Paint by numbers is a printed canvas divided into outlined sections, each carrying a number that matches a pot of paint. You fill in the sections, and a picture appears. The decisions that make painting intimidating, what to draw and what colors to mix, have already been made by the artist who painted the original. What is left is the part most people find restful.
This guide covers what comes in a kit, where the whole idea came from, how to paint one well, and what to expect of yourself the first time.
What is actually in a kit
Kit contents vary more between sellers than anything else, so it is worth knowing what good looks like.
- The canvas. Pre-primed and printed with the outlines and numbers. How it ships matters enormously: rolled in a tube arrives flat, folded into an envelope arrives creased, and creases in a printed canvas do not come out.
- The paints. Small numbered pots of acrylic, premixed to match the canvas. Sealed pots matter, because acrylic left in a poorly closed pot dries on the shelf before it ever reaches you.
- Brushes in a range of sizes, so you can fill broad areas and still reach the small sections.
- A reference image. Look for a full-size print rather than a thumbnail on the box. You will consult it constantly.
- An easel or hanging fittings, depending on whether you bought a framed canvas.
The picture above is one of ours, Cabin Fever, in the 12 x 16 framed version. Everything visible in it comes in the box, including the easel and the 11 x 17 reference print.
Where paint by numbers came from
The history is more specific, and more American, than most accounts online suggest.
In the late 1940s, Dan Robbins was working as a package designer at the Palmer Paint Company in Detroit. He had heard that Leonardo da Vinci gave his apprentices numbered patterns to fill in, and realized the same idea could let anyone paint. Max Klein, who ran the company, wanted something that would sell more paint, and backed him.
The kits reached Macy's in New York in November 1950. From 1951 Palmer sold them under the Craft Master brand, with the slogan Every Man a Rembrandt. What followed was one of the great crazes of the decade: the company was producing tens of thousands of sets a day by 1953, and had sold more than twelve million kits by 1954. The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History devoted an exhibition to the phenomenon in 2001. Robbins died in 2019, aged 93.
Two corrections worth making, because both circulate widely. It was not a Chinese court practice and not an 18th-century European pastime, whatever you may read. And Palmer never held a patent, which is exactly why the market filled with competitors within a couple of years.
Art critics of the day disliked it intensely, on the grounds that it removed the creativity from painting. Seventy-five years later, several million people a year evidently disagree.
Is it difficult?
Not in the way people fear. You do not need to draw, and you do not need to know anything about color. If you can see the numbers and hold a brush steadily, you can complete a canvas. What the pre-printed canvas actually is explains why that holds.
What it does require is patience. A standard canvas is ten to twenty hours of work, spread over a few weeks. The people who abandon one rarely do so because it was too hard; they do so because they expected an afternoon and got a project.
The genuine difficulty is eyesight. Faint or small numbering is the most common complaint across the entire category, and the reason canvases end up half-finished in cupboards. Two things fix it, and neither is skill: a lamp positioned to the side of your working hand, and a larger canvas, since the same design printed bigger has bigger sections.
How to paint one
Set up first
If the canvas arrived rolled, lay it face up and weight the corners with books overnight. Do not iron it and do not take a blade to a crease. Put the paints in numerical order. Keep a damp cloth beside you, and photograph the blank canvas on your phone before you begin, because a covered number cannot be read.
One thing not to do, despite it being the most repeated advice in this hobby: do not stand your brushes in a jar of water. The bristles take a permanent bend against the bottom, and water wicks into the metal collar and loosens the glue. Wipe on the damp cloth and lay the brush down flat.
Work top to bottom
Start at the top and work down and across, so your painting hand never rests on something you finished ten minutes ago. Right-handed means top-left toward bottom-right, left-handed the reverse.
Begin with the large background areas rather than the fine detail. It gives you visible progress in the first hour, which is what makes you come back tomorrow.
