As a surprise gift to my son, I painted Mario on a Jansport backpack for him. I was tired of having to replace his “character” back packs twice, sometimes three times a year. Even though his past back packs have been trendy with some kind of character like Spiderman or Batman, they just don’t seem to be very durable, am I right? Either that or my kid is just extra hard on his back pack. Well whatever the reason, I needed a better solution for his back pack. Then I remembered when I was growing up that the cool bag to have was a Jansport. I don’t know who started that cool rule, but I know I had a Jansport, and loved it! They came in a variety of colors and were made very durable, oh and did I mention waterproof. So it looked like I had my solution, so off to the store I went, on a hunt for a Jansport. I found a nice bright red one (one of his favorite colors), which I knew thought my son would like. I bought it, brought it home, only to present it to my son’s very unimpressed little face. He said it was nice, but very plain. I felt terrible. I should have thought about that coming from back packs that have been heavily decorated with characters. So, that night I stayed up late trying to think up a way to reinvent my solution. I needed to incorporate something that my son enjoyed; something to do with basketball or soccer and it had to coordinate with the color red. And just like that, Mario popped in my head. He loves Mario, as you probably already know based on this site alone. :o)
7 Comments
Just wanted to let you know that I’m loving your ideas.
I’ve just added a link to you on my party planning blog.
I’m totally with you on the whole Jansport was THE pimp nineties backpack to have. I remember my folks bought me a blue one and that thing lasted for several years, unlike the Gremlins one I had when I was a kid.
These blogs of yours are very entertaining, especially since you once claimed to not be a fan of writing. :-) Anyhow I hope you continue with it, take care. :-)
Such a cute idea! I think I am going to do something similar, but with a cartoon gator representing UF. x]
HOW in the world did you paint Mario that well on there??
I will take that as a compliment. LOL! :o)
But really I did have to use some pretty fine tipped brushes for most of his face detail. Thanks for the comment, I mean compliment. ;o)
What type of paint did you use for the backpack? Did you draw it freehand or use a stencil of some sort?
Great site!
I did draw it free-hand, however I had a reference picture from a magazine close by to help me with the correct perspective. Then I used Fabric Paint to paint in my sketch lines. Once I was done I used a black fabric paint marker to outline everything. The black lines really help it to “pop” off the red background. :o).