Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. As a kid, I loved dressing up in costumes, decorating the house and trick-or-treating. I also loved drawing jack-o-lanterns. They are fun to draw and can be done very easily. I’ll show you my method for how to draw a Halloween pumpkin jack-o-lantern.
This simple technique is easy enough for anyone to follow. First, follow the basic instructions to draw a pumpkin then add a face to it.
This tutorial can be done with a digital drawing tablet or with just a pencil and paper.
It’s a great beginner drawing project. Once you’re done, you’ll be able to upload your finished drawing to Cricut and cut a template for a Jack-o-lantern face
You can print the instructions and the template below. Follow this tutorial to learn how to draw a Halloween pumpkin jack-o-lantern.
Make a Halloween scene by adding a ghost drawing, and drawing different faces on each pumpkin and a black cartoon bat.
It’s easy to draw a Halloween pumpkin patch by copying and pasting or just by duplicating the first pumpkin that you made and adding more vines and leaves and maybe a few spooky trees in a night scenery background.
And since Halloween is not complete without the creepy crawly things, this drawing of a spider will help you add a few of those to your picture.
If you want to learn how to make more digital drawings, you’ll love my So Simple SVG course.
I get commissions for purchases made through some of the links in this post. There is no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
How to Draw an Easy Pumpkin
Let’s start by gathering your materials to draw the pumpkin.
Drawing Supplies
Drawing Supplies
Here is a list of drawing supplies. The first set is for drawing in the traditional method on paper.
The last set is for digital drawing.
drawing pencils
Amazon Basics Sketch and Drawing Art Pencil Kit - 17-Piece Set
Mix media paper pad
Canson XL Series Mix Media Paper Pad
Art markers
Tombow 56185 Dual Brush Pen Art Markers
Light table for tracing
LED Light Box 9x12 Inch Light Pad
Digital Art Supplies
Graphic tablet (optional)
Huion H610 Pro Graphic Drawing Tablet 8192 Pen Pressure Sensitivity with Carrying Bag and Glove
I like to use Inkscape which is open-source graphic software. If you prefer to work on a tablet, there is even an online drawing app version of Inkscape.
We’ll use the calligraphy and brush strokes tool. The settings that I use are in the instruction sheet at the bottom of the post.
If you’re making the digital version, make sure that your settings on the calligraphy tool match mine before starting.
Draw a Halloween Pumpkin Step by Step
The first steps, will follow the directions from my How to Draw a Pumpkin post.
Of course, I’ll repeat them here, so that you don’t have to go back and forth between the two.
To get started, draw an oval shape.
Pro Tip: If you need help drawing the oval shape, draw the letter O, draw 2 curved lines inside the letter O on the right side, draw 2 curved lines on the left side of the O.
See the picture below.
You can download the template to help you make the base of the pumpkin.
Make a Pumpkin Shape
You now have your center oval pumpkin shape in the middle of your drawing.
The next step is to draw 2 curved lines on the right side of the oval.
Then, draw 2 curved lines on the left side of the right side of the oval.
The curved lines will serve as the sections of the pumpkin.
Draw a Pumpkin From Circles
You now have one oval and 4 curved lines. The next step is to connect the lines to the oval in order to make the pumpkin.
Once you connect the lines to the oval, you can move on to the next step, drawing the stem.
Draw a Pumpkin Stem
The base of the pumpkin is complete, let’s add the stem.
Draw two parallel curved lines at the top center of the pumpkin.
Draw a horizontal curved line to connect the parallel lines.
It’s ok if the lines are not straight. In fact, it’s better if they are slightly uneven. This gives the pumpkin stem a more natural look.
Draw a Pumpkin Leaf
Once you’re done with the stem, you’re ready to draw the leaves.
To draw a 5-sided leaf, we’ll use one continuous line with 2 bumps on the left, one bump at the top and two bumps on the right.
Make a leaf stem by drawing a vertical line at the bottom middle of the leaf.
To complete the leaf, add another vertical line inside the middle of the leaf.
Continue to draw another leaf on the right side of the stem.
Add a few curly cue designs to finish off the drawing.
Now that we’ve made the pumpkin, let’s add a face to it to give it a jack o lantern effect.
You can make a cute halloween pumpkin, a scary jack o lantern, or a silly face pumpkin.
I’ll show you how to draw a pumpkin face with a big toothy grin.
Draw a Halloween Pumpkin Face
To draw the halloween pumpkin face, we’ll draw triangles for the eyes and the nose.
Draw a triangle with equal sides on the middle left of the pumpkin, about 3/4 of the way up from the bottom of the pumpkin.
Then, draw another triangle on the middle right side.
Draw a smaller triangle in between and below the first two triangles.
Now it’s starting to look like a face!
To draw the mouth, we’ll draw a horizontal curved line that dips down, goes straight across and comes back up.
This will make the tooth in the smile of the jack o lantern.
Continue the curved line to finish the mouth. Stop when you are just under the eye of the jack o lantern.
Now we’ll make the bottom part of the mouth.