One color at a time
Finish every section carrying the same number before opening the next pot. Fewer brush washes, more consistent color, and far less chance of losing your place.
Light before dark
Dark acrylic covers a light color that has strayed over a line in a single coat. Light acrylic will never cover dark, however many coats you apply. Painting the pale sections first keeps your mistakes fixable.
Two thin coats, never one thick one
When the printed number shows through, the instinct is to bury it. Resist. Thick acrylic dries as a ridge that catches the light permanently. Let the first coat dry and go over it again. Whites, creams and yellows nearly always need a second pass.
Fixing mistakes
Let it dry completely, then paint the correct color over the top. Do not wipe wet acrylic off a printed canvas, which smears into neighboring sections and can lift the printing. If two wet colors have bled together, wait, then re-cut the boundary: lighter color up to the line first, darker over it.
Choosing a design
Choose the picture rather than the difficulty rating. The canvas you finish is the one you actually wanted on your wall.
Three things predict a finished painting: broad areas of a single color, which move quickly and give early progress; a light or mid-tone palette, since dark designs are slower and near-black sections are hard to tell apart under lamplight; and a subject you would hang anyway.
Among our own thirty-nine designs, Hummingbird, Guiding Light, Away From It All and Rural Route Bluebirds are the forgiving ones. Orchard Puzzle, Sweet Petunias, Enchanted Woods and Mountain Village are dense and demanding, which is a fine choice made deliberately and a frustrating one made by accident.
All of them are licensed original artwork from working artists, and all are landscapes, wildlife, cabins and florals. We do not sell abstract designs or reproductions of famous paintings, whatever you may see claimed elsewhere. The full range is here, and there is also a custom canvas made from your own photograph if you would rather paint something you know.
What it actually does for you
Worth separating two things that get run together.
Art therapy is a clinical practice delivered by a trained therapist, and reviews of controlled trials have found real reductions in anxiety from it. Painting a kit at your kitchen table is a hobby, and nobody has shown that it treats anything.
What is fair to say is narrower and still worth having. A structured task that occupies the hands and eyes gives most people a couple of hours away from turning something over. The visible progress is genuinely satisfying. And it leaves an object behind, which an evening of television does not. For a great many of our customers that last point is the whole appeal.
Finishing and framing
Keep a little of each color back until the canvas is done, then go over the whole thing in daylight, filling thin patches and tidying ragged edges. Twenty minutes here changes the result more than any amount of care earlier.
Varnish is optional. A matte or satin acrylic varnish protects the surface and evens out the patchy sheen where some colors dry glossier than others. Let the paint cure for several days first, not just until it feels dry.
A framed canvas arrives stretched and ready to hang. An unframed one is trimmed close at the edge, so it suits a mat and a shop-bought frame rather than stretching over bars yourself. Decide which you want when you order. Hang the finished piece out of direct sunlight, which fades any painting over time.
Common questions
What kind of paint is used?
Acrylic, almost universally, because it dries in minutes, cleans up with water and has no fumes. If a pot has gone stiff, stir in a single drop of water at a time. Never use paint thinner or mineral spirits, which are for oil paint and will ruin acrylic permanently.
What if I run out of a color?
Check that replacements exist before buying any kit. Every one of our designs has a matching replacement paint set, and on a custom canvas you can add spare sets at checkout.
Can I change the colors?
Yes. The numbering is a suggestion, not a rule, and painting a design in a palette you chose is a perfectly good outcome. Decide before you start rather than halfway through.
Do I need to prime the canvas?
No. It arrives primed, with the numbers printed on top of the priming. A coat of gesso would cover the very thing you need to see.
Is it suitable for children?
Our kits are adult designs and we do not make a children's range. An older child manages the more forgiving designs well alongside an adult, particularly at the larger size where the sections are bigger.
Where should I start?
Our beginner's guide walks through a first canvas, and paint by numbers hacks collects the practical shortcuts regular painters work out after a few canvases.
