The canvas is the part of a paint by number kit that decides most of the experience, and it is the part nobody compares before buying. Paint can be topped up. Brushes can be replaced. A creased, badly printed or oddly trimmed canvas is what you are stuck with for the next twenty hours.
What it is made of
A paint by number canvas is woven cotton, already primed on the painting side. The priming is what stops the fabric drinking the paint straight into the weave, which is why acrylic sits on the surface and covers in one or two thin coats rather than soaking in and going patchy.
Because it is primed, it needs no preparation. You do not gesso it. A coat of gesso would go straight over the printed numbers and lines, which is the opposite of useful.
Some cheaper kits substitute a card or foam board. Board is flatter to start with, but it dents, it cannot be stretched or mounted the way fabric can, and it does not take a frame as well. If a listing describes the surface as a board rather than a canvas, that is worth knowing before you buy.
The print
The design is printed as outlined shapes with a number inside each one. Two things vary between kits and both matter more than the artwork does.
Line weight. Lines heavy enough to see clearly, light enough to disappear under a single coat of paint. Get it wrong in one direction and you cannot find the edges; wrong in the other and gray outlines show through the finished picture.
Number legibility. On a detailed design the smallest sections are a couple of millimeters across and the number inside is smaller still. This is a genuine limitation of the format rather than a fault in a particular kit, and honest copy should say so. What a good kit does about it is supply a large separate reference print. Ledgebay kits include an 11x17 print, which you can prop up and read at arm's length instead of leaning over the canvas with a magnifier.
Rolled, or folded
This is the single biggest difference between kits, and it is decided before the box ever reaches you.
A canvas folded flat into an envelope arrives with creases pressed through the print. They do not iron out, the brush catches on them, and paint pools along the fold lines. People routinely describe unfolding one and finding white lines running across the design.
A canvas rolled in a tube arrives flat. It costs more to ship, which is exactly why cheap kits are folded. In Ledgebay's own reviews it is the most-mentioned single thing, usually by someone comparing it to a kit they bought elsewhere for a relative.
If a listing does not say how the canvas ships, assume folded.
Framed and unframed, and the trimmed edge
A framed canvas arrives already stretched over a wooden frame. It is flat, it is rigid, it is ready to hang when you finish, and it removes the whole question of what to do afterward. Ledgebay framed sizes also include a small wooden easel.
An unframed canvas ships rolled and costs less. Here is the part that is usually left out: paint by number canvases are trimmed close to the printed image, leaving little spare material. Stretching a canvas over wooden bars needs several inches of blank margin to wrap around and staple. Most unframed paint by number canvases do not have it, and pulling one over bars anyway drags the printed edge around the corner or tears it.
That is not a defect, it is how the format is cut. But it does mean an unframed canvas wants mounting flat to a rigid board, or framing flat behind a mat, rather than stretching. The framing guide goes through the options, and choosing a frame covers the aesthetics.
Measure your own canvas before buying anything. Measure the printed image, then measure the blank border. Under an inch of border settles the question.
Size, and why it is really about section size
Canvas size sounds like a decision about your wall. It is mostly a decision about your eyesight.
The same design at 16x20 has noticeably larger sections than at 12x16. Every shape and every printed number scales up with the canvas. If reading small print is any effort at all, the larger canvas of a simpler design beats the smaller canvas of a busy one, every time.
Ledgebay stock designs come as 12x16 framed, 16x20 framed and 16x20 unframed. A custom canvas from a photo adds 18x24, which is the largest offered and the right choice for a photograph with more than two faces in it.
Handling the canvas while you paint
- Tape it down. An unframed canvas that slides under the brush is a constant small annoyance. Tape the corners to the table.
- Paint flat, not upright. Flat is steadier for fine work and stops thin paint running. The easel that comes with framed kits is better used for displaying the finished canvas.
- Keep your hand off it. Work top to bottom and away from your painting hand. Acrylic that feels dry can still take a print from a resting wrist.
- Do not roll it back up mid-project. Painted areas cracking along a roll is a real risk once there is paint on the surface.
If your canvas arrives creased
It happens with folded kits and occasionally with a rolled one that has been packed too tightly.
The gentlest approach that works: lay the canvas face down on a clean towel and put weight evenly across it, a stack of books over a board, for a day or two. Time and even pressure do more than force. Mounting it flat to a board at the end also pulls a lot of remaining waviness out.
What not to do: never take a blade to a crease, and never iron the painted side directly.
Common questions
Can I paint on both sides?
No. Only the printed side is primed. The back is bare cotton and will drink paint straight into the weave.
Do the printed lines disappear completely?
Under a dark color, yes, in one coat. Under a pale color laid over a dark printed number, often not until a second thin coat has gone on. Judge it from normal viewing distance rather than with your nose against the canvas.
My canvas has a small mark on it. Will it show?
Almost certainly not, since nearly the whole surface ends up under two coats of paint. A mark in the narrow white border is hidden by any frame or mat.
Can I cut the canvas down to fit a frame I already own?
You can, but cut into the white border only, and only after the paint has fully cured. Cutting into the printed image loses composition you cannot get back.
Where can I see finished ones?
The customer gallery shows canvases painted and photographed by customers, which is a more honest preview than any product photograph. The catalog lists all 39 designs.
