Easy Watercolor Tutorial | Pumpkin Bread Recipe Card

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How Do You Make A Watercolor Recipe Card?

To make a watercolor recipe card is pretty easy. All you need is a recipe you love you and basic watercolor supplies. Watercolor recipe cards are great to hang around your kitchen either all year round or seasonal, depending on what recipe you illustrate. Let’s go step-by-step together and see how it’s done.

What supplies will you need?

1. Pencil
2. Eraser
3. Waterproof Ink Pen
4. Watercolor paper
5. Round paintbrush
6. Watercolor paint
7. Two cups of water
8. Paper towel

If you would like to see all the art supplies I recommend, check out, “My Supplies” page. Click HERE to check it out!

Step 1:

First step is to choose a recipe. I will be using my favorite seasonal pumpkin bread recipe. Once I had chosen what recipe I was going to use, I made a list of all the ingredients. I left out the measurements so my painting wasn’t cluttered, but if you’d like the measurements next to each ingredient it would be very easy to add.

Next, I drew a very rough sketch of all the ingredients on a scrap piece of paper to know the exact placement of each ingredient. Then I drew them out onto the watercolor paper. You can either skip this step and just copy what I did straight onto your watercolor paper or feel free to play around with the placement yourself.

I recommend using a pencil to sketch out all the ingredients onto the watercolor paper first, then using a waterproof ink pen, trace over your pencil marks. After you trace with the ink pen, wait a few minutes to let the ink dry, then erase the pencil marks.

Let’s Mix our Paint!

Before we begin painting we need to get our paint ready and into our mixing pallet.

1. Create a wash of Sage Green + Cadmium Yellow in your pallet. Using water mix a small amount of cadmium yellow with Sage Green to create a yellow/green paint mixture.
2. Create a light wash of Cadmium Yellow + Burnt Umber in your pallet. Using water mix a small amount of cadmium yellow & a small amount of Burnt Umber to create a tan paint mixture.
3. Create a wash of Burnt Sienna in your pallet. Use an even amount of water then paint to create an orange paint mixture.
4. Create a wash of Burnt Umber in your pallet. Use an even amount of water then paint to create a brown paint mixture.
5. Create a light wash of Black Ivory in your pallet. Use more water than paint to create a light grey paint mixture.
6. Create a wash of Black Ivory in your pallet. Use the same amount of water & paint to create a grey paint mixture.
7. Create a light wash of Manganese Blue in your palette. Use more water than paint to create a light blue paint mixture.

Let’s Start Painting!

Step 2:

We are going to start with the pumpkin sketch. To paint in the pumpkin, use the orange paint mixture, and for the stem use the brown paint mixture. Next to the pumpkin is the “canned pumpkin”, which we are going to paint in using the grey paint mixture.

Step 2:

Now let’s paint the water cup. Dip your round brush into the blue paint mixture, and begin painting in the water section in the water cup, and outside the cup. Next, clean your brush off then dip your paintbrush in the grey paint mixture and paint in the top part of the cup, and the cup handle.

Step 3:

Our next step is to paint the baking soda box and bowl. Dip your round brush into the light grey paint mixture and paint the top & left side of the baking soda box. Using the grey paint mixture paint in the side of the box that says “baking soda” to give some detail.

Wait for the entire box to dry, then dip your paint brush into the thick black paint mixture and paint in the box opening.

Dip your paintbrush into the orange paint mixture and paint in the bowl. Leave the middle white to have the appearance of baking soda.

Step 4:

All we have to do to paint in the sugar cubes is to paint any side that looks like it’s underneath another cube the light grey paint mixture. Leave some white space to give it the appearance of shadows.

Step 5:

In this step, we are going to paint the salt shaker, cinnamon sticks, and the nutmeg.

To paint the salt shaker, dip your paintbrush in the light grey mixture, and paint in the entire base of the salt shaker, and the very top of the lid of the salt shaker. Now, using the grey paint mixture paint in the base of the lid of the salt shaker.

Next, let’s paint the nutmeg. Paint the entire nutmeg with the light brown paint mixture. Then dip your brush in the green paint mixture and paint in both of the nutmeg’s leaves.

Let’s move on now to the cinnamon sticks. Paint in the circular part of the cinnamon sticks with the light brown paint mixture were just used for the nutmeg. Then add a lot more burnt umber to the brown paint mixture to paint in the stick part of the cinnamon.

Step 6:

Next is the flour! Dip your paintbrush into the orange paint mixture and begin painting in the middle section of the flour bag. Wait till the orange paint dries, then paint in the rest of the bag with the tan paint mixture. Once the tan layer dries, paint in the oval area black.

Use the light grey paint mixture to paint in the entire measuring cup, then use the grey paint mixture and paint in the “inside” area of the measuring cup to add shadows.

Step 7:

In this step we are only going to add shadows to our eggs. Since our eggs are already white adding shadows will help them not seem so flat against the page.

Dip your brush into the light grey paint mixture and begin painting in the two eggs on the front left side. Then use clean water to blend the grey paint into the white area. The one egg that is completely behind the front two should be painted completely grey, and the other one that is halfway behind an egg should have grey paint only on the right side.

Step 8:

Now to paint in our vegetable oil. Dip your round brush into the yellow/green paint mixture and paint in the bottom half of the bottle. Paint in the top half of the bottle with the light grey paint mixture, and apply the grey paint mixture to the bottle cap.

Step 9:

We are going to finish off this recipe card by adding splatter to our recipe title. This will soften up our entire painting, without cluttering it up. To do this, all you have to do is load up your round brush with the orange paint, and tap it on your finger over the title. Repeat this step with the yellow paint mixture, and you’re done!

Congrats!

I hope you enjoyed creating this Thanksgiving painting/craft with me today. Before you go, don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest to see even more behind the scenes! If you don’t want to miss out on any new tutorials sign up for our completely FREE newsletter, where you will receive a weekly updates from Reflecting Creation. Comment below letting me know what recipe you would like to see illustrated using watercolor.

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Hope to see you again real soon!