Painting a Lumpy Bumpy Gourd

It is the time of year when all the gourds come out in the supermarkets. The crazy shapes and color combinations are a great challenge for the botanical artist. In celebration of Halloween I painted a pumpkin that had lots of "warts" on it. One of the things that needs to be considered is the over all form which is a sphere and then the forms within the forms.  I painted this one in watercolor and started with a wet on wet wash of brilliant yellow so that the gourd would have a golden glow.

Here are 3 pumpkins that I did in graphite. The first pumpkin was very smooth and  oval, the second one was more compressed with sections and the third one was short, squat and had deeper undulations. I also did an armature drawing of each to show how the surface contour changes as the form changes. With a gourd that has the grooves as well as the lumps it is important to remember that each one of them has a surface contour and a juxtaposition to the light source.

This painting is available for purchase in my Etsy Shop: BugsBeastsBotanicals