Masterpiece by Numbers is another company selling paint by numbers kits. We are not going to review a competitor's products, because we have not painted them and a description of someone else's kit written by a rival is worth nothing to you.
What we can do is more useful: set out the checks that separate a good kit from a poor one anywhere in this category, and then say exactly what ours are, so you can hold the two up against each other yourself.
What buyers in this category consistently complain about
These are the same across every brand, ours included, and they are worth knowing because they tell you what to check.
- Numbers too small to read. The most common complaint in the whole category, and the usual reason a canvas gets abandoned half finished.
- Creased canvas. A canvas folded flat for cheaper shipping arrives with hard fold lines through the image. They sit exactly where the paint has to go and they do not press out.
- Paint dried in the pot. Kits sit in warehouses. Acrylic in a friction-lid pot dries out; vacuum-sealed pots do not.
- A color running out with a sky half finished, and no way to replace it.
- Catalog gaps. Every seller's range is narrower than its marketing implies, ours very much included.
Four things to check before ordering from anyone
Specifications change and any list of them dates quickly, so check these on the seller's own page rather than trusting an article, including this one.
- Does the canvas ship rolled or folded? This is the biggest quality difference in the category and it is invisible in a product photo. Rolled in a tube arrives with a soft curl that relaxes overnight. Folded arrives with creases you cannot remove.
- Are the paint pots sealed? If a listing does not say, assume they are not.
- Is there a full-size printed reference? A large printout beside you is the difference between a comfortable evening and squinting under a lamp. Given how common the small-numbers complaint is, this matters more than almost anything else.
- What sizes, and framed or unframed? A 16 by 20 is the standard. Larger canvases mean larger sections and an easier evening, not a harder one. An unframed canvas is a second project after the first one.
For custom-photo kits, add two more: where is it printed, and how long is the turnaround. Overseas production commonly means several weeks. Ask before you order for an occasion.
What ours are
Specifics rather than adjectives, so you can weigh them.
What we do: the canvas ships rolled in a tube rather than folded. The paints are vacuum-sealed. Every kit includes an 11 by 17 printed reference so you have something full-size to read the numbers from. Most designs come framed and pre-stretched, so there is nothing to do when you finish, and framed kits include an easel. We license the original artwork — Kim Norlien, the Hautman Brothers, Judy Buswell and Abraham Hunter among others — rather than tracing stock photographs, and there is a matched extra paint set for every design if you run short. Our custom paint by numbers is printed in the United States and ships from here.
What we do not: our catalog is 39 designs, not hundreds, and it is deliberately narrow — traditional American subjects, mostly landscapes, wildlife, cabins and florals. There is no abstract work, no pop art, no children's range and no reproduction of a famous painting. If that is what you want, we do not have it and would rather say so than waste your time. We are also not the cheapest; kits shipped direct from overseas will always undercut us.
Our brushes are adequate rather than excellent, and several of our own reviewers say they are a little coarse for the very finest detail. That is fair, and one decent size 0 round from an art shop solves it.
An honest word on the health claims
You will see it claimed — including in an older version of this article — that these kits improve memory, build brain connections and sharpen the mind. Be skeptical of all of it, from us as much as from anyone.
The research base is on art therapy, which is a clinical treatment delivered by a credentialed professional, and it supports reduced anxiety rather than improved cognition. Nobody has studied paint by numbers specifically, and no consumer craft product has been proven to treat anything. We go through what the evidence actually says in how art helps mental health.
What is fair to say: it is absorbing, it is repetitive in a way that settles people, and there is an object at the end. Several of our reviewers describe it as what they do instead of scrolling on a phone all evening. That is a modest claim and probably the true one.
Choosing between sellers
If breadth of catalog matters most — you want a specific subject and a lot of options — a larger seller will serve you better than we will, and there is no point pretending otherwise.
If what matters is that the canvas arrives uncreased, the paint is usable, the numbers are readable and the thing ships from the United States, that is what we have built around, and you can hold us to it.
Our catalog is here, finished work by customers is in the gallery, and the beginner's guide covers the method whichever kit you end up with. Our note on how to read paint by numbers reviews covers which complaints on a listing actually predict a problem.
