Halloween!!

The annual holiday celebration of Halloween is coming in the end of October and we decided to help you guys create your own graphics and pumpkins with this exclusive tutorial! Follow the steps and images to accomplish a very nice vectorial pumpkin that you can use for all kinds of Halloween celebration graphics, Enjoy!

The Tutorial

Required:

For this tutorial you will need to have a minimum set of skills using the pen tool & Illustrator.

Steps:

1. Being this an Illustrator Tutorial, let’s start by opening it up and creating a new document. Select the Pen Tool and draw a shape like the one in the image.

2. Using the Gradient Tool, fill your shape with a linear gradient like illustrated. The color codes used are: RGB: 255 199 0 (lighter orange) & 222 91 0 (darker one).

3. Select your shape, duplicate it and reflect placing it in a way to create the lungs style on the left side of the picture. Then, duplicate the layer again to fill in the middle. Try to create a nice 3 ovals top.

4. Draw a new shape like shown and fill it with a darker orange gradient.

5. Place the new shape on the left like shown in the picture.

6. Duplicate your last crated shape and place it on top of the last one like shown.

7. Create a new oval shape to fill in the center of the pumpkin and give it a gradient similar to the one shown…you can pretty much play a bit with it until you are satisfied.

8. Place the last created shape in the center so that your last 3 shapes look like this:

9. Create 2 new shapes to do the right side of the pumpkin or just duplicate the 2 left ones and reflect. Attention to the filling gradients as the angle needs to be different like shown below.

10. Your pumpkin should have it’s form now and look something like this, although you can literally create a whole lot of different shapes to illustrate a pumpkin.

11. Time to make it more 3D and Realistic adding some shadow effects. With the Pen Tool create a shape like shown filling it with a dark gradient. I always used the colors mentioned in the beginning but with different angles and effects to make it darker or lighter. Place it between the pumpkin parts.

12. Keep creating more shapes in different ways to add a cool effect and place them between the pumpkin form shapes like shown below.

13. Do the same on the right side using different shapes like you see in the pictures.

14. Ok, now let’s create thinner, darker shapes to make the 3D effect come out. Place them between the pumpkin form shapes like shown using again slightly different shapes.

15. Repeat on the right side to achieve a similar effect.

16. Now, let’s do the pumpkin top! Using the Pen Tool draw an easy shape like the one shown using the color: RGB: 124 63 0 (brown). And place it between the front and back forms of the pumpkin.

17. Again with the Pen Tool Draw an oval to the create the top circle and fill it with a gradient using the following colors: RGB 124 63 0 (darker brown) & 187 114 0 (lighter brown).

18. So the Pumpkin is pretty much done, let’s add the real Halloween part: it’s face!! Let’s start drawing the eyes. Draw a quarter of a circle with the Pen Tool and fill it with a gradient using – RGB: 255 255 127 (light yellow) & 255 199 0 (darker yellow).

19. Like previously on the pumpkin, let’s create a shadow effect. Draw using the Pen Tool a shape like shown below and fill it with a gradient using the colors: 255 157 (darker yellow) & 255 227 0 (lighter yellow). Place it inside the previously created shape like in the picture below.

20. Duplicate and reflect the shape created and you have both eyes! Place them in the pumpkin where you think it fits best, or follow our example.

21. Now drawing the mouth. Using the Pen Tool draw a mouth shape and create some crazy teeth for your pumpkin character! Inside it create on both corners, a shadow effect following the same procedure as done in the eyes. The colors used are also the same.

22. If you want a shadow, for your just created pumpkin character, draw an ellipse shape under it and fill it with gray. Then, use Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur and play with it’s size and opacity till it looks good!

23. That’s It! The Halloween Pumpkin is finished and ready to trick or treat :D (Add colors & Text to create banners, celebration cards, etc.)

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