Do you have any tips or tricks for drawing pumpkin heads? Every time I try drawing mine things just come out really wonky looking, even when using reference images.
Okay! Well, I’d be glad to help out some of my fellow pumpkineers. So I hope I can explain this well.
At it’s most basic the thing you need to keep in mind is that you have to treat a pumpkin head more like a head and less like a pumpkin when sketching if that makes sense.
When I draw a pumpkin-headed person it usually goes like this. I’ll quickly sketch up Dollie as an example (Forgive me if it’s a little scribbly)
1. Sketch the pose/body out first. This is important because a good Pumpkin head is all about how you make the proportions compared to the rest of the body. Also for drawing in general, knowing how you want the body to look will give you a better idea of how you want the head to be placed.
2. Draw where you’d normally put the head.
3. Make it a little wider.
4. Now the thing about a pumpkin head is that you can use actual parts of the pumpkin to cheat. Namely the little grooves on them. You can use the line you’d normally use as a place to show where the nose and eyes go as a line on the pumpkin.
You don’t always HAVE to do this but it is helpful if you really struggle with placing the nose and eyes on your pumpkin-headed character.
5. Now that you have this line and the head set up you can start adding in the features like so.
6. And that’s usually how I do it.
Granted, sometimes I just draw a circle for the head and call it a day but I’ve drawn Pumpkin heads so much that personally I can afford to skip a few steps if needed.
How you decide to design the head can play a big roll in how your pumpkin character is perceived. Everyone likes to stylize them differently.
Sometimes people like to add more layers to the pumpkin to show that it’s facial features were cut into them, giving them a more 3D/Realistic feel. While others will go for a more cartoony approach and simplify their faces. Both can give off a completely different feel for your character based on which style is chosen.
I’ll use two of my own characters, Clickidy-Clack and Gabby, as an example of how this works
As you can see they are both very lanky, tall, and scarecrow-like.
However, Clickidy is perceived as unnerving and imposing because of how he’s drawn drawn, how he’s dressed, and how his features were shown to be carved into him. He is crooked, raggedy, and jagged.
Contrastly, Gabby’s features are cartoony-er, softer, bigger, and cuter. She’s made to be perceived as a very friendly, goofy, and hardworking character. Despite both being scarecrows, Clickidy and Gabby are two very different characters and you can tell this because of how those features were stylized. Also be sure to look at how other people and shows draw their pumpkin characters. There’s been a lot of interpretations of the Jack O’Lantern mythos and other pumpkin-headed characters throughout the years. So there’s a lot of places to look for references and inspiration. Here’s a few examples from my own Pumpkin Head Research Folder:
[From left to right: Jacko (Chalkzone), Jack O’Lantern (Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy), Squashini (Kirby’s Epic Yarn), Jack O’Lantern (Marvel Comics), Samhain (The Real Ghostbusters), Jack O’Lantern (Title Character from a Rakin Bass Short), Mr. Pumpkin (Trickster Online), Jack Pumpkinhead (The Oz series), Feathertop (Title Character of a Nathaniel Hawthorne short story)]And these are only a few that I know of, there’s hundreds more if you go searching.
A great example is Over the Garden Wall’s pumpkin folk, which have a lot of variation between them. Never feel like you have to limit yourself to drawing a roundish head, because a lot of pumpkins aren’t round. (Pumpkins also come in colors besides the classic orange, there are even Green and White pumpkins!)
You can make a lot of unique designs by taking everything from the shape, to the vines, to the leaves, take all of it to your advantage! So never be afraid to think outside the box!
That’s all I really have to say, I hope you found this helpful, Anon!
pixelskylines
germansingergirl
theartofmadeline
baratheonpilled
andulkaphoto
yousharknotpass
kaledo-art