A Portrait of my Daughter's Backpack, as a Still Life

This is a little painting of my daughter's backpack. It is made out of canvas and looks very rustic as well as traveled. Every great painting tells a story, even if it is a bottle on a shelf, so I hoped to capture the message of her backpack. 

It is just a backpack, and I admit I could have done more to capture the story of what it means to my daughter. 

I created this picture in watercolor using a Windsor Newton paint set. 

This picture is about 5 inches by 4 inches, so it is small in real life. It is more of a doodle than a painting. 

I started by taking some photos with my Kodak still life camera and then used the photos as my resource for this picture.  I did several sketches and a practice watercolor before I had all my ideas together. 

My daughter has buttons and badges on the backpack and bandanas ties to the straps that are all kinds of color, but I chose to edit those things out because they were too confusing. And were a little personal to her. 

Portrait of a Backpack, Painting in Watercolor

It is a really nice design with the canvas accented by red leather straps, black buckles, and red piping. There is an interesting pull tie cord in a blue cotton that gives it a great contrast. 

I have tried to create a few products with this small image, but when it is enlarged from 5 inches to a larger format, things get fuzzy and blurred. So I used it in smaller sizes for a greeting card and a small image in the corner of a print. 

I used the computer to add some text from the book of Ruth 1:16-17 and made a greeting card out of it that you can purchase off of my Society6 store. CLICK HERE to see it. 

To see it as a print, CLICK HERE

I hope you like it. 

Blessings.

A. E. Dozat