Painting Florals on Leather Bags to Bring Them Back to Life!

1. Introduction: Have you ever find yourself trying to choose which bag to use? And they all look the same, brown and dull. So why not to add a little extra charm and spark into your handbags by making them more colorful, and more you? So join me in this new class and let's customize our leather bags together. My name is Babi Wrobel. I'm an artist, illustrator and art teacher based in the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil I grew up surrounded by abundant nature, and it has always inspired the aesthetic of my artwork. I have never been afraid of using colorful clothes and one I thought, why not to bring this concept into my own bags. I'll teach you how to make beautiful floral paintings in your leatherbag, We will go through all the steps of the process together and I'll give you several tips to make your bag look beautiful. And who knows, you may even start selling them. So come with me and let's paint together! 2. Overview and Materials: The final project of this class is to customize our leather bag from beginning to end We'll go over several steps. From researching and studying the first layouts, the final varnish finish. You don't need to be a professional artist but the basic of drawing and painting are necessary for this class. Although my style is a little bit more realistic, you can use the tips learned here to customize your bag in your own style. For this class, we're going to need several materials. So, let's take some notes. First of all, acrylic paint or various colors. It can be acrylic paint for canvas, but I am not using a very expensive brand. We will also acrylic pens for outlines and firmer lines, such as: Posca pens, Molotow, Liquitex, etc. Brushes of various sizes and shapes. Don't forget a very fine brush for details. And an older one to put the varnish on Chalk or Pastel chalk to transfer our drawing to the bag. Photoshop or any image editing app, to test the bag before painting it, that's not extremely necessary but, it will help a lot. And finally, pencil, paper and an eraser for sketching. You will need some varnish to apply in the end of the painting. And also a cup of wather and a pallete or a small plate. And that's it. Now that you have your materials all together, join me and let's get started! 3. Research and Layouts: Welcome to lesson one! In this first lesson, we'll start by looking at our bag and trying to imagine what we would like to see painting on it Leatherbags are long-lasting pieces. So when it comes to choosing what to paint, try to find something that really resonates with you or with your client. I, for example, love artichokes. So, I decided to paint some in this bag. Not only do I enjoy eating them, but I love their lovely look and color combination. We must also take into consideration the colors and textures of the leather itself. There are bags, like this one, with very thin leather and little texture. Personally, these are the ones that I like to work with the most, because I can add more details. The bags with rougher textures will need a little more extra paint. The paint can't be too watery. Otherwise, it will run down into the cracks of the leather and that painting may look a little bit blurred. So we must be extra careful with the thick textured leather. For this bag, I decided to paint some red poppies. I love their shape and also their color are going to match the bag's strap. And I think some small flowers will be interesting to compose the look as well. Now let's go to Pinterest and look for some pretty pictures to use as reference. Now that we have a lot of pictures as references, let's begin to create a few layouts. I like to draw few different layouts until I get the result that I like best. I start by making small sketches that only I can understand. Then, when I get to a harmonic composition, I start drawing in a bigger size and with more details. 4. Mockup and Visualization: Because I am an illustrator, I like to visualize the final product before I start painting it. I do these not only with my illustrations, but also with the bags and murals that are paint. I always like to do a mock-up with my layout applied before I get my hands dirty. Not only does it help me to visualize the final product, but it also makes me feel more confidence before I start painting. Now that I have my initial sketch finished, I'll take it to Photoshop or Procreate or any other image editing app. I will also take a picture of my purse and put it there. Carefully, I'm cutting out the outline of my layout and applying it to place I want in my bag. We can increase or decrease the size of it as we wish. Now, let's put some colors on another layer. The first layer will be my layout. The second one will be the colors I will apply. And the last one will be the bag. I'm going to leave my stroke layer in multiplication mode, so that I can get the blank parts out. When we leave ou drawing layer in multiplication mode, all the whites became transparent and we can see the color layer below it. If you don't have this feature in your app, no problem. You can simply print out your layout and color it by hand with your markers and crayons, or even with your acrylic paints. I like to work that way too. When you're done, it's time to print. Now we're going to make two prints. The first one in black and white with just the pencil sketch in the actual size that we're going to paint in the bag. How do you know the real size we need to print? Well, I'll go with my intuition. I think this red poppies will take up almost two-thirds of the total length of the bag. So probably this drawing is 17 centimeters long. The second print, It's just for us to visualize the colors in case you painted your layout digitally. We can also leave the computer screen on to use as reference. 