In this tutorial, we are going to draw the famous icon of Halloween, the pumpkin with scary face, Jack O’ Lantern. We will start drawing its basic shape with help from Pen tool and continue with drawing manually using the old reliable Brush tool.
Final Result Preview
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Resource Used In This Tutorial
We are going to use two textures in this tutorial:
You can simply search for free textures if you don’t want to use these textures. Deviantart’s design resource section is a good place to start.
Step 1
Make new canvas for our drawing by clicking File > New. Set its size to 2500 px × 2000 px. I always prefer to start with bigger canvas so we can focus on the details easier and then resize it to smaller size in the end. We will start by drawing basic shape of a pumpkin using Pen Tool. Make sure you have select Shape in the Option Bar. For its color, use #f88207.
Step 2
The shape color is flat. We need to add a bit of shadow to simulate lighting. Double click on the layer and then select Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay. For its setting check out following screenshot. For lighting angle, we use about -138 degree to put the light source in top right corner.
This is the result.
Step 3
Use Pen tool to draw some line curves on the pumpkin. They don’t have to fit inside the pumpkin. These line curves have to be in Path format, not Shape. You need to make new path inside Paths panel before drawing these line curves.
Step 4
Keep drawing until you have similar line curves.
This is the line curves with all their anchor points.
Step 5
Make new layer and then activate Brush tool. Set foreground color to #b95e00. Right click to select appropriate brush size. Make few strokes to check out the results. If you are satisfied with the strokes, hit Ctrl + A and then Delete to erase them.
Step 6
Right click on the line curves path and then select Stroke Path. For the tool, select Brush and then click OK.
Step 7
Click Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Apply enough radius until the lines soften.
Step 8
As you can see, our lines is going outside the pumpkin. We don’t need to erase those unneeded lines. We’ll just inside a masked goup layer. Make new group layer and then Ctrl-click pumpkin’s main shape to make new selection based on its shape. Click Add new layer mask icon to add layer mask into the group layer.
Step 9
Place the lines layer inside the group layer. The lines outside the pumpkin should be hidden.
Step 10
Add layer mask into the lines layer. Paint black with black to remove some of the lines.
Step 11
We have just added dark line on the pumpkin surface. Now, we want to add lighter lines for highlight. Make new layer. Set brush color to #ff9a37. Just as we have done earlier, activate Brush tool and select bigger brush. Experiment with its brush size. Once you are happy with it, delete all the lines. Make sure the layer is empty.
Step 12
Right click the line curves path and select Stroke Path. Select Brush for its tool.
Step 13
Apply Gaussian Blur filter to soften it.
So far, this is the result.
Step 14
The lines we made using Pen tool is too smooth and unnatural. We want to add imperfection into it. Click Filter > Liquify. Use available tool to modify the lines.
Step 15
Try to experiment using other available tool in Liquify.
This is the result after applying Liquify.
Step 16
Add layer mask and then hide some of the lines by painting them with black.
Step 17
Repeat same step, but this time with darker color (#b94000) and thicker Brush tool.
Step 18
Add layer mask and then paint with black to hide some of them.
Step 19
Add another lines, this time much darker.
Step 20
Apply Gaussian Blur filter to soften it and then hide some of them.
Step 21
Add new layer. Paint shadow with color #e05f01 on lower left side of the pumpkin.
So far, this is our pumpkin.
Step 22
Add new layer and on top of the pumpkin paint highlight using Brush tool with color #ffc13d. If you feel the highlight is too strong, you can reduce its Opacity.
Step 23
Paint shadows on the pumpkin segmen. Use #a74001 for its color. Make sure you use soft edge brush (0% Hardness).
Step 24
Right click and then select Round Fan Stiff Bristles. This type of brush gives you natural stroke, similar to a real brush with rough tip.
Paint on the pumpkin segmen to add 3 dimensional effect on its surface.
Step 25
Add another thick line curves with color #aa4a00.
Step 26
Add layer mask and then hide some of the line curves.
Step 27
Make new layer and then add another thicker line curves with color #b24f0b. Activate Move tool and then hit right arrow a few times to move it and adding 3 dimentional effect. Add layer mask to the line curves layer and hide some of them.
So far, this is the result we have.
Step 28
We still need to add another highlight into the pumpkin to turn it into a realistically 3D shape. Activate Brush tool and then right to select Dry Brush tip.
Step 29
Make new layer and then paint highlight with color #f7b279 on the pumpkin.
Step 30
Once you’ve had enough highlight on the pumpkin, soften it by applying Gaussian Blur filter.
Step 31
Paint highlight on top of the pumpkin to make it brighter. Use #f9c68b for its color and lower Brush opacity to keep the result subtle. Apply Gaussian Blur into the layer to soften it.
Step 32
Change its layer blend mode to Overlay and then reduce its Opacity to 50%.
Step 33: Adding Shadow
Add new layer and then paint shadow with color #652501 on bottom of the pumpkin. We don’t want to use pure black since the light colored pumpkin will always cast color onto the shadow. Make sure to use soft tip for your Brush tool.
