Timbuk2 Messenger Bag Painting

Here's a little process of a messenger bag I painted for a client.

I got an email from a girl who was looking to put a similar piece I had done for Urban Outfitters on a messenger bag. She found these artist canvas bags at Timbuk2.

I thought it sounded like a cool idea... so I said "sure."

The following is a little process of how I went about painting the bag. Keep in mind it's my first shot at doing something like this; it proved to be a learning experience for me.



Here's the raw bag. The canvas comes as is. It's not primed or anything.



Here 'tis hanging to dry. I Gesso'd the whole bag, front, back, and inside the flap where the velco is.



I decided to make an iron-on transfer to get the image of the girl as accurate as I could as a foundation for the painting.



Here I am being domestic. I had to be careful so not to burn the rubber lining on the back of the main flap of the bag.



Image transfered.



Under painting, it's an aqua color.



More under painting of the front.



Here's even more under painting with flo orange. I'm just adding in some rough color at this point.



You can make out the bridge in this one.



The back with under painting of Gold Medal Flour's mill.



Metallic silver spraypaint of stars... sort of looks like the outside of First Ave (that's the idea anyway).



Spraypainted back.



Painting in details on the back.



Details on the front. I used some textile paint and a textile paint marker. The textile marker didn't really like to go over the spraypaint.



Front final. I went over the piece with a paint pen, and finally with waterproof india ink applied with a liner brush.



Back final. I'm going to have to seal up the paint so that it doesn't just totally flake off when the girl is riding around... I'll be getting to that step when the weather gets a little warmer than -5 degrees outside.

So that's it! Yay for artists' canvas bags.

The customer just came to get her bag... Happy early birthday!