grayish green. And if it's too dark, you can always look lifted off with your brush or with a paper towel as well. Because like here I just added I at first I added too much and it was way too dark. This is more like it. Of course, on a lift-off area from a highlight here to maybe add going to darken in, mix in a little bit like a darker blue. So definitely more grain here. And do the, these partitions. So this is kinda cool effect. When it's still wet. It's going to just naturally bleed out. It looks really cool. So one way, one reason why I like the wet on wet is it really does the work for you. So whereas here in these areas where it had already started to dry, I have to go over and kinda smooth this out a little bit. Because otherwise they just looked a little too too precise and I want them to be more more organic looking. Here we go. So this is the blue jar jail. 11. Speckled Hound: This next pumpkin is called a speckled hound, and it will definitely have two colors going on here. So an orange and the green. The orange is a little bit more on like underwriters side. So I'm going to use this mix of red and orange together. And I'm gonna start with adding that first. So essentially, like most, you see these partitions on the pumpkin, the wider part is definitely going to be like have that orange. Whereas the individual lines that separate these parts, That's when we're going to drop in the green. And also there's gonna be some green on the top as well. So right now I'm just kinda adding painting, painting these areas. I've got my orange now I'm going to just go grab a little bit of green. Any green we'll do here, just grab whatever green you have. Mine is kinda like a darker, darker green here. And then now just going to basically add in green on the top and in-between. So it'll kinda like naturally bleed in. You can also clean off the brush and kind of how blend these areas together a little bit, drop in a little bit more orange in here. So it's very much like an organic type of unexpected mix of colors together. Definitely not like remixing it on the palate, but were rather letting the colors do their thing. Adding water and using tons of water is definitely key here because it'll just help to create those natural spots where the colors intermingle. So basically, now it looks kinda messy, but it's honestly like look-up this particular variety. And it looks very much like it's got those little green specks in some areas here. It's very playful. Look and feel to it. And then for the stem, I think I'm going to just use a little bit of this yellow ocher color and paint that. Of course, don't forget about our little highlights. That's just going to add a little bit more interest to it. And of course, we can lift off a few little areas here on the actual pumpkin. And even if the area has already dried, you can still lift off a little bit of color. You just have to kinda do it a couple of times. So I definitely recommend lifting off the color as you're painting an area because it is a lot easier that way, but you can still do it even when it's completely dried. So I'm going to just add a touch more orange here at the bottom. Just to kinda make it more interesting. And why not using a little bit of that same orange actually on top of the green to make these, these separations stand out a little bit more. So as you're painting, you just play around to see no. When it dries, you know me being an area needs a little bit more layer of the color. Another glaze on top. I'm just kinda see what feels good to you. And with time you'll just kind of have a feel for these, but it just takes a little bit of practice. You can even me like I've done this so much but sometimes I'm like, Oh, I'll let it dry and I'll say, well, this is not, not super vibrant and wanted to be more kinda wanted to pop off the page a little bit more. I'll just add another layer of color. 12. Kabocha Squash: This next one is called a combo chart. So again, I believe it's a squash variety or pumpkin squash variety. To get started, we are going to mix in a little bit of yellow with green, but adding tons of water. So it's going to be very light, maybe even a touch of yellow ocher here just so that it's not super because I don't want I don't want the yellow to be very like kinda like the some yellowing of super bright. Want it to be a little bit muted. Just going to paint this shape. Notice it's very light in color. So I want this first layer because their Kubota has kinda like a fun patterns. So I want to show you how I do that. I'll clean off the brush and I'm just going to smooth out these brush marks so that you can't necessarily see them. Anyone lift off a little bit of color so that we have a little nice pre-built in highlights. So whenever you're adding a texture, definitely add a highlight first or lifted off, and then add the texture. It'll be a lot easier. So I'm gonna switch out to the six number six brush just because it's a little bit smaller, it'll give me more control. And I'm going to use this yellow ocher to paint the stem. Meanwhile, because I did a fairly light wash of this first layer, it's going to dry off pretty quickly. So I'm just taking my time a little bit with the stem, lifting off a highlight and maybe I'm going to add a few little lines on the stem just so that it looks like it's got those little ridges or whatever the heat typically see. Okay. So if I look, there's a bit of a glycine, it's not totally dry, but it's something good spot where we can continue. The cup Boucher is kinda like a green color, but it has a very much a pattern to it. So I'm going to mix in or just, just grabbed some green here. You may mix in a couple of migraines. So that I have like kind of like definitely want a darker green. If you have more of a yellowy green, just add a little bit of blue and it'll darken up that. The cup butcher. The way to do this pattern is essentially like we're