A first paint by number takes about ten to twenty hours over a few weeks, and nothing about it requires any prior painting. The kit has already solved the two hard problems, which are drawing the picture and choosing the colors. What is left is a method, and it takes ten minutes to learn.
What is in the box, and what each part is for
The canvas
Cotton canvas, already primed, printed with outlined shapes each carrying a number. It looks alarming when you first unroll it. Sit with it for two minutes before opening any paint and it stops looking like a wall of numbers and starts looking like a picture.
If the canvas is not already on a frame, tape the corners down to the table so it cannot shift under the brush.
The paints
Acrylic, in numbered pots. Acrylic is the right paint for this because it is opaque, so it covers the printed numbers, and because it dries fast, so you are not waiting long between coats. Watercolor kits exist and are much harder for exactly the opposite reasons.
Ledgebay pots are vacuum-sealed, so they arrive wet. If one is thick, add a single drop of water and stir it with the end of a brush. One drop. More than that and it goes transparent.
The brushes
A range of sizes, chosen for the sections in that design. You do not need more brushes than this. Use the smallest one that will cover a section in two or three strokes rather than one.
The reference print
An 11x17 print of the finished design. Prop it upright rather than laying it flat, and glance at it whenever you are unsure whether an area is meant to be sky or water.
Setting up
Ten minutes here saves a lot of irritation later.
- Cover the table. Newspaper, an old towel, a plastic cloth. Acrylic wipes off while wet and does not once it has dried.
- Light it properly. A daylight-temperature lamp positioned to the side, so it does not throw your hand's shadow onto the section you are painting. This is the single biggest factor in whether the numbers are readable.
- Two jars of water. One for the first rinse, one for the last. An old jam jar and a yogurt tub are ideal. Change them when they go cloudy, because cloudy water is how a clean color quietly turns gray.
- A rag or paper towel to blot the brush dry after rinsing. Water carried into a pot dilutes it permanently.
One thing to skip: do not gesso the canvas. It arrives already primed, and a coat of gesso would cover the printed numbers, which is the opposite of helpful. Gesso has its uses on a bare canvas you are painting freehand, and it is explained in the gesso guide, but it has no place here.
The method
There is no single correct order, but this one works and is worth using until you have your own.
- Find the largest area on the canvas and check its number against the pot.
- Pick a brush that suits that size. Not a tiny brush for a big field, not a big brush for a window frame.
- Dip only the tip. A loaded brush drips into the next section and dries with a visible ridge.
- Fill that section, then find every other section carrying the same number and fill those too, right across the canvas. Finish the color before you move on.
- While it dries, start a different number, choosing one whose sections do not touch the paint you have just laid down. Two wet colors sharing an edge will creep into each other.
- Come back and give the first color a second thin coat if the printed number still ghosts through. Pale colors over dark numbers usually need it; darks usually do not.
- Rinse and blot the brush properly before every new pot.
Work generally from the top of the canvas toward the bottom, and away from your painting hand, so your wrist never rests on wet paint. Right-handers go top-left to bottom-right.
Save the smallest sections for a session when your eyes are fresh rather than for the end of a long evening. Everyone does the opposite and everyone regrets it.
Mistakes
Acrylic is forgiving and nothing you do here is permanent.
Wrong color in a section: let it dry, paint the right color over it, two coats if the wrong one was darker. Paint strayed over a line: leave it alone until dry, then cut the edge back with the neighboring color and a fine brush. Trying to wipe wet paint off an adjacent section almost always makes it worse.
A brush that has lost its point: wet it and draw it across your palm to bring the bristles back together.
Cleaning up
Rinse brushes at the end of every session, with warm water and a little dish soap if paint has crept up toward the ferrule. Reshape the bristles with your fingers and lay them flat to dry.
Never stand a brush bristle-down in the water jar, even for a few minutes. It bends the tip permanently, and a splayed brush cannot cut a clean edge again.
Press the lids firmly onto the pots. A pot left open overnight will have skinned over by morning.
Finishing the canvas
Let it cure for several days before doing anything to it. Touch-dry is not cured, and a finger pressed into a thick patch after an hour will leave a mark.
Then, optionally, varnish. Use a clear varnish made for acrylics, laid on flat in two or three thin coats. It evens out the patchy sheen between colors and gives you a surface you can dust.
One thing to avoid: decoupage mediums. They are sold in the same aisle and they are not varnish. They stay slightly tacky in humid weather, they attract dust, and they can yellow over time. A small pot of proper acrylic varnish costs about the same and does the job it was made for.
After that, framing. If you have a framed kit, it is already on its frame and there is nothing to do. If it is a rolled canvas, note that these are trimmed close to the printed edge, so stretching over wooden bars is usually not possible; mounting flat to a board is the normal route. The framing guide covers it, and the care guide covers varnishing and storage in more detail.
Choosing a first canvas
Look for large, clearly separated areas: big skies, buildings, a single large animal, generous flowers. Avoid dense foliage, rippled water and night scenes on a first attempt, because they mean hundreds of small sections in closely related tones.
The catalog lists 39 designs and the beginner guide goes through which are easier. If you have a photograph you would rather paint, a custom canvas works identically once it arrives, though it is a little harder than a designed kit because photographs contain more tonal steps.
Common questions
Do I have to follow the numbers exactly?
No. Nothing stops you painting a red barn blue. The numbers are a well-tested suggestion, not a rule.
Can I use my own paints?
Yes, craft acrylic covers fine. Matching the supplied colors by eye is the hard part, which is why most people only do it for a single color they have run out of. Each design has a matching set in the extra paint collection if you would rather not try.
How do I know when a section needs a second coat?
Look at it from a normal viewing distance rather than up close. If the number is visible from three feet away, it needs another coat. If it is only visible with your nose against the canvas, it does not.
How long does one take?
10 to 20 hours of actual painting for a 16x20 of moderate complexity, spread over a few weeks. Detailed designs run to 30 hours and beyond. It is not a weekend project, and treating it as one is the main reason canvases get abandoned.
