The most useful thing about a paint by numbers kit is that you can see what someone else did with the same canvas you are holding. Below are five finished pieces sent in by customers, alongside what each one asked of them.
None of these were painted by professional artists. They were painted at kitchen tables over a few weeks of evenings.
What a Kit Actually Contains
A canvas printed with faint outlines and a number inside every section, a set of acrylic paints numbered to match, brushes in two or three sizes, and a printed reference showing the finished image. Ours also include an 11 by 17 print of the reference, because the numbers on the canvas are small and a full-size copy beside you is the difference between a comfortable evening and a squinting one.
You match the number to the pot and fill the section in. There is no drawing and no color mixing. What you are practicing is brush control.
Five Finished Pieces
Drew G — galloping horses
Three horses at full gallop through shallow water, in warm chestnut and cream against a cool blue background. The warm-against-cool contrast is doing all the work here, and it is why the horses come forward off the canvas the way they do.
Animals in motion are among the harder subjects, because the eye knows immediately when a leg is wrong. Drew's is framed and hanging.
Dennis — Aurora Bliss
A cabin in deep snow under the northern lights, with a campfire burning in the foreground and light spilling from the windows. Two light sources in one picture, which is what makes it interesting and what makes it demanding.
The snow is the tricky part: it is not white but a dozen close blues and violets, and the sections are small. Aurora Bliss is by Kim Norlien.
Henry — Still Waters
A house on a lake at dusk, its lit windows reflected in the water, framed by dark pines and a bank of pink and white blossom.
Reflections are the section of this canvas people ask about. The trick is that a reflection is always slightly darker and less contrasted than the thing it reflects — the kit's colors already account for that, which is one of the quiet advantages of working from a numbered canvas. Still Waters is in the catalog.
Sue — a dog
A golden retriever in beige, cream and brown against a soft green ground, which is what makes the pale fur read rather than disappear.
Look at the eyes. The highlight in each one is a single small section of near-white, and it is the entire difference between a painting of a dog and a dog looking back at you. Portraits of a specific animal are what most people send us photographs of — Custom Paint by Numbers makes a canvas from your own.
Jane W — balloons over farmland
A dozen hot air balloons over patchwork fields and a winding river, each balloon a different pattern.
This one looks harder than it is. There are a great many colors, but the sections are large and clearly bounded, so it moves quickly. It is a good example of a canvas where a high color count does not mean a difficult evening.
Why People Keep Doing These
Worth being straightforward, since this subject attracts a lot of overclaiming.
What the research supports is that art therapy — structured creative work, usually facilitated — is associated with reduced anxiety. Art Therapy: A Complementary Treatment for Mental Disorders is a reasonable starting point. It does not study kits, and nothing here treats a condition. If you are struggling with your memory, your mood or anything else, talk to a doctor rather than buying a canvas.
What painters themselves report is narrower and more credible:
- An absorbing hour. Repetitive, focused work with something to show at the end. Several of our reviewers describe it as what they do instead of scrolling on a phone all evening.
- Fine motor practice. Small brushes and controlled edges, which is genuine practice whatever else it is.
- Something to do together. Two people, two canvases, one table. It is one of the few crafts that works that way.
- Visible progress. Each finished section is a small, obvious win, and that is more of the appeal than the finished picture is.
One Honest Caveat
You will paint outside a line. Everyone does. It is not a problem — let it dry and go over it with the correct color, and it disappears.
The claim that there is "no room for mistakes" is nonsense, and believing it is what makes people put a canvas away half-finished. The pieces above all have corrections in them somewhere.
See More, or Start One
There are many more finished pieces, sent in by the people who painted them, in the customer gallery.
If you want to start one, the catalog is here, and our beginner's guide covers the order to work in — background first, dark to light, one color at a time — which is most of what separates a clean finish from a messy one.
