How to Do a Watercolor of a Gnome with Pumpkins

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Garden gnomes are cheerful little characters and can be purchased wearing clothing appropriate to every season of the year. Often, they are placed outdoors, but they add a touch of whimsy to any room, posing on a windowsill. These larger-than-life characters look right at home as the centerpiece of a cozy fall watercolor scene.

Steps

Acquiring Inspiration

Learn how to draw gnomes. Basic gnomes, regardless of clothing or props, share these main components: Big hats come down to cover the eyes and show off a big, round nose. Most gnomes wear jaunty little jackets in bright colors, some with patches. Big, round, black or dark-colored shoes or boots show whether the pose is standing or sitting.

Check out various styles of mustaches, beards, coats and footwear. You can practice sketching and kitting out various gnomes with whichever accessories you like.

Nudge your imagination by researching gnomes on the Internet. Study the various pictures for ideas. The variety is endless! If you are lucky, you may already own a gnome figurine.

Study a pumpkin field with growing pumpkins on the vine. Their shapes are round or oval. Sections radiate from the stem at the top and show the curved shape of the pumpkin.

Sketching the Scene

Draw a gnome. Use a piece of 9" x 12" watercolor paper. Make the gnome figure larger than life to leave room to add lots of details.

Draw pumpkins around the gnome— loads of pumpkins. Remember the inspiration you studied earlier—their shapes are round or oval. Pencil in sections radiating from the stem at the top. These will accentuate the curved shape of the pumpkin.

Show a sunflower bloom or two. The flowers can be growing amidst and behind your pumpkins to add a splash of yellow to the scene.

Study pictures of old farm wagons. They are commonly seen in pumpkin fields and can be sketched in the background of your painting, behind the pumpkins.

Ink the sketch. Use a fine-line Sharpie or similar indelible black marker to go over the pencil lines you have drawn.

Painting the Scene

Paint the scene. Start with yellow where it is needed.

Add orange where needed.

Put in some greens.

Mix dark gray watercolor and paint in shadows. In the picture, the right side has been painted with shadows, but not the left side. Study the difference shadows make.