Dutch Pottery Pumpkin

The image on this pumpkin was drawn from looking at actual Dutch Pottery and copying down the themes. This instructable covers how to get the actual paint onto the pumpkin and how to manage the shades of blue for the Dutch Pottery look.

Step 1: Step 1: Clean Surface of Pumpkin

Clean surface of pumpkin with water/damp cloth.

Step 2: Step 2: Paint Base Color

Using white acrylic paint, paint the pumpkin with a white base coat. Acrylic paint is easy to use and dries quickly. Do not continue to the next step until the base coat is completely dry. This pumpkin actually required two base coats. Wait to start the second coat until the first one is completely dry.

Step 3: Step 3: Add Base Designs

There are two shade of blue used in this image. Both shades came from the same bottle of blue acrylic paint (exact shade at your discretion). The darker shade (as it came out of the bottle) was used first to create the base designs in the image.

I started with the flowers and designs near the top and worked my way down. This was done with a thin paintbrush.

Step 4: Step 4: Add Final Touches

The lighter shade of blue was created by mixing the blue acrylic paint with water, enough so that it spreads like a water color (mostly water, very little actual paint). Finish the lighter shades of blue in the image with this technique.

After applying the watered down paint to your brush you may have to dab it on some paper towel. If the brush is too wet, your color will run down the pumpkin. I used a slightly fatter brush for this step.

Use this same color for the clouds, but dab even more water out of the brush. Create the cloud designs by dabbing/smearing the nearly dry brush against the pumpkin.