Abstract is the easiest kind of painting to live with and the hardest to start. There is no subject to get right, which sounds freeing until you are looking at a blank canvas with no idea where the first mark goes. A numbered kit solves exactly that problem: someone else has settled the composition, and your evening goes on color and brushwork instead.
This is a look at what abstract paint by numbers actually is, what you need, how to work through one, and how to pick a kit that will not disappoint you when the box arrives.
What Is Abstract Paint by Numbers?
It is the standard format applied to a non-representational image: a canvas printed with faint outlines, a number in each section, and a pot of paint to match every number. The difference is only in what the finished picture shows. Instead of a cabin or a bowl of fruit, you get shape, color and rhythm.
One honest correction to how these are usually sold. A kit does not let you invent an abstract composition — that decision has already been made for you, and following the numbers is the whole point. What it does is put a considered abstract on your wall without asking you to compose one first, which for most people is the difference between painting and not painting.
Why Choose an Abstract Kit
Three practical reasons, beyond taste.
Mistakes hide. On a portrait, an edge a few millimetres out is visible to everyone. On an abstract, it is part of the picture. This is the most forgiving thing you can paint.
The sections are large. Abstract designs tend toward broad shapes rather than fine detail, which means fewer squinting sessions under a lamp than a landscape with foliage in it.
It suits a modern room. If your furniture is plain and your walls are neutral, one large abstract will do more than three small representational pieces.
What You Need
Very little, and a kit supplies most of it. The canvas, the numbered paints and a set of brushes come in the box. Acrylic kits need no mixing and no solvents, so water and a cloth cover the rest.
Worth adding yourself: a decent lamp, a jar of water you change often, and one finer brush than the kit provides, since the supplied small brush is usually the weakest item in any kit.
How to Work Through One
Set the canvas flat first
If it arrived rolled, lay it flat under something heavy overnight. If it arrived folded, you have a crease and there is not much to be done about it, which is worth remembering when you choose a supplier.
Start with the largest sections
Big shapes first, small ones last. You build confidence on the easy areas and your hand is steadier by the time you reach the fiddly parts.
Work one color at a time
Finish everything numbered 4 before opening 5. It saves paint, saves rinsing, and keeps the pots from drying out while they sit open.
Expect a second coat on the light colors
Pale paint rarely covers the printed number underneath in one pass. Let the first coat dry properly and go again rather than loading the brush.
Take breaks
An abstract of any size is several evenings, not one. Stopping between colors is a natural break point, and the painting looks better to you after a night away from it.
Choosing a Kit
Complexity. Count the colors listed. Twenty-four is a relaxed few evenings; forty-plus is a project. The photo will not tell you, but the color count will.
Theme. Abstract covers a lot of ground, from geometric and hard-edged to poured and organic. Pick for the room it will hang in, not for the thumbnail.
Materials. Three things decide whether a kit is any good, and none of them show in a listing photo: whether the canvas ships rolled rather than folded, whether the paint pots are sealed, and whether the printed numbers are large enough to read comfortably. Ask about those before you buy on price.
Tips for a Better Finish
Vary the paint thickness. Nothing marks a kit out as a kit like a perfectly flat surface. Laying some sections on thick, so the brush leaves a ridge, is the single easiest way to make it look painted rather than filled in.
Let sections meet. A hairline of bare canvas between two colors reads as a coloring book. Take each color slightly over the printed line.
Leave the accidents. A stroke that runs past its section is not a failure on an abstract. Judge the canvas from across the room, where those decisions actually register.
Color Schemes That Work
Vibrant and bold. Saturated color against a dark ground. Best in a room that is otherwise plain, where it can be the one loud thing.
Cool and quiet. Blues, greens and violets. Easier to live with over years, and the usual choice for a bedroom or a study.
Earthy. Ochres, browns and muted greens. These sit well with wood and with older furniture, and they date more slowly than the bright palettes.
Where to Find One
Worth saying plainly: Ledgebay does not sell abstract designs. Our catalog is licensed artwork, and it is representational by nature — cabins, waterfowl, florals and landscapes.
What we can print is an abstract of your own. Custom Paint by Numbers turns any image you upload into a numbered canvas, printed in the United States, and the process does not care whether you send a photograph or a pattern. Finished ones are in the customer gallery.
If you are still deciding what you want on the wall, our piece on abstract paintings for a living room covers ten styles and what each one does to a room, and how to paint abstract covers going at it freehand.
