Pumpkin Coloring with Prismacolors

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*Something happened to my promised post and so it is getting published much later in the day than scheduled. Hope you enjoy*

This is my second post today demonstrating how I colored the pumpkin on the treat gift card from this post earlier today.

 

I'll let you all know that for the photos I started out with 6 images. That means you'll see certain colors magically grow and shrink from one picture to another. It shouldn't change how someone would color a pumpkin though, I just wanted to honest and clear about the photos.

 

When I color I first use the lightest color, something that I learned during classes in watercolor and colored pencils at college. Some people who use these markers and other brands start with the darkest color. I'm not sure that it matters, just be quick to get them blended so you won't have lines.

Take a look at a photo or the real life object, in this case a pumpkin, to get an idea of the light areas and dark areas. This is figuring out the light source, which way the light is hitting the image and from what direction and where the object starts to make it's own shaded areas. If you were to watch a sun dial for a day, it would be obvious which way the sun was hitting the dial to create its shadow. A pumpkin is a little more difficult with it's indented ribs. Look at the shadows on both side of the ribs. Which one is darker or lighter? These are questions, and more, to ask every time you decide to color to show shape of an object.

 

Let's get started! Grab a pumpkin stamp or digital download and walk along with me through my steps.

Step One: Color the highlight area. Color more than the area you see because you'll want to blend back to the original area

 

 

Step Two: Next begin the progression from light to dark. This doesn't have to be exactly like the source, just use the source as a reference. If you had the exact same shape of image on your paper as the source it would be easy to copy, we don't so we just use it as a guide.

 

 

Step Three: Another progression to the shadows or darker areas of the pumpkin.

 

 

Step Four: This step we are starting the lines for the ribs. I jumped back to my first color and blended in and filled white spots. Not too much, but enough to hide some of the hard lines between colors.

 

 

Step Five: This color is rounding out the base of the pumpkin from our third step and the fourth step.

 

 

Step Six: The last color is to look for areas of shadows and to darken the ribs of the pumpkin. Not much is needed here.

 

If you don't have 6 orange-y colors to use, add some of your reds that are closer to the dark oranges. It's also possible to use three colors and use one color for two steps.

3-color Steps:

• Color 1: Color in step 1 and 2 all at once and with a very light and quick stroke. Try not to color over those areas more than once at this point. Let dry for a few seconds. Color only the step 2 color area again.
• Color 2: Color in step 3 and 4. Remember light and quick strokes. Let dry for a few seconds. Color in step 4 again but omit coloring in with the color one until the very end.
• Color 3: Color in step 5. Let dry for a few seconds. Color in Step 6. Now go back with color 1 and fill in the white spaces that you might have missed, but with as little blended over the whole area of the pumpkin. 

 

Finished image. After the rest of the image was colored I went back and made a gray shadow on one of the pumpkin's vine on your right side.

Hope you have a chance to try this out. Practice is on a hand drawn circle or an extra image. Have fun!

Details:

Stamps: Witchy Chloe from InStyle Stamps

Paper: Neenah Solar White Smooth

Ink: LaserJet, Prismacolors (names shown in images)

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