5. Tracing and Outlining: Now let's begin to trace our layout. And by the way, this is the most delicate part for me. Let's get the black and white print that we made. First, we're going to turn the sheet over and color it with chalk or dry pastel chalk. Notice that I'm painting carefully, to cover the whole area behind my drawing. Now, we need to be very careful. I'm going to turn my paper over. The white chalk is facing down, touching the bag and my layout is facing up. Now, I'm going to place my layout very carefully on top of the bag, in the place I had defined. We can also use some masking tape to keep the paper in place. I'm going to use a pen or a pencil with a sharp point to transfer the drawing to the leather. I'm beginning to draw over line-by-line. The careful not to put your hand on the paper, because it will blur the pastel chalk on the bag and you may lose the reference of the drawing. It will blur a little bit anyway, but then, we can erase it. Okay, I think I'm done. Now. I'll careful take the sheet out. Congratulations, we have our sketch placed on the bag! That for me was the more tense part! Pastel chalk doesn't stain the bag and comes off easily with a dry or damp cloth. If your bag is too light, do it with a darker color. Now, let's get our acrylic pen or similar. I like to use a very thin tip and I'm using the color white because it contrast more with the tone of this bag. But you can choose another color if your bag is in another tone. I'm beginning to retrace every line of my sketch. Don't worry if you make any mistakes because you can fix it with the acrylic paint later on. I think that's it! Now that our drawing is finished and the paint is dry, we can erase the remaining chalk. 6. Painting the First Layers: In this step, we'll finally start applying the first layers of paint. First, let's start organizing our color palette and put it in all the colors we are going to use. Acrylic paint dries very fast, so, I'm always spraying a little water on it so it doesn't dry out. First, let me show you my setup. I like to work with everything in hand. Here on my desk, I have: my bag, very well stretched and attached with two clamps to a small wooden board. I have my black and white layout and behind there is my iPad with the color layout. And on the sides I have my paints, brushes, pastel chalks and my palette. I will start by applying the basic colors for each part of the painting. I'm going to use this tone of red for the flowers. Notice that the paint is neither to thick nor to thin. In fact, this first layers of paint are a little transparent because the leather is very dark. I prefer to do it this way and enhance the colors little by little, so I don't overload the leather with too much paint. But layer by layer, the paint will start to appear. I'm painting carefully not to cover all my first lines. Later, as the painting develops, this white lines will disappear. The good thing about acrylic paint is that it has a super coverage. So, if you don't get the colors right the first time, don't worry. Just wait for it to dry and apply a new layer on top. I'm applying a reddish purple on the inside of the petals. Notice that I'm trying to make a smooth transition from red to purple. I'm now reinforcing the bright red in this two big flowers. These two flowers in front are the main subject of my painting. Therefore, I want them to attract more attention. I'm taking care to make them more vivid and with more contrast than the flowers in the back. And, I'm already starting to cover the white outlines. For the back flowers, I'm using the same shade of red and purple. I'm using now two shades of green for the leaves and branches. And for the flower buds, turquoise and a shade of lavender. I'm using a very dark brown for this round shape here in the middle, and light yellow for the flower pollens. So lthat's it, this was the basis of our painting. In next lesson we'll start by applying new layers and also light and shadow. 7. Light and Shadow: First, let's take a good look at our painting and our references. And let's ask ourselves, where is the light and where is the shadow in my initial layout? A good trick to see this better is to squint your eyes while looking at the reference. When we squint our eyes, our vision blurs and we can see more clearly where the lights and shadows are. For instance, I noticed that in the center of this flowers, the shadows are much more accentuated. So I will apply layers of darker colors in those areas. Now, let's begin to paint. After the paint dried, it became a little transparent. So I'll use a more vibrant and lighter red to paint these petals. Little by little the light areas of my painting will emerge. Meanwhile, I'm working on other areas of my painting. The bag is a bit dirty with chalk. So I'm very carefully cleaning what is left. I'm now smudging some bright red with purple from inside the flowers with a dry brush. Sometimes I like to wait for the paint to dry a bit to make a better transition from one color to another. I'm reinforcing the purple from inside the petals. Again, I'm trying to make a smooth transition from purple to red. This time before the paint dries completely. I wasn't very happy with the shade of green of this leaf. So I'm mixing acqua marine green on top. I want to make this red strong enough for the flowers to pop out of the bag. Now I'm applying a darker, reddish purple. I don't like to use black on the dark areas. I think black makes the colors dirty. I always use an opposite color in a darker tone, or sometimes Van Dyke brown or an indigo blue to darken my colors. I'm using now the same purple for the flowers in the back. But I am applying a thinner coat of paint because, as I said before, I don't want to draw too much attention to the back flowers. I'm going to mix a little white with red to give a more pinkish tone. Now I'm painting the top edges of the petals where the light is shining the most. With a dry brush I'm dragging my paint inward so I can create a smoother transition to the vivid red. I'll do these layer by layer until I get the effect that I want. I like it when I can see the textures of my brushstrokes. So I won't smudge all the red areas. This style that I'm doing is a little bit more realistic, but you can use your own style. This class is just an inspiration. I have now pick it up a thinner brush and I'm reinforcing some of the contours of the petals. I'm also separating better what is light and what is shadow. I'm making little lines and just giving a hint of the texture of the petals. But I'm not going to fully refined my painting yet. I'm trying to loosen up my hand and make it