Transcripts
1. Intro : If you want to paint a pumpkin, you're in the right place, no matter what level
you are at or age. This pumpkin class is for
anyone who wants to paint. Does of how to draw a pumpkin. So it might
turn out like this. Yours might turn out a
little bit more like this, or it might turn out like this. There's so many different
ways to paint a pumpkin, and I want your personality to shine through in
this world of AI, I want you to embrace
your personality, your humanity in this and to not try to
be a perfectionist. Try to put pressure on yourself, but just to let it be a fun, relaxing project so that you can have to decorate your
home for Thanksgiving or Halloween to create
a pumpkin painting that you can feel proud
of. I'll see you in class.
2. Materials and sketch: Before we start painting, let's talk about the
materials that you need. So I am using this med and set that comes with all
the colors that you need, although I wish it had brown
and some paint brushes. It came with the
canvas and the easel, but you'll just need a cup
of water or a mason jar. But as long as you
have something to paint on and some paints, some water and some
brushes, you're good to go. So let's jump into
sketching pumpkin. Now I want you to
keep it simple. It doesn't have to be
overly complicated. The paint will cover up the pencil unless you are going to be using
a lot of water. Now, there is no perfect
pumpkin out there. They're never
perfectly spherical, circular, never perfect circle. It's nature, right? So don't put that pressure on yourself to make it into a perfect circle, especially with the rise of AI. You can generate an
image that is perfect, but we're doing here
is we are creating real art with real hands
with imperfections, flaws, and that little bit of humanity that the
world needs more of. So I encourage you as you are painting this that you will
let go of perfectionism, that you will let yourself
be perfectly imperfect because art is an
expression of who you are. It's your it's your
personality shining through. Not every person is the same, just like not every
pumpkin is the same. So don't try to be a
pumpkin that you are not. Don't try to paint a pumpkin
that you have not painted, that somebody else has painted. Don't try to be something
that you expect other people will find to be to reach
their approval, right? I think you are worthy and amazing, and you're
a great artist, whether or not the world
says that you are an artist, you don't need to
prove anything here. So sketch out your pumpkin, grab your paints, and we'll
move on to the next step, but leave your
perfectionism at the door. We are just here to have
fun to explore, to create, and to evoke wonder whimsy and beauty from the things that we love in the world and to
share that with others. So put the pressure aside, and we're going to have a really fun time
painting some pumpkins. It's just a pumpkin. It's not, you know, you're not doing surgery
or flying to the moon. So let's have fun with it,
and let's get to painting.
3. Base coat: Next step in painting this
pumpkin is just to fill it in. Now, you can get a little
glimpse here of, you know, we're going to go in
with some more shadow and some little details. But for now, let's just focus
on filling in the orange. Now, red and yellow. You might remember
from kindergarten, you mix that up and
create your own orange. You can add some white into it if you want it a
little bit lighter. And later on, I do go in
with white to thicken up the paint because this met in set was a
little bit watery, and I find that adding in
white will thicken it up a lit so you're just getting
some strokes in there, just filling it in. Remember, letting
it be imperfect. But go ahead and just
dip it into the paint. Fill it in. Don't worry
about staying in the lines. It's not really a big deal. I often leave my paint
stroke pretty thin, especially here
at the beginning, and I can probably
see my pencil lines. And sometimes even at the end, my pencil lines are still there because I'm not afraid
of showing those. You know, it's all
part of the process, and it's art people don't mind. So I do think it's
important to talk about. Some people have questions about how much water do they
need on their brush? How thick should it be? And obviously, it's going
to be an experiment. You're going to find out
what works best for you. But sometimes I like using white to thicken up
instead of just the water. Want to have just
enough that the water will glide and not be dripping. So I encourage you
to play around and see what feels best for you and your style as far as how much water to be
adding into your paint. Let's move on to the next step.
4. Finishing touches: Alright, let's give
some more shape to this pumpkin so that it will no longer look like an apple. And we can add some vines or some definition,
whatever you'd like. And so if you remember, we ended with adding
that red into the sides, but it created the apple look. So now let's create
those indentations, the little lines of
pumpkinage there. Now, I want to talk
about messing up. Let's say you're doing
an acrylic painting and you feel that
you have messed up. Luckily, you can wait for it to dry and you can
paint over it. This is always a possibility. Now, it takes longer to dry if you're using a
lot of thick paint. But there is another
way that you can salvage your painting so that you won't have to wait as long for it to dry before
you paint over it. Now, I'm going to show you that when I add some
blue here in a moment. But first, let's
grab some black and let's give it some definition
and some curly cues. So little curly
thing at the top, you can have as much fun
with this as you want, if you saw in that
example before, I used the curlies, and I just totally went
crazy with them. That was really fun for me. But if you want to go
a little bit simpler, a little bit more hesitant, that's okay with just a
little humble, one curly cue, maybe a leaf or two up to you
on whatever you want to do. Oh, sorry. I am a
picture book author, so I just kind of have to be
weird sometimes and silly. Very silly. Always silly. Alright, so as I
said, Black here, because it is Halloween, you don't have to worry about adding lots of
black to your painting. You never do. Are there
real rules in art? I don't know. I don't know, because it's self expression. It's just for fun. But there are certain tips
and things that you could avoid if you want to I
know what the artists say. So I'm gonna go in with black on the little crevices of the pumpkin to create
that pumpkiny shape. Now, the paint is still wet
and so I'm blending it in, letting it be what it is, 'cause I am rather impatient with waiting
for paint to dry. Isn't there that saying, like, waiting for paint to dry? Yeah, not pleasant. So, I mean, you
can get up and do some chores and then get back
to it. It's a good idea. But it's also kind
of fun to see what the different colors
will make to be. So I'd say, have fun with it, make your little curlies, and I'm going to show you here. I'm going to grab a
little bit of blue, and I'm going to add
it into the shadow, and you will see
how I fix that up. Let's add some red first
to kind of give it that. The depth that
we're looking for, but just know that there are no mess ups in acrylic painting
that you cannot salvage. In fact, I feel like in art, you know, there's never
don't be hesitant. Don't be afraid to make mistakes because it is art after all. It is a place to experiment, to play, to find out
what works for you. And, um, yeah, there's no
real rules, no real how tos. If there were, then, you know, if people only
stayed within that box, then we wouldn't have
so much variety, and it isn't that
the beauty of art. So I added some
whites up to the top, and as you can tell, I'm a little hesitant to
add this blue in just yet, so I can show you how to fix it. But I have added the highlight the reds to give it that depth. It is no longer
looking like an apple. If you ask me, I see
the pumpkinages, the pumpkiny pumpkin,
pumpkinish of the pumpkin. So it's fun to get lots of
variety of shades of orange. You don't want just
orange in there, which is why I added a
lot of red, some yellows, some whites, so that we can get that depth that
we are looking for. So I hope you're
having fun. Now it's the time. Let's grab the blue. To show you. So there isn't anything wrong with this blue. You might like that.