To draw the bottom part of the mouth, we’ll draw a horizontal curved line that dips up, goes straight across and comes back down.
Your jack o lantern should now have a complete face.
The pumpkin drawing outline is complete and you can move on to coloring the outline.
Coloring the Pumpkin Drawing
You’re ready to color your drawing of the pumpkin.
To do this, use the fill bucket tool (fill bounded areas tool). Make sure that your areas are bounded (that means that they are closed with no gaps).
If you have gaps, double click on the gap, zoom in, and pull the nodes to close the gap. Watch the video to see how I did this.
Click the fill bucket tool and then click on a color from the color menu bar at the bottom of the screen. Next, click on a section of the pumpkin to fill it with color.
Repeat this process to color in every section of the pumpkin, the stem and the leaves.
Click on a triangle, and then click the fill bucket tool and then click on the black color from the color menu bar at the bottom of the screen.
Click on the mouth, and then click the fill bucket tool and then click on the black color from the color menu bar at the bottom of the screen.
Your easy Halloween pumpkin drawing is done. Do you like it?!
Add more spooky scary characters by following my step-by-step video lessons of Halloween drawings below.
If you like this lesson, you’ll love my So Simple SVG Files course. I will walk you through the steps to make digital drawings using simple shapes in Inkscape. You’ll also learn how to transfer your drawings to your craft projects and get better use from your cutting machine.
Now that you know how to draw a halloween pumpkin, check out the ideas for creative craft projects that you can make with it.
Crafts to Make with Halloween Pumpkins
The nice thing about digital drawings is that they can be easily transformed into physical printed designs for lots of craft projects.
Here are some crafts that you can make with your pumpkin drawing:
Source: Paint the Day Designs
Imagine all of the crafts that you can make with the jack-o-lantern drawing. Try making Halloween paper crafts. It’s a kid-friendly craft project.
If you have a Cricut or Silhouette machine and a heat press, it will make it even easier to cut out the shapes from cardstock, felt or vinyl.
Source: Wonder Ming Studios
Those are just a few ideas to get you started. I have lots more ideas for beginner crafts that you can try.
As you can see, you can take your drawing and put it on tons of physical crafts!
You don’t have to be an expert to make crafts. If you want to turn it into more than a hobby, see my post about craft businesses to money from home.
Make sure to save this to your favorite drawing board on Pinterest. Click the link below to save it for later.
Be sure to add a photo of your drawing to the pin so that I can see that you tried it.
How to Draw a Jack o Lantern
Learn how to draw a jack o lantern pumpkin. This method can be used to make a digital drawing or a paper drawing.
Materials
- Digital Drawing Supplies
- Paper Drawing Supplies
Tools
- Digital Drawing Supplies
- Inkscape software program
- Computer
- Graphic tablet (optional)
- Paper Drawing Supplies
- Drawing pencil
- Drawing Paper
- Art markers or Colored Pencils
- Light Table for Tracing (optional)
Instructions
- Draw an oval shape.
- Draw 2 curved lines on the right side of the oval.
- Draw 2 curved lines on the left side of the right side of the oval.
- You now have one oval and 4 curved lines.
- The next step is to connect the lines to the oval in order to make the pumpkin.
- Add the stem, to do this, draw two parallel curved lines at the top center of the pumpkin.
- Draw a horizontal curved line to connect the parallel lines.
- The next step is to draw a 5-sided leaf, we’ll use one continuous line with 2 bumps on the left, one bump at the top and two bumps on the right.
- Make a leaf stem by drawing a vertical line at the bottom middle of the leaf.
- Add another vertical line inside the middle of the leaf.
- Draw another leaf on the right side of the stem.
- Draw one curly cue design at the bottom of each leaf
- Draw a triangle with equal sides on the middle left of the pumpkin, about 3/4 of the way up from the bottom of the pumpkin.
- Draw another triangle on the middle right side.
- Draw a smaller triangle in between and below the first two triangles.
- To draw the mouth, draw a horizontal curved line that dips down, goes straight across and comes back up.
- Continue the curved line to finish the mouth. Stop when you are just under the eye of the jack o lantern.
- To draw the bottom part of the mouth, draw a horizontal curved line that dips up, goes straight across and comes back down.
- Color the jack o lantern outline.
- For a digital drawing use the fill bucket tool.
- Click the fill bucket tool and then click a section of the pumpkin.
- Click on the orange color from the color menu bar at the bottom of the screen.
- Select a pumpkin section next to the orange section that you just colored.
- Click on a darker orange color from the color menu bar at the bottom of the screen.
- Repeat this process to alternate the orange and dark orange sections.
- Use the same process to color the leaves, the stem, and the curly vines.
- For a paper drawing use markers or colored pencils.
Notes
Calligraphy tool settings
No preset
Width: 3
Thinning: 10
Angle: 90
Fixation: 30
Caps: 0.75
Tremor: 0
Wiggle: 0
Mass:2
Turn on Fill
Turn off Stroke
Pro Tip:
Print the template to help you make the base of the pumpkin.
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