Easy Level Painting, Fall, Gnomes, Medium Level Painting, Square Canvas, Thanksgiving

Learn how to paint an adorable gnome sitting down holding a slice of pumpkin pie! I did this painting on a 12″ x 12″ square canvas with acrylics.

The tutorial includes a free traceable for the gnome, however, you can also draw the gnome. I will demonstrate in the video how to draw this gnome too!

Enjoy and happy painting!

Yield: One 12 x 12 Canvas Painting

How To Paint A Thanksgiving Gnome

Learn how to paint a Thanksgiving theme gnome with acrylics on a 12 x 12 canvas.

Active Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Materials

Colors

Titanium White
Mars Black
Burnt Umber
Naphthol Crimson Hue
Cadmium Orange Hue
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Hooker's Green Hue Permanent
Light Blue Permanent
Unbleached Titanium

Brushes

Download This Tutorial To View Offline!

This tutorial is available for purchase in my PDF shop! Tutorial downloads include traceables optimized for different canvas sizes, PDF instructions of this lesson and more! Find out more!

Color Palette

Traceable

12 x 12 Gnome Traceable Download

Directions At A Glance

Video

Step By Step Directions

1. Paint The Background

Use a 3/4″ Flat Wash Brush and the colors light blue permanent and titanium white. Double load your flat brush in both colors. Paint the background using expressive strokes going in different angled directions.

Fill the entire canvas with the blue and white. Let the two colors gently blend together without over blending them.

2. Paint The Hill

Load your palette in hooker’s green hue permanent and cadmium yellow deep hue. Use your 3/4″ flat wash brush to double load in both the green and yellow. Paint an uneven land area across the bottom of the canvas.

This hill area is where the gnome is going to be sitting so make sure there is enough room (about 2″ in the middle) to draw the gnome sitting down.

Fill in the hill area with the green and yellow. Gently blend the two colors together but you don’t have to blend them all the way together (for a two-toned “varied” color effect).

3. Draw The Gnome

Use a pencil to lightly draw the gnome (or use the traceable to transfer the drawing to the canvas).

Start by drawing an oval for the nose. This oval is approximately 4.5″ from the bottom edge of the canvas.

Then draw the hat. The bottom of the hat rests on the top of his nose. Draw a wavy line vertically up to almost the top of the canvas and then draw a curve down so the hat points to the right.

Draw more lines that go inwards for the hat folds.

Then draw the feet/ bottom of the shoes. These are two kidney bean shapes.

Draw the arms by drawing two curved lines from the outside of the beard. Then connect the legs from the shoes to the beard.

Then draw the pumpkin pie slice. This is basically an isosceles triangle with a curved bottom edge. Then draw the scalloped edge crust.

To make the pie slice look 3D, draw a vertical line down from the tip of the triangle then draw a rectangular shape on the bottom.

Then draw a whipped cream shape on top of the pie slice.

4. Paint The Gnome Nose & Beard

Load unbleached titanium and naphthol crimson on your palette. Mix a little bit of the red into the tan color to turn it more of a rosy color.

Use the #4 round brush to paint the oval nose.

Then load your palette with titanium white and mars black. Mix a medium gray color on your palette by mixing 4 parts titanium white and 1 part black. Use the #4 round brush to paint the beard.

Paint the shape of the beard this medium gray color. This first layer of the beard is darker and more texture & lighter paint strokes will be applied later.

5. Paint The Gnome Robe & Shoes

Use your #4 round brush to paint the robe with naphthol crimson.

Paint the shoes mars black.

Optional: paint white on the top part of the shoe and leave the bottom heel area of the shoe black. The white on the top part will blend with the black and turn slightly gray.

6. Paint Texture On Gnome Beard

Use the #4 round brush to paint the texture of the beard. Load your brush in titanium white and paint curved texture strokes that contour and form the hairs of the beard.

Load your brush in mars black to paint darker strands of the beard hairs.

7. Paint The Gnome Hat

The hat was painted with: burnt umber, unbleached titanium and titanium white. It is basically a blend of the three colors that mix on the canvas to create different variations of that brown.

Use a #8 round brush to paint the hat. Load your brush in the burnt umber and loosely outline the shape of the hat.

Then paint the hat in using curved strokes. Paint it with unbleached titanium mixed with a little burnt umber. The colors should gently blend together. Paint in a curved direction filling the shape of the hat in.

Paint burnt umber strokes to create the creases and folds of the hat. The lines that go inwards of the hat should be darker.

8. Paint Pumpkin Pie Slice

Use a #4 round brush to paint the pumpkin pie slice white. You’ll want to paint this white first so your yellow and orange will have good coverage.

Paint the pie slice with cadmium yellow medium and cadmium orange hue. Gently allow the two colors to blend. Go in a curved direction on the top triangle shape.

Allow the color to be slightly darker on the left point of the triangle.

Paint the bottom rectangle area of the slice using the orange and yellow but paint in straight strokes (not curved). Add a tiny bit of burnt umber on the far left part of the pie slice and gently blend it with the orange.

Paint the crust with unbleached titanium and a small amount of burnt umber. Paint the burnt umber on the base of the crust.

Paint the bottom part of the pie crust with unbleached titanium.

9. Paint Gnome Hands

Mix the same color you used for the nose (the naphthol crimson with the unbleached titanium). Paint the hands.

10. Paint Grass Texture

Load your palette with hookers green hue permanent. Use the number 4 round brush to paint grass blades under the gnome. Paint little diagonal strokes that go outwards from the shoes and under the gnome.

Then paint small clusters of the grass blades throughout the hill area.

Loosely outline the hands with mars black.

11. Paint Whipped Cream On Pumpkin Pie

Use titanium white to paint the whipped cream on the pie slice. Paint a small oval for the base of the whipped cream, another smaller oval on top and then a pointed tip on the very top.

You can add a little shading to the whipped cream by blending in a small amount of gray on the right and bottom of the whipped cream dollop.

Closeup of the pumpkin pie slice pictured below.

12. Write Lettering

Use a pencil to write out your letters.

Then use a sharpie, paint pen or thin brush and mars black to draw your letters over with black.

13. Paint Leaves and Acorn

Lastly, paint leaves around the gnome using a combination of cadmium yellow deep, naphthol crimson and cadmium orange hue. Use the #4 round brush to paint the shapes of the leaves.

Then use burnt umber to paint the stems of the leaves and the veins. To do the acorn, use unbleached titanium for the base and burnt umber for the top piece.

Thanksgiving Gnome Painting