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This year my husband and I are finally in a house rather than a small apartment, with that being said, I needed more fall decorations! So, I decided to DIY some of my own! Today, I will walk you through step-by-step how to paint pumpkins using watercolor. I have this specific painting hanging in my kitchen now as part of my new fall decor.

Full video tutorial at the end of this post!

You may also like, DIY Rustic Wooden Candy Corn or Watercolor Painting Tutorial Fall Pumpkins.

Supplies You’ll Need:

Watercolor Paper

Watercolor Round Brushes (size 6, size 3, & size 1/2)

Watercolor Paint

Paper Towel

Two Cups of Water

Optional: A scrap piece of Watercolor Paper

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

Paint Colors Used:

Cobalt Blue

Payne’s Gray

Yellow Ocre

Burnt Sienna

Burnt Umber

Black

Sage Green

Permanent Rose

All of these colors can be found in this perfect beginner set of watercolor paints. This is the exact set I am using in the video above to create this painting. I highly recommend this product to you if you are looking for a beginner set of paints.

Step 1:

Grab your round brush and mix Cobalt Blue paint and Payen’s Gray paint to make a light gray-blue mixture.

Use the gray-blue paint mixture to draw out the base of the pumpkin. Depending on how fast your paper dries it’s ok to use clean water to prewet your pumpkin area to keep your pumpkin from drying before you are done painting it in.

It’s ok if your pumpkin looks light, we are going to come back and add more color later.

Let this layer completely dry before moving on to step 2.

Step 2:

Now we are going to add the stem to the top of our pumpkin.

Use your size 3 round brush and dip it into your burnt umber paint, then using your paintbrush sketch out the outline of your pumpkin stem and fill it in. You will want this stem to be short and straight.

Let this section completely dry before moving on to the next step.

Step 3:

Let’s add some leaves to our pumpkin to give it a little more interest!

We are going to mix an olive-toned green. Start by mixing sage green & permanent rose together. You will want to use more green than pink to get the right color. Play around with the mixture until you are happy with the color you’ve created.

Now that we have the right color mixed, start by painting in a leaf halfway in front of the stem toward the right side. Create a heart shape leaf without dipping the shape inward at the top.

While our first leaf is still wet we can go ahead and paint the second leaf behind it. The trick is to leave a very small amount of white space between the two leaves.

Paint the second leaf using the same shape but sideways. Use the picture below as a guide.

Step 4:

This next step is fun, but it can be tricky if you’ve never done it before. The technique used to complete our stem is called the dry brush technique. Check out the full video tutorial where I demonstrate how this technique works.

Here is the time stamp, 11:00 minutes, just in case you don’t want to watch the entire video.

Using a very dark mixture of burnt umber, begin painting in the stem with the dry brush technique moving sideways not vertically. This really gives the stem just enough texture it was missing!

Step 5:

Now let’s add a little bit more color and dimension to our pumpkin.

Mix a thick and darker mixture of Cobalt Blue and Payne’s Gray.

Next, using your large round brush (size 6), fill in the entire pumpkin with clean water.

Once your pumpkin is wet, take your size 3 round brush and tap in the dark paint mixture randomly along the sides and base of your pumpkin to give the appearance of shadows.

Tap in darker paint using curved lines down the center sides of the pumpkin to make it looked curved.

You may also be interested in, How to Paint a Fall Leaf.

Step 6:

Let’s add our second pumpkin to this painting. We are going to copy the same steps that we did in step one.

We are going to use a light wash of burnt sienna and paint the base of our second pumpkin.

This pumpkin is going to be thinner and taller than the first pumpkin we painted.

Start painting above the middle of the first pumpkin. We want this pumpkin to appear to be behind the first one. The key is to leave a small amount of white space between the two pumpkins. You do not want the two to touch unless you want them to bleed together.

Wait for this layer to completely dry.

Step 7:

Let’s add our stem to our orange pumpkin.

Grab your size 3 round brush, and dip it into the dark mixture of burnt umber. Use this color to sketch out the stem. This stem is going to curve slightly to the left side.

Use the picture below as a guide.

Step 8:

We are going to add some dry brush techniques to this pumpkin stem as well.

We are going to use a wash of Payne’s Gray to add dry brush techniques to both pumpkin stems.

The orange pumpkin should have a dry brush technique going in a vertical motion, whereas the blue pumpkin should have a dry brush technique going in a horizontal motion.

Step 9:

We are going to add some darker paint to our orange pumpkin. Repeat the same step as we did before with the blue pumpkin.

Fill your orange pumpkin with clean water, then begin tapping in a dark mixture of burnt sienna to the edges, certain areas in the middle, and the bottom of the pumpkin. This will add some nice shadows to the pumpkin.

Wait for this layer to completely dry.

Step 10:

Now let’s add our background to finish off our painting!

Use your size 6 round brush to fill in the entire white area of your paper with clean water.

Once you have a nice shine of water over your entire paper, begin adding streaks of Payne’s gray and yellow ochre.

The top half of the paper should be painted vertically.

The bottom half should be painted horizontally. Use more Payne’s gray underneath the pumpkins to really add a natural shadow.

Full Video Tutorial

I hope you enjoyed painting these fun and easy watercolor pumpkins with me!

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