Finger Painting On A Pumpkin

The following is a post from contributing writer Rob

Do you already have your pumpkins picked out? Are your kids begging to carve them already? Finger painting on a pumpkin is a perfect alternative to early decorating. If you’re like our family we love getting pumpkins early, but the kids can’t wait to dig into them. So we decided this year to paint them! The pumpkins get the best of both worlds, scary faces and they survive until the candy gathering night.

Materials

• Finger paints (we used acrylics)
• A bowl or plate to put the paint on
• Pumpkins
• Fingers

Finger Painting On A Pumpkin Step By Step

1. Pick your pumpkins! We picked smaller sized pumpkins to keep the activity small, but feel free to pick big ones.
2. Protect your table from finger paints. We have an art table that we don’t mind getting paint on, but newspaper or an old plastic table cloth work great.
3. Poor a small amount of paint on a plate or bowl. I’ve found that if you only make a small amount available, the kids tend to be more in control. Also, start with just black.
4. Then begin painting by starting with the pumpkin’s eyes. Ask your kids if they’re going to make a scary, mad, happy, or sad pumpkin.
5. Next paint the nose. Give them examples of what shapes they could use for a nose.
6. Then paint the pumpkin’s mouth.
7. After completing their faces with black, you can let them dry.
8. Then come back and use different colors for more details (maybe eyes, teeth, blood, or a cute bow). Let them use their imagination!

If you’d like to see how we did it, watch the short video below!

Bonus Pumpkin Painting Ideas

If you’re feeling very adventurous here’s a few more pumpkin painting ideas.

• Paint the entire pumpkin white, then use black for his face. Now you have a ghost pumpkin!
• How about a Frankenstein pumpkin? Paint the whole pumpkin green with black hair.
• Maybe a black cat? Yep, you guessed it…paint the whole pumpkin black and use yellow for his eyes.

When painting the entire pumpkin, use one hand to hold the stem. Paint only one half of the pumpkin, then let dry. Come back later, and paint the other half.

Oh, and by the way remember to pick a pumpkin for yourself! What’s stoping you from doing a little finger painting too?

Rob and his kids can be found at Art for Kids!

They love art, and love sharing it with others. To them, doing art together is the best part of every day.