Pumpkin Totem Pole Drawing

Do you want to create simple wall art for fall or Halloween? These pumpkin totem pole drawings are just the thing to add a creative touch to any living space. Oh, and did I mention that they are simple? You become the artist while designing these pumpkins. You get to choose what size and type of paper to use, what coloring media you used, and how detailed you want your work to be.

• Paper (the size and type are up to you).
  • I used 9” x 12” pastel paper. I have had my students create these on 24” x 30” pastel paper. I can see these being successful on canvas, on wood slices, and so much more.
• Coloring Media – I used chalk pastels. You can use markers, colored pencils, acrylics, watercolor, or anything you would like. For finer details I used compressed chalk sticks.
• Pencil
• Cotton swabs/tissues for blending (optional)
• *** Access to pumpkins and/or Jack-o-lanterns would be helpful for inspiration (the internet or in real life) ***

I always begin with simple shapes. You can decide if you want to practice on another piece of paper and then move on to you actual drawing paper or just begin on your actual paper.

• I began by practicing simple pumpkin/gourde shapes that I found to be interesting. You can choose to be as realistic or as whimsical as you would like with your shapes.

To make each shape resemble a pumpkin, you will need to add the “ribs” the lines that stretch from stem to the bottom.

• I usually start near the center and draw a large oval that touches the top of the pumpkin (where the stem meets the pumpkin) all the way to the bottom.
• Now add a parentheses shape to the left of the oval, again toughing the top and the bottom. I will continue to draw parentheses on the left side of the pumpkin until I run out of room. The more space you have between these lines the bigger the rib will look.
• Use this same technique but on the right-hand side.
• You will round each rib out at the top and the bottom. By adding these bumps, you add dimension to the pumpkin. Again, I begin with the center rib since it will be the closest one to you it will most likely be the tallest rib. Round the top part of the oval so it goes slightly above your original line (same thing at the bottom).
• Working your way to the left, you will round out the tops and the bottoms of each rib making them either even with in or slightly smaller than the height to the previous rib.
• When you complete the left side, you will repeat this method for the right.
• Now you have the basic structure of the pumpkin totem pole. If you are going to make your pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns you can research, design, and practice what faces you would want to use or just jump right into the final drawing.
• *** If you want a smoother pumpkin, you will add less ribs or no ribs at all. ***

Using the techniques you just practiced, practice drawing your chosen pumpkin shape stack on top of one another.

*** If your practice drawing is the same size as your final paper, you can trace your practice on to that paper, so you don’t have to redraw it all over again. ***

These instructions are for the pastel pumpkins, but feel free to modify it to fit whatever medium you wish to use.

• Sketch out your pumpkins/Jack-o-lantern onto your final paper (I would not draw the faces yet).
• I color each pumpkin with yellow first and blend that in using my finger (or tissue or cotton swab).
• Next, I blend in some orange. I try to keep most of my orange color away from where my light source is (in this case my light is coming more from the right).
• I will slowly blend the orange into the yellow highlight. If you want the orange to be darker in the shadowed areas you can use a bit of brown, blue, or black (or a combination of the 3).

Once I have my pumpkins shaded to my liking, I lightly sketch on my faces.

• Inside of my facial features, I use more yellows and white. I really focus my white where the “candlelight” would be showing or reflecting.
• I then outline my features and shade the depth portions of the features with a brown.

• I begin by drawing the ribs in with orange.
• If orange doesn’t show up, I use red, but push very lightly.
• Then, I layer some brown over the red/orange combo to add shadowing.
• ***If you want to blend these areas a bit, I use a cotton swab and swipe in one direction once to give a slight blend.***

When your pumpkins/Jack-o-lanterns are finished, you can decide on how to complete the background. If you have kept the background clean you can leave it alone if you choose. I wanted my pumpkins to pop a bit, so I blended some purple out from the pumpkins. I then outlined the pumpkins in black and blended that into the background.