How to Paint a Decorative Design on a Black Canvas Suitcase
If you love to fly like I do, you now how big of a hassle it can be to locate your suitcase in baggage claim. Black canvas suitcases seem to comprise over 80 percent of the suitcases that come off an airplane in airports around the world. I have used colored bag tags, rubber bands around the handle and even colored straps to hold my black bag closed. Our last traveling experience I decided to paint a decorative design on the front and back of our suitcases so we could easily spot them as they came off the plane. Follow these simple instructions to paint your own personalized design on your black canvas suitcase.
The first step in the process is to determine your design. Select a design that has a solid outside line such as a cartoon character or a set of letters. My design was a set of three cats on one side with a mouse on the back.
Once you have determined your design, draw or trace the outside lines of the design on the black canvas with a graphite or disappearing yellow/white sewing pencil.
Paint inside the lines with gesso or a white fabric base paint. Allow this layer of paint to dry completely before continuing. Both gesso and fabric base paint take longer to dry than acrylic paint due to their thickness. The gesso or fabric base paint hardens and creates a surface that will accept a layer of colored paint by applying only one layer. You will have to paint up to ten layers of light colored paint on black canvas to get the lightness of the paint to appear.
After the gesso or white fabric base paint is dry, draw the inside lines of your design. Color each area in with the appropriate colored acrylic or fabric paint. Allow the paint to dry completely before continuing.
Add any detail you like at this point including shading, small shapes such as dots, circles, flowers and so on. Shake glitter over the wet paint to add another dimension if you desire. After all small designs and glitter are applied, outline each area with black paint. Use a liner brush to complete the outlining. A liner brush holds the paint longer and creates a longer line of paint than a small round brush.
Heat set the design after the final drying. Place a brown piece of packaging paper over the design area. Turn on your iron and heat on a cotton setting. Place the hot iron in the upper left hand corner of the packaging paper and hold in place for 15 seconds. Move the iron to the right one iron’s width and repeat. Continue moving the iron and heating the painting until the entire area has been heat set. Remove the brown packaging paper and you are ready to go.
