Learn How to Draw a Jack o Lantern
Learning how to draw a jack o lantern is super easy, an even more fun. You’ll learn the steps to do a cute jack o lantern drawing. Or, a scary jack o lantern drawing if you like that better.
After you’ve learned some basic techniques for drawing a jack o lantern, you’ll be able to experiment and try new ideas for how to draw your own. From there the sky is the limit. There are tons of different ways to make the faces, or the overall shape of your jack o lantern.
How Do You Make a Creepy Jack o Lantern?
Learning how to make a creepy jack o lantern is very similar to making a non scary jack o lantern. You can make your drawings more, or less, creepy by changing the face and the shape of your pumpkin.
Whether you want to draw a jack o lantern that is creepy or fun, you’ll learn everything you need to draw either one. And we’ll also cover how to develop your own drawing style as well.
Let’s learn about where jack o lanterns came from.
History of Jack O Lanterns
Jack o lanterns have been around for centuries. They originated from an Irish myth about a man called Stingy Jack, who invited the devil to come drink with him. The townsfolk would hollow out and carve turnips, potatoes, or beets to ward off evil spirits.
These carvings would then be placed in front of the houses as a form of protection from those evil spirits.
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How to Draw a Jack o Lantern Step by Step
A couple of weeks ago we learned how to draw a pumpkin by using a circle as our guide. You will draw a jack o lantern in a very similar way. Real pumpkins grow in various shapes and sizes so don’t feel like you have to make a perfect circle.
Once again, we begin our drawing with a circle. Most objects can be broken down into basic shapes, as discussed in How to use shapes to draw.
Next, draw in where your stem will be. Do this by making a curved line, sort of like a half circle or smiley face.
Draw your stem coming out of the curved line. Don’t be afraid to make your stem a little different. The stem can help add character to your jack o lantern.
How to Draw a Jack o Lantern Face
Now comes the fun part. You need to decide what type of jack o lantern you will be drawing. They don’t always have to be scary looking. You could make yours cute and cuddly if you wanted to.
I will typically start by drawing in the nose first. This gives me a central location to draw around. You can place your nose roughly in the center of your face, or you can move it up or down to change the look of your jack o lantern.
The next thing you will do is draw the eyes. Drawing the eyes is an important part of creating your jack o lantern. Eyes are very expressive and will help illustrate the personality of your drawing.
Finish your face by drawing the mouth. Again, the mouth will help show the personality of your jack o lantern. If you draw a mouth with sharp, pointed teeth, it isn’t going to end up looking very cute. Likewise, if you want your face to look scary, then you don’t want to draw in a big happy grin for your mouth either.
What kind of face you draw on your jack o lantern is only limited by your imagination. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things. Drawing should be fun and relaxing. So relax and have fun with drawing your jack o lantern.
3D Jack o Lantern Face
After you have your face all drawn out and are happy with how it looks, it’s time to start adding in some extra little details. All of the little extras will help improve the look of your final drawing. It’s surprising how much of a difference a few little details will make.
One of the things you will want to do is add in lines to show the thickness of the carvings. This will help create the illusion of depth in your drawing. Begin by drawing an angled line from the corner of your eyes, nose, and mouth. And then draw a line for the side and bottom coming from that line.
You’ll also want to add in the ribs of your pumpkin. This will make your drawing look more realistic, and make it look more like a jack o lantern instead of a face drawn on a ball. Add in some details on your stem as well. For more information on drawing the ribs, take a look at how to draw a pumpkin.
Connect each of your ribs at the top and the bottom with a curved line. This will help your drawing look more like a pumpkin. And make sure you use an eraser to clean up your lines as you go.
I used the Tombow Mono Zero eraser, which I received as part of the SketchBox January 2019 (Premium) shipment. I love this eraser and I wouldn’t have ever known about it had it not been included in that box.
Finish up your jack o lantern drawing by adding shading and shadows to it. Shade each of your ribs to help them look rounded. You can also fill in the openings for the eyes, nose, and mouth.
Scary Jack o Lantern Drawing
There are an endless number of styles and looks to your drawings. You can change the shape of your pumpkin, the placement of the eyes, and many other variations. Here are a few examples of different styles of faces.
Jack o Lantern Outline
But what if you want to add some color your jack o lantern drawing? The next step after drawing your rough sketch is to trace over your pencil lines with a thin black marker. I usually use PITT Artist Pens for this, but there are lots of other choices as well.
You can make your outline thick, thin, or a combination of the two. How you like your outlines to look is determined by your artistic style. Practicing and trying new things will help you develop your own style.
Jack o Lantern Drawing Colored with Markers
Colored pencils and markers both work really well for adding color to your drawings. But I prefer to use markers. I love how bright and colorful they look. Today, I’ll be using Bic markers for the jack o lantern drawing.
The key to using markers for coloring your artwork is to use two or three colors for each section of your drawing. For example, for the stem I used green and a darker green.
Or for the jack o lantern itself I used yellow, orange, and a yellow-orange. To blend the colors together, work with them while the ink is still wet. And use the lighter color to blend in the darker colors and fade them together.
You can use a White Gelly Roll pen to add highlights and any other areas where you need white.
Jack o Lantern Drawing Challenge
Now that you know how to a draw jack o lantern, what’s next? My challenge to you is to draw 7 jack o lanterns in the next 7 days. Try drawing them funny, scary, creepy, happy, or cute. Have fun and try something different.
Doing this type of challenge will help you improve your drawing skills, creativity, and develop you artistic style. If you want to save some time, try drawing on artist trading cards.
Grab our FREE Guide to help you get started with your challenge.
How to Draw a Jack O Lantern – Step by Step Art Tutorial
Doing a jack o lantern drawing can be a lot of fun and there’s an endless number of ways to do your drawings. You can draw a completely different jack o lantern by changing the shape of the pumpkin. Or you can change the face. Have fun and keep creating.
