15 Pumpkin Painting Ideas for Halloween (2024)

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Chic stripes, bold metallics and ghoulish faces are just some of the brilliant ideas for your festive painted pumpkins.

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Autumn Themed Pumpkin

Autumn showers bring Halloween flowers? It’s not your traditional rhyme, but neither is this pumpkin! If you like intricate designs and can paint well, try challenging your creative side with fall leaves and flowers. And while you’re at it, also explore what paint to use for pumpkins. For an even more seasonal design, use fall leaves from your yard to decorate your pumpkins. This would look gorgeous next to some sunflowers and mums and would make the perfect Halloween porch decor too. you can also teamit up with a fog machine to get the perfect spooky look for the holiday season!

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Spider Pumpkin

Decorate your entryway with a spooky Halloween creature: a spider. Paint your pumpkin a solid color — this artist used black — and add eyes and pipe cleaner legs. You’ll have a Halloween spider in no time.

Also, avoid spooky plumbing mishaps with pumpkin guts this Halloween.

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Dip Dye Pumpkins

Dip your pumpkins in nontraditional colors for an unconventional display. Use metallic paint for pumpkins that shine in the sun. They’ll look great stacked on stairs outside your door or as a table centerpiece.

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Black Jeweled Pumpkin

Black is certainly synonymous with Halloween, so it makes sense your darker side might want to turn a cheerfully bright orange pumpkin into a dark and stormy sight. And if you’d like to give your dark painted pumpkin a little more flair, offset the black by painting the stem a rich gold or silver and bedazzling the top!

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Movie Characters

Get the family together and have everyone paint a pumpkin to look like their favorite movie character! Perhaps it’s Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, like the pumpkin pictured here. But it could also be Harry Potter, Spider-Man or a minion!

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Raven Halloween Pumpkins

Channel Edgar Allan Poe with pumpkins based on “The Raven.” It’s a classic poem for Halloween, and these pumpkins put a new spin on the tradition. At the top is a large pumpkin painted with a raven stencil, while a pumpkin on the first step features its talons. The rest of the pumpkins match thanks to a sophisticated black-and-white color scheme.

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Harlequin Painted Pumpkins

Contrasting designs and complementary colors can create quite the display this Halloween. For a harlequin look, try painting one pumpkin with polka dots, one with checks, another with stripes and the rest with one bold color, such as silver. Making a Halloween creation on your own is often the fun part.

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Stenciled Bats

Use the orange color of your pumpkin as a base, then paint different sections black to contrast. Add black stenciled bats on the orange background for a festive piece of Halloween art!

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Drip Painting Pumpkin Idea

If you’re looking for a pretty pumpkin for a fall flower display, consider drip painting! This subtle technique looks stylish in any color, so choose whatever matches your flowers. This painter used a stunning burgundy. For a spooky Halloween display, choose blood-red paint.

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Spiders, Faces and Big, Bold, Colorful Polka Dots

Create your own pumpkin patch that will surely intrigue the neighbors and your little ones. Paint the stems black to offset the orange, then paint some with monster faces, others with spiders, and some with cheerful polka dots. The variety is what makes it work!

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Caricature Faces

Add a little humor to your pumpkins by decorating them with caricature-style faces. Tuck these painted pumpkins between piles of leaves in your yard and the trick-or-treaters will feel welcome.

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Glittered Pumpkins

Painted aqua or black, glittering up your multi-colored pumpkins can add a touch of pizzazz to your holiday decorations.

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Multi-Colored White Pumpkin

A white pumpkin with multiple bright colors dripping down from the stem is a chic alternative to the traditional bright orange pumpkin. Pumpkin decorating and pumpkin spice will help you get in the spirit of fall.

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Day of the Dead Pumpkin

Celebrate the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, which begins on October 31st, by creating a painted pumpkin with a traditional Day of the Dead skull face. Celebrating Halloween is not the same as celebrating Day of the Dead, but both occasions happen to begin on the same day.

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Sad Pumpkin Face

This painted pumpkin face is sad that the Halloween season is over so quickly. Keep the festive vibe going at your house with these handy holiday decorating tips.

Next: Learn how to give your car a Halloween costume!

Alexa is an experienced lifestyle and news writer, currently working with Reader's Digest, Shape Magazine and various other publications. She loves writing about her travels, health, wellness, home decor, food and drink, fashion, beauty and scientific news. Follow her traveling adventures on Instagram: @living_by_lex, send her a message: [emailprotected] and check out her website: livingbylex.com