It was very thick. I put it on thick,
and because of that, because of the
thickness of the paint, I knew it was going to take
a long time for it to dry, which means if I start
blending it now, then it is going
to get all over. So I'm going to take
this paper towel, I'm going to dip
it in some water, fold it up a little bit, make sure that it's
not too dripping. So squeezing out that excess. Now I'm going to just swipe. I'm just going to wipe
off that green because it was far too thick
for the likes of me. So that will help. So where I want even, like, a little bit of that variety
of color down there, I do not want so much paint
that as I am blending, that it will just turn my
whole pumpkin blue or green. So that is a tip that you
might want to take with you as you are painting so that you're not afraid
to try different things. You can kind of wipe it away
and then add in the color, and you might need to
wait a little bit. Or you can just add in a lot of a thicker amount
of the color that you want to get it back to. But I do like having those other colors
in there for variety, but that was just a little bit too much
for the wet paint. You kind of learn to listen to listen to the brush,
listen to the paint. You will hear what it says
to you. It takes time. You know, you start
you start feeling it. Feel the art, my friends. Feel the pumpkin. So it's taking shape. It's not perfect, but I
hope you're having fun. So go ahead and you can
kind of blend it in, but it doesn't have to
be perfectly blended, that will kind of
create some textures, some depth, you know, there might be these crevices to this pumpkin that cause it to kind of jut out in places
and not be perfectly smooth. Because pumpkins are quite, I want to say rumpled,
crumpled, bumpy, lumpy. Mm they have texture. Not perfectly
smooth like a ball. Like a basketball. But
basketballs also have texture. So blending it up a little bit, but leaving some of those brush strokes
because it is fun to have some looseness
in a painting. Don't try to be too
stiff because, you know, people can take
pictures of pumpkins, have it be perfect. But it's fun to have
some brush strokes. So it's like, Oh, yeah,
look, I painted this. We painted this pumpkin. So I bet it's looking better
than you think that it is. Sometimes I totally dislike
a painting. I step back. I come back, and I feel
a lot better about it. But in the moment,
sometimes it's hard not to just think about how you want it to be and feel
impatient with the process. But just just have fun with it. Think about how the light
might be hitting it, and you're going to want
that light near the top. But right now I'm just
kind of giving it a little bit more shadow
up there because, you know, it folds in. There's a little bit of
highlight a little bit I mean, a little bit of shadow from
what's going on in the top. And so keeping it loose. Now we have the
option to go in with acrylic marker once it's dry, to give it some extra
little refined details, but that is not necessary. You can wait till it's dry and just paint
over it to give it a few more extra details if you are looking for
that polished finish, but it is not important. Obviously, just want you to
be happy with your pumpkin, have it to be something
that you'll either give away to somebody
else to use as decoration or something
that you can use for Thanksgiving or Halloween to decorate and feel festive for those wonderful cozy fall vibes. So I hope you like your pumpkin, hope you're feeling good. If you have questions, don't be afraid to comment. I want to see your
guys' pumpkins. If you'll snap a picture
and put it in the class. That would be
amazing. It'll be so fun to see the
variety of pumpkins, to see how everybody's looks
a little bit different, has a little bit of spunk, a little bit of pizzas to it. You don't want
everyone's pumpkins to look just like mine. That wouldn't be nearly as fun. So post it. Don't be afraid of what
other people will think. We're just all sharing together
and going on this journey together to just see what the possibilities are and to
be inspired by one another. I feel like that
was the best part of art class was being
inspired by other people. Teachers were awesome,
but seeing what my peers were doing was
really inspiring to me. And so I'd really like to create that sort of environment here
in this class where we can share with each other
and be inspired and uplifted and encourage
each other to keep going. So go ahead and snap a pick, post it in the class. And, and maybe, if you
want a tip or two, let me know if you're looking
for just encouragement or if you would like some
suggestions and help, and if you have any
questions of how you can get the perfect pumpkin, the perfectly imperfect pumpkin. Mm hmm. I hope you enjoyed painting the pumpkin and
can't wait to see yours.
Alycia Pace, Fortune cookie lover and art fanatic
