Most paint by numbers kits are bought for the picture. Custom kits are bought for the subject, and that is a completely different purchase.
People send us the house they grew up in. A dog that died last year. A wedding photograph. A boat somebody's father built. The painting is not really the point — the point is spending twenty hours looking closely at something that matters, and having an object at the end of it.
Here is how it works, which photographs suit it, what the result will honestly look like, and how to judge one custom seller against another.
How a photograph becomes a numbered canvas
The process is less mysterious than it sounds.
Your photograph is reduced to a limited set of colors — a few dozen rather than the millions in a digital image. Areas of similar color are grouped into regions, each region is outlined and given a number, and that outline drawing is printed onto canvas. A pot of paint is mixed for each number.
Numbering is one of several methods that supply the drawing so you can get on with the painting. the grid method and the others are worth knowing about.
Two things follow from that, and they explain almost everything about how custom kits turn out.
Detail gets simplified. Fine gradations become flat areas. A face lit softly across the cheek becomes three or four distinct shapes. That is what makes it paintable, and it is also why the result looks painted rather than photographic.
Small things disappear. Anything