Let us share our guide to making the  skull and crossbones pumpkin  of your dreams in this article! The skull drawings are great to use for this special holiday. It is a good time to honor our dead and bring joy to the children. 🎃

Here’s how to make your  pumpkin in the shape of a skull by cutting it into the flesh of this famous vegetable on October 31st. And our big plus: how to draw a skull on a pumpkin without having to cut into it.

After reading this article you will know exactly how to make a good impression on your big day and scare all your friends. Are you ready? Here we go!

Pumpkin skull

Make a Skull Pumpkin

Here’s what you need to make the most demonic of pumpkins:

  • A pumpkin (as big as possible)
  • A knife
  • A vegetable peeler
  • A thumbtack or pen
  • duct tape

You are free to choose not to use a template to create your drawing. But since not all of us are artists of great talent, here’s a template for you! You can easily print out the drawing that is just below by saving the image. It will serve as a template for you to  draw  much easier on your pumpkin. If you don’t quite like this pattern, you can e.g. For example, look on Pinterest for a different skull image. ☠️

Drawing Halloween skull

Then you cut off the top of the squash and clean it completely by removing the seeds and pulp. Once the inside is clean, you can tape your skull design to the pumpkin.

Now it’s time to start tracing. Some people prefer to trace the outline of the drawing in pencil. Others make marks with knives. You are free to choose what you like best. The most common way is to hold the large vegetable on your lap or place it on a table so you’re at the right height. 💀

Halloween skull

You can also use tools if needed: a saw, screwdriver, or any other tool is welcome if you’re more comfortable with it than the tools we discussed just before.

There are many shapes and details in our drawing, so you can only drill holes around the main shapes that you are sure you want to  carve .  The details may seem pretty difficult, but everyone decides for themselves how detailed they want their pumpkin to be would like to have! Keep a copy of the template next to you so you can reference the finer details that can be drawn once you’ve removed the template from your pumpkin.

We recommend cutting out some of the outline shapes with a knife. Then you can use the tip of your vegetable peeler to connect the dots and cut out the other shapes just enough to make the  skull appears properly. You can also use a utility knife or chisel to do most of the work and then do the finishing touches.

Pumpkin skull shape

Drawing skull on pumpkin

Many pumpkins are orange. But don’t forget the white ones either… They’re just as devilish! And this time we don’t dig in the flesh of the vegetable, we just draw on it. The result is often just as hot. And even more if you adopt both. A  white pumpkin  with a skull drawing next to the  orange  pumpkin where you cut the skull out of the flesh, and  Halloween takes  on a whole different meaning!

White Pumpkin Halloween

For these here is the list of what we need:

  • A pumpkin
  • carbon paper
  • duct tape
  • A pen
  • A marker

When  it comes to permanent markers  , we’ve found that some work much better than others. So make sure that the markers you want to use also work on your pumpkin. ! ✍️

Start by carefully taping the carbon paper onto the pumpkin. Try to cover only a small portion of the carbon paper, as this will leave a mark on the pumpkin (the mark from the tape’s glue). Then stick your skull drawing over it, also with your tape.

Drawing skull on pumpkin

Skull World Tip : Using carbon paper to show the drawing also works when carving the pumpkin. You can use a toothbrush and water with some soap to remove any extra traces of carbon after removing the drawing and paper from the underside. Likewise, if you only have one orange pumpkin, you can paint the area you want to cut out with white acrylic paint. 

Evil halloween pumpkin

Use a pen or pencil to trace the shapes of the skull drawing. Then remove the template and carbon paper, go over the charcoal lines with a permanent marker, and fill in the drawing with the colors you want!

And your pumpkin is ready! Be sure to send us photos of your work and share your experience in the comments section just below if you’d like. And for an even crazier Halloween, we have a solution for you too! Wear a  skull mask  for a scary look and scare your whole neighborhood. Just click on the picture below to see the hottest of them.

Scare all your friends on Halloween by wearing a “”skull mask“” .