Step 34
Add another layer of shadow this time with bigger brush but lower Opacity.
Step 35
Add new layer and place it behind the pumpkin. Make elliptical selection using Elliptical Marquee tool.
Step 36
Remove selection by applying Deselect (Ctrl + D). Apply Gaussian Blur filter to soften the shadow.
Step 37
Reduce the layer opacity to keep the shadow subtle.
Step 38
Apply another shadow, this time use bigger brush but with lower Opacity.
Step 39
Keep adding more shadows under the pumpkin.
Step 40
Let’s add flower stalk. Start by drawing its basic shape using Pen tool. You can use any color, it doesn’t matter.
Step 41
Apply Inner Shadow to make it darker.
Step 42
Draw another with darker color for its upper shape.
Step 43
Add new layer on top and then convert it to Clipping Mask. From now on, everything you draw here is going to be inside the layer underneath it.
Step 44
Paint darker shadow on its edges.
Step 45
Grab wood texture. Place it right above the main stem shape. Resize it until you get the best part of the texture on the main stem shape.
Step 46
Convert it to Clipping Mask by clicking Ctrl + Alt + G. The wood texture will goes inside the stem.
Step 47
You can always re-transform the wood texture to make it fit into the stem shape. Do this by clicking Ctrl + T. Try right click and select Warp for more advanced transformation.
Step 48
Add new layer on top of the stem and covert it to Clipping Mask. Paint white to add highlight onto the stem.
Step 49
Change its blend mode ot Overlay.
Step 50
Add another layer and then paint shadow on lower part of the stem. Repeat this process until we have realistic stem shape.
So far, this is what we have.
Step 51
Add new layer and then draw stem’s shadow on the pumpkin. Use soft brush and black for the color.
Step 52: Adding Face
We have done drawing the pumpkin. Next, we want to draw face on the pumpkin’s surface. Use Pen tool to draw face shape on the pumpkin. Set its color to #8d3a0e with no stroke color.
Step 53
Apply Gradient Overlay to add lighting into it.
Step 54
Make new layer above the face and then convert it to Clipping Mask. Paint dark shadow (#562308) inside the face.
Step 55
Duplicate the face shape and place it on top of the original face. Change its color to lighter yellow (#562308).
Step 56
Add anchor points at selected places shown in following animation using Pen tool. Convert the points into sharp point using Convert Point tool and then move their position until we have inner part of the pumpkin face.
Repeat these steps to the other part o the face.
Step 57
Add new layer and then convert it to Clipping Mask (Ctrl + Alt + G). Paint shadow and highlight on the face. For highlight using lighter yellow and for the shadow use darker yellow. Make sure to use low Opacity brush.
Step 58
This is the result you want to have.
Step 59
Ctrl-click the shape layer. Click Edit > Stroke and set its width to 2 px with color #2c1205.
Step 60
Hit Ctrl + D to remove selection. Apply Gaussian Blur filter to soften it.
Step 61
Add layer mask and then hide some of the blurry lines by painting it with black.
Step 62
For its teeth, you want to make to make them appear sharper. To do this, you need to make new layer and then select some segment of the tooth using Polygonal Lasso tool. Paint highlight and shadow using low Opacity Brush tool.
Step 63
Keep repeating the process until we have this for its result.
Step 64
Make new layer. Ctrl-click the face and then click Edit > Stroke. This time apply white stroke.
Step 65
Soften them using Gaussian Blur filter and then add layer mask. Hide some segments of the strokes.
Step 66: Adding Texture
We want to add texture into the surface to make it appears more realistic. Ctrl-click the main pumpkin shape. Make new layer.
Step 67
Fill selection with black. Make sure that this black cover is under the stem.
Step 68
Click Filter > Noise > Add Noise.
Step 69
Change its blend mode layer to Overlay and reduce layer’s opacity to 10%.
Step 70
I also found that paper texture works nice on the pumpkin surface. Grab paper texture and paste it above the pumpkin. Ctrl-click the pumpkin main shape and then add layer mask to hide unneeded part of the texture.
Step 71
Change its blend mode to Multiply and reduce the layer’s opacity.
Step 72: Adding Background
Finally, we’re almost at last step of this tutorial. Fill background with color #ae4e02.
Step 73
Add new layer above background and then select about 20% bottom of the canvas using Rectangular Marquee tool. Activate Gradient tool and fill selection with a gradient from #a99a95 to #441e11. Remove selection (Ctrl + D) and then erase top of the gradient to blend it with the background. Change layer’s blend mode to Overlay.
Step 74
Paint cast light from the pumpkin onto the floor. Use #d27113 for its color. Make sure you paint this in new layer. This way, you can easily reduce its opacity to to keep it subtle.
Final Result
And this is the final result. As you can see, here we combine manual painting with Gaussian Blur filter and path stroke. At first, it seems a bit odd to draw this way. But, that’s just how I do it. I hope you enjoy this tutorial and learn new technique.
