Halloween Pumpkins

Step 1 – The inevitable ‘New Document’
Create a New Document in Illustrator.
For the purpose of this tutorial, I am working in my usual Illustrator 210mm by 210mm.

Step 2 – Import Sketch(es) and Template Layer
For this tutorial, I have imported two sketches which will act as a guide for the Pumpkin and also the face I will be giving it. You may have several faces sketched out and so be importing more than two files.

Once the sketches are in, double click on the parent layer and set Layer Options to ‘Template’. You can also alter how much you would like to fade the sketch by.

Step 3 – Pumpkin Body
Create a new layer above the template and with the Pen Tool (T), begin tracing around the entire outline of the Pumpkin. So I can see what I’m doing, I set the Pen Tool only to display paths, as later I will play with colour.

Once you complete your trace, you should have something that looks like this.

Step 4 – Pumpkin Segments
I’m not sure of the anatomy of a Pumpkin (feel free to correct me in comments) but next we create a new layer and begin marking out the segments of the Pumpkin. Overlap the body slightly to make sure the paths meet the edges; we will crop these next.

With this finished, you can apply some colour to the paths.

Step 5 – Crop
Make a copy of the body layer and order it above the segments you’ve just created. Selecting these layers together, crop everything using the Pathfinder. If you are not seeing this panel, you can open it in Windows > Pathfinder or (Shift + Ctrl + 9).

As you can see, this will cut away the excess paths.

Step 6 – The Stem
Create a new layer and begin outlining the pumpkin stem as we had done earlier with the body. It is useful to switch the body On / Off to help aligning the stem to the segments.

I also took a moment after completing the trace to further adjust some of the shadows, as these will give definition to the segments of the pumpkin.

Step 7 – Stem Light & Shadow
Again with the Pen Tool (T), draw two paths over the Pumpkin stem which will create some shadow and depth to an otherwise flat object. As in Step 4, remove any excess paths by duplicating the stem layer and cropping it with the Pathfinder.

Next, draw a path over the tip of the stem. I decided to leave a little space at the edge to give some outline and definition for on the light background – this will not be so strong on the darker background I intend to have it on.

To create the light, I chose to use the Mesh Tool (U), however the Gradient Tool (G) would work equally well and it’s down to personal preference which you use.

Step 8 – Pumpkin Highlights
In another new layer, create a path over the top half of one of the segments. This layer group is ordered under the segments layer, although there should be no overlapping in this case anyway.

Using the Gradient Tool (T), drag from midway near the bottom of the path up to the top of the stem. Use the Pumpkins body as the first colour, fading into a slightly lighter shade.

TIP: before starting a project, I create a new set of swatches and fill it with sampled colours. This can either be from an example piece of work or as I do more often, from a photograph I’ve taken or sourced. For me, this makes rendering and creating gradients much simpler.

Once you are done, you should have a Pumpkin looking a little more like this.

Step 9 – Pumpkin Shadow
Create a new layer again under the segments and draw a path along the lower half of the Pumpkin. To give additional dimension, curve downward on each of the segments.

Once you’re happy with this, fill it again with a gradient from the body colour but this time to a slightly darker shade.

This now gives you the base for creating an array of faces on top; whether they are to be evil, cheeky or funny Halloween Pumpkins.

Step 10 – A Halloween Pumpkin Grin
With a slightly darker colour than the segment lines, outline your Pumpkins eyes and then with a new path over this and using a bright fiery yellow, draw the glowing eyes.

Follow these steps for any feature you want to give your Pumpkin; eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, gunshot wound, etc. If you would like to give an extra glowing effect in the openings, experiment using a Radial Gradient.

And there you have it; a Halloween Pumpkin!

Some Additional Ideas

1. Create a little vine or leaf coming from the stem.
2. Add extra verticle lines in the segments to create texture.

Thank you for reading and have a Happy Halloween!
Alex | @ZenElements