just going to add a few little, little wavy lines. So essentially I want some of the first layer to be visible. So I'm not like covering the whole thing, but I'm just adding a few like these kind of wavy, a series of these wavy lines. Almost like as if I'm creating a webbing kind of pattern, you know, just covering this whole area. And again, don't worry about it looking precise or anything like that. So if I were to have painted this while it was still wet, You definitely, you know, all those green would have blood into the first layer until that yellow or grow kind of mix and you would not been able to see the pattern underneath it or the yellows like kinda specs. So that's why sometimes in some instances it's definitely worth it. And to wait a little bit, let this first layer dry so you can add a little pattern. Really is just like else kinda therapeutic adding this because it's very loose and playful. This fill up this whole area. And I'm outlining the whole shape too, just so that it looks more cohesive. That's, that's pretty much it. Another thing that you could do here. So with a clean, damp brush, you could also go, unlike kindness, like paint over these just very lightly so that some of these colors mix N or like you're softening some of these lines. But you can still see, you know, the the the little, the little specs in-between. Right now I'm just going in with a little bit more green and adding a few little darker, darker lines on this side. Just because I want to have this nice contrast between the highlight areas and the darker one. Yeah, if I clean off my brush, that's got a little bit just it's just damp. I can go over these and kinda like film and smooth them out. That way. You can still see the first layer, but it's just a little bit kind of like more integrated with each other, if you will. One last thing here on the stem, since I was adding the little line, I'm just going to add them again so you can see them. Here we go. 13. Delicata and Butternut Squash: The next two pumpkins are definitely squashes. So we're gonna do the delicate data and the butternut squash. I thought of doing them together because the shapes are very similar. There's just a slight difference in color. So I'm going to mix in order to actually add a little bit of yellow ocher and tons of water because I want to I have a nice light shade light version of this color. So a paint that the Delhi cardioversion first. It's very similar to the butter naught is just like maybe not, doesn't have that hourglass type of look and feel to it. It's more engaged and more like an oval shape. So I'm just going to maybe turn this around, make it look easier. Again. I'll lift off just a little bit of color here. And then the Delhi cata has a layer. So we started with a layer of yellow ocher and then I'm grabbing some green on my brush and now I'm just going to wait for it to dry. I'm just going to start start adding these lines. And feel free to like, if you interrupt the lines to that kinda looks more natural and organic. So it's definitely like a watercolor type of look to it. But it's essentially the delicate as squash will have this like variegated green. Look to it. And maybe actually maybe a touch more yellow. And I'm going to add a little bit of yellow to the yellow ocher to warm it up a little bit. I could drop that in-between. In-between the green. So you definitely have options. You can start either with the first layer or add the green lines and then mix in the yellow ocher with a little bit of yellow and add that in in-between those lines. Then we have a little stem. And then the butternut squash is even easier. So that's definitely is just using the yellow ocher or any light brown. So if you have a darker brown, just add tons of water and lighten it up. But it's essentially this color. So I'm just painting it on dry paper. So dropping in color and then adding in a little bit of water here to kinda like expand this area. That way doesn't have a smooth transition, but it's more like a natural, I think, organic transition. So it's not precise. But I can add a bit more of this yellow okra on the opposite side because my highlight remember is coming from the left since I'm a lefty. But if you are writing your highlight can come from the other, other direction. That's totally up to you. Let's see me, me add a little darker brown just so that it has the contrast on the stem as well. Yeah, And that's, that's pretty much it. It's a very simple type of gourd. Very fun. I especially love the delicate on, I thought that was super fun to paint because you get to see those variations can bleed out. 14. Casper Pumpkin: I wanted to share one more pumpkin as a bonus tutorial. So this one is a Casper pumpkin and they are white. So this is gonna be a fun challenge because I know traditionally, people gravitate towards using a black or gray to show paint like a white surface against the white paper. But I want to encourage you to play around and mix in some blues and some purples. So it's gonna be a very light version of these colors. But sometimes when you use this type of mix, we're a little bit of magenta, a little bit of purple, little bit of blue, tons of water. Of course, it creates this nice kind of mix where it looks a little bit more interesting than just a plain gray color. So definitely, we're gonna be using lots of water here. So just barely adding some color. In the areas where the shadow, There's a shadow present. And that's essentially where with the pumpkin partitions are. And the way that you pick. There's no most specific formula as far as like this area painted with blue, like it's just a matter of experimenting. I like to approach this as just like a challenge of like, oh, what are other ways? How can I indicate that this white shape has these shadows, these interesting shadows. So maybe if it's like adding just a touch of magenta with some water and dropping