Pumpkin Painting

Theme: Halloween, Autumn, Transformation
Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes

Why?

A fun Halloween or Autumn Activity that allows you to explore your creativity that will last much longer then craving pumpkins!

"Day of the Dead Pumpkin" by Sinthia Cousineau

Objectives

Transform an ordinary pumpkin into a unique character,
Create a drawing of a pumpkin design on a 2D surface and transform it to a painting on a 3D surface (pumpkin).
Explore painting on non-traditional surfaces.
Practice drawing and painting techniques.

Materials

Fast Drying Acrylic Paint (better quality then dollar store paint ideally
Paint Brushes of various sizes
Newspaper or plastic cloth to protect the tables
Rag (to clean tables)
Plastic palettes
White Paper and pencil, with coloring pencils or markers
Jar of water for each table to clean brushes
1 small pumpkin for each student (2-3 extra ones)
Folder of Images of Transformed Pumpkins

Note: you can ask students to bring their own pumpkins if they want larger ones, or more pumpkins to paint, but avoid very large pumpkins cause it is too time consuming to paint.

Classroom Preperation

Painting Stations

Project Steps

Step 1: Brainstorming an Idea (15 minutes)

Students will look at the folder of images of painted pumpkins to gain inspiration.
They will then draw a simple sketch of how they which to paint their pumpkin and incorporate colors in the drawing.

Step 2: Paint your Pumpkin (45 minutes)

Popular Themes

Spider webs
Skulls
Day of the Dead
Cats
Zombie

Student Artwork (Age 8-12)

Clean-up & Conclusion: Place all your pumpkins on the table to dry, and clean-up the materials (10 mins)

Note: Once dry, if time allows add mod-podge to help preserve the colors of the paint and give the pumpkin a shiny ap[appearance. This can be done in the beginning of the next session.