Just about every article I could find about oil painting (and especially Bob Ross style) on a pumpkin wouldn’t work… welp, I think I mostly debunked that rumor!
First I put an oval of white gesso on the pumpkin (about 3 layers) then let it dry overnight.
After that it was pretty much business as usual. The smaller workspace was tough (1” brush was the largest I could use) and the bumpy surface made the mountains really tricky, but just about everything else translated easily enough
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mc... this is incredible! So original & beautiful!!!
Update: The painting itself out-survived the pumpkin... Over two months later, after being left outside in temperatures shifting from 70 to -10 (that's the midwest for ya), as the pumpkin itself was turning to a mush... The painting itself remained pretty well unscathed! See the additional picture I added taken just before it had to be tossed.
For anyone considering doing this method for halloween, it most definitely works! Just note that if you want the pumpkin to last, make sure not to carve it at all :) If you carve it, the pumpkin will rot before the paint dries!
Also, the oil paint on the gesso oval dried within about 1.5 weeks or so, relatively average there. The spots where I went outside the oval and the oil paint was directly on the pumpkin skin took over a month to dry; so remember that the layer of white gesso is critical to making this work!
I suggest using water and/or paint thinner and a paper towel to regularly wipe the paint that spills outside your gesso, so that you can do it easily as you go instead of fighting the whole gobs at the end.
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Great job and very creative, like it 😁