Most paint by number kits contain the same four things, and almost all the difference in how they turn out comes down to four questions nobody asks before buying. How does the canvas ship. Is the paint still wet when it arrives. Can you read the numbers. And can you get more paint when you run out. Design and price get all the attention; those four decide whether the kit gets finished.
1. How the canvas ships
This is the one that decides everything else, and it is the single most common complaint in the category.
A canvas folded into a flat envelope arrives with creases pressed through the print. Those creases do not iron out, they catch the brush, and paint pools along them. People describe unfolding one and seeing white lines running through the design.
A canvas rolled in a tube arrives flat. It is more expensive to ship and it is the thing Ledgebay buyers mention more than anything else, usually by comparing it to one they bought elsewhere for someone. If a listing does not say how the canvas ships, assume folded.
A framed kit sidesteps the question entirely: the canvas is already on its wooden frame when it arrives.
2. Whether the paint is still wet
Acrylic in a loosely lidded pot dries out in a warehouse. Kits sit in storage for months, and paint that has skinned over or gone to rubber cannot be rescued with water.
Vacuum-sealed pots are the fix, and they are worth looking for specifically. A pot that is merely thick is fine; one drop of water and a stir with a brush handle brings it back. A pot that has gone solid means a section of your painting has no color.
3. Whether you can read the numbers
The honest version: on a detailed design the smallest sections can be a couple of millimeters across, and the printed number inside them is smaller still. This is a real limitation of the format, not a fault in any particular kit, and blanket reassurance about it is worth ignoring.
What varies between kits is how it is handled. Look for a large separate reference print rather than a thumbnail on the box lid. Ledgebay kits include an 11x17 print for exactly this reason, which you can prop up and read at arm's length. Also look at the design itself before buying: dense foliage, rippled water and crowds of small objects all mean hundreds of tiny sections.
If eyesight is a consideration, choose a larger canvas of a simpler design rather than a smaller canvas of a busy one. The same picture at 16x20 has noticeably bigger sections than at 12x16.
4. Whether you can get more paint
Running out of a color is common and almost always the same color: the large background one, the sky or the field.
Before buying, check whether replacement paint exists for that specific design. For most kits sold online it does not, and a half-finished canvas with no way to buy more is how projects get abandoned. Every Ledgebay design has a matching set in the extra paint collection, one per design, and on a custom canvas you add the spares at checkout because the paints are mixed for your image.
Then, and only then, the design
Choose something you would be happy to look at on a wall for years, because that is the actual outcome. A design you picked because it looked easy will be finished and then put in a cupboard.
Some honest notes on difficulty, which is per-design rather than per-brand:
- Easier: large sky areas, buildings, single large animals, big simple flowers. Clean edges and generous shapes.
- Harder: foliage, moving water, fur and feather detail, night scenes with a narrow dark palette, and anything with several faces.
- Hardest of all: a photograph converted to a paint by number, because photographs contain more tonal steps than a painted design does.
The Ledgebay catalog is 39 licensed designs, all representational: cabins, wildlife, birds, florals and Americana scenes. There is no abstract line and no reproduction of famous paintings. If you want a specific subject that no catalog carries, that is what the custom canvas from a photo is for.
Framed or unframed
Framed kits arrive stretched on a wooden frame, ready to hang or to stand on the included easel. They cost more and they remove two problems at once, because there is nothing to flatten and nothing to frame afterward.
Unframed kits ship rolled. They are cheaper and lighter, and they are the right choice if you already know how you want it finished. Be aware that a paint by number canvas is usually trimmed close to the printed image, so there is rarely enough spare material to stretch it over bars later. Mounting it flat to a board and framing that is the usual route, covered in the framing guide.
Ledgebay sizes are 12x16 framed, 16x20 framed and 16x20 unframed for stock designs, and 12x16, 16x20 or 18x24 for custom.
Buying as a gift
Two things to get right. Pick the subject for them, not for you, and err toward the simpler design. Somebody who has never done one before and receives a dense, dark, highly detailed canvas will not finish it, and will feel bad about that.
The beginner guide is a reasonable thing to send along with it.
Common questions
How long does one take?
Budget 10 to 20 hours of actual painting for a 16x20 of moderate complexity, over a few weeks of evenings. Detailed designs run to 30 hours and beyond.
Are more colors better?
Not necessarily. More colors means more, smaller sections and more brush washes. Twenty-four well-chosen colors on a well-drawn design beats forty on a badly separated one.
Do I need to buy anything else?
No. A kit is complete. A desk lamp and a jar of water are the only additions most people ever make.
Can children use these kits?
Ledgebay designs are made for adults, and the section sizes reflect that. There is no children's range.