that in a couple of spots. And definitely using tons of water here so that the color is spreading out nicely. So here I'm just going to use a little bit of a touch of blue and maybe add. If I'm, if I'm pretending that my light source is coming from this direction. In this particular pumpkin like this is going to have more of a shadow on this side, on the right-hand side. So maybe here I'm going to drop more of my blues and purples know to showcase those darker areas. Whereas here it's more diluted with water, so it's very light, barely, barely visible. And these would be fun to paint lake against a darker backgrounds so they really pop. Otherwise. The only way to make these really stand out against the white is just working on these little shadow areas. So looking at your reference photo and punching up those darker areas with more color. So here I'm just using the bluish gray that I used before. So it definitely has those like cooler and warmer shadow areas. I guess in my case, it definitely has just cooler shadows because I'm using I'm a variety of cool colors. But just to give you another option of how you can approach, you can definitely paint these similar shadows and shapes with just the one either black or diluted black or gray. Payne's gray like would work here really well. But I just thought it'd be fun to kind of re-imagine the shadows as blues and purples and maybe a touch of magenta in here. Because it's definitely like unexpected, but it's fun. A fun experiment. So you see I still have these lighter areas over here in this area and kinda darker ones, darker areas, kinda contrasting. Then to make this pop even more, I mentioned the cast shadow. I am going to use Payne's gray and just add a touch of water here. And my light source is coming from here. That means that the cast shadows on the opposite side. So I'm just adding a little bit of brush, brush mark underneath the pumpkin and it's going to just come off to the side just a little bit. And right now it looks pretty good, but I'm going to clean off my brush. And I'm just going to soften this edge here. So it looks more like a natural shadow. And you can always add just a touch more slick. I have a little bit of Payne's gray on my brush and I'm adding a just right underneath of the shape because that's where the dark the area is going to be the darkest. And it's okay if it bleeds a little bit, you can the clean brush, you can kinda lift that off. But I like, I like it because it looks very much dramatic. Or another good way to, really, the best way to avoid that is to let your pumpkin dry first and then do the shadow. But it's just a matter of preference. If you like this more natural or like more like watercolor, we look where it's blending in together a little bit. Then definitely like paint right away. Then as you're shaped dries kinda decide where you want to add more. Punch up the colors a little bit. I'm just adding a little bit more blue to the stem. So it stands out a little bit, and that's pretty much it. So you have your Casper pumpkin. 15. Final Thoughts + Class Project: A few final notes. So after you have gone through these exercises and painted your pumpkin, one thing that you could always do, especially in these the ones that I did to kinda show you the pumpkin or while I was picking out these little guys to paint. This one was done in a quicker fashion. But as you're painting these, if you're finding some areas that are looking, maybe that need a little bit more blending. So for example, the Cinderella one, I definitely would say like this area here is, might use a little bit more like a smoothing motion. So you can just go in with a clean damp brush and you can always 0 essentially like reactivating that area. But if you're smoothing out the entire, this entire partition, it'll look more like a cohesive, more have more of a smoother transition. So this is by no means necessary, but I just wanted to give you the option depending on the look you're going for. If you want to have this be more realistic and have more of a smoother look. Then just go in with a clean brush and smooth out some of these brush marks that you have. One, for example here you can even see it more pronounced in this blue jar, Adele one, when I was painting it. So I just did a few extra lines and they're very, very pronounced. If I want to smooth them out, I can just go in with a little bit of water and kinda of like smoothies out. So this is another reason why I mentioned this before. I really like this snap brushes because of the synthetic bristles. It's very, a lot easier to, to kinda smooth out these areas with this particular brush as opposed to the softer ones. Because I am pressing and pressing, quite implying quite a bit of pressure to this motion. But it's not ruining the brush. Whereas with a softer brush, It's not like it's ruining it, but you do have to try or like, I don't know, apply a little bit more pressure and feel like it's going to ruin it even though it's really not. I just find this synthetic bristles are a little bit easier to use as far as like, if you're erasing or lifting off, some areas are blending them out and whatnot. So here's another another area here. If I want to smooth it out, I totally can and even lift off a little bit more of a highlight. So for your homework projects, if you wanted to give this a try lookup, the local varieties of pumpkins that you have in your area where you live or just honestly, I recommend you Google pumpkin varieties because I think there's over 90 varieties. There are so many. They are so cool. There's just lots of painting opportunities. Maybe if there's a farmers market where you live, you can go visit when the pumpkins are in season and have a look at what all you can get inspired to sketch, sketch a couple of days and share them with the rest of the class. I'd love to see it. And again, thank you so much for joining me in this class.