more fluid because I don't want this painting to be two rigid. I want to show some personality and lightness trough this flowers. And if I start to get too focused into the details, I won't be able to do it. So I need to losen up a little bit. I need to lose the fear of this logotypes around here and try to relax a little bit. And who knows, maybe have some fun. And if it's not perfect, that's fine too. There is a saying Brazil that goes like this: "The Perfect is the enemy of the Good." I need to remind myself of this often. For the top flowers. I'll make them a little less detailed. Notice that my brushstrokes are a little looser on the back flowers. As I said before, I want the front flowers to draw more attention. So I'll refine more the details on them. Notice that the two front flowers are already, jumping out of the bag. This is my intention. I think the flower cores are too dark. I'm lightening them a little bit because they were lost in the middle of the flowers. Join me next lesson as we move on to my favorite part, adding the details. 8. Details: We're almost done. Now, let's finish our painting with our special and personal touch: Let's add some details. I'm applying here some yellow green to the flower buds with a very fine brush, I think it was missing some warmer green in the bottom part of the painting. I'm doing now some shading on the steams and I'm also starting to add some textures on these leaves. It's a detailed work and it requires a lot of patience. But I really enjoy doing it. I think it calms me down and it concentrates me. And it's not easy to concentrate this days, right? As I said before, the detail phase is the one that I like the most. It's where they can put my personal touch and make my painting literally bloom. Notice that the way it's looking, we can already see how my painting will look like when I'm done. With a very fine brush I am reinforcing the water green on the back leaves and defining better the outlines. I'm continuing to make the textures of each leaf. Now, I am adding some lime green to these back buds here as well. Notice that the paint here ended up getting a little watery. We need to be very careful with the watery paint because this bag has a bit of a rough texture. And when the paint is very wet, it can spread and get into the cracks of the leather and smudge the paint. Fortunately, this didn't happen. But if the paint does smudge, you can quickly wipe it off with a clean, damp cloth, before the paint dries. I'm using now an acrylic marker to add a touch of a less saturated light green in some parts of the steams. With a dry brush, I'm going to spread some of the ink leftover from the pen. I will use the same paint, but in a lighter layer on the backs steams. I'm now starting to make the textures of the petals. Notice that this lines that run along the petals from top to bottom reinforce the shape of the flower. These lines help to better define the shape of the flower and make it more three-dimensional. I'm taking care to make the lines darker as they go deeper into the middle of the flower. And I'm also reinforcing the shadows inside the flowers. It's not often that I like to use contouring in my paintings, but I think this style is a bit more realistic. So I'll use very fin outlines around the petals to define the shapes better. Sometimes, when I work with a more modern and graphic style, I like to use thicker outlines But, this is up to you. I keep adding textures on the petals and I'm using a very fine brush to do this lines. The brush that I'm using is probably a number 0 or a 3/0. I like to use watercolor brushes to paint with acrylics because they are very soft, but I avoid using real fur brushes because acrylic paints damages the brushes a lot and they real fur brushes are much more expensive. Now I'm going to use a lighter paint, almost white. I like to use these thin flowing lines to give movements to my paintings. I don't always like to use them, but I think it will go well with this flowers. We need to be very careful not to overwork our paintings, use your sensitivity to know when to stop. I'm reinforcing the contours of the flowers with white in the brightest parts of the flowers. I'll do the same for the back flowers, but with thinner and less opaque lines. And I'm starting to make the seeds, the pollens of the flowers. I think this dots will give a kind of magical touch to the flowers and will unify my whole painting nicely. That it is, I think I'm done but almost! We still need to varnish. So see you next lesson. 9. Varnish: There are three types of varnish. You will choose yours according to the effect you want to apply. For example, in this bag, the client wanted a very discrete artwork that would blend with the texture of the bag, as if it was printed. So I used a matte varnish to give that effect. On this other bag, the client wanted to draw a lot of attention to this blue flowers. So I used a glossy varnish, The flowers seem to pop out of the bag. There is also the semi gloss varnish, which is the one that I used here. This is a great option when you want to call attention to your painting, but not to overdo it. Let me show you how to do it. When applying the varnish, the acrylic paint must be very dry. Although acrylic paint dries quickly, I like to wait a little longer to start varnishing. For this step, I will use two brushes. I prefer other ones, since the varnish can damage the bristles. I will use a medium brush for most of the painting and a thinner one for the details. Don't panic if the paint becomes whitish after the varnish dries, it will even out the colors. Even so, it's always good to test it first on a piece of old leather. And by the way, if you need to touch up some parts afterwards, you can do it over the varnish as well, and if necessary, apply some more over it again. Voila! The bag is ready! 10. Final Thoughts: I hope you enjoyed this class. If this is your first time painting leather I suggest that you always try on a small piece of leather first and any questions, don't hesitate to send me a message. I'll be glad to help you. And don't forget to post a picture of your painted bag. I can't wait to see your project. Thank you very much for your attention, and I hope to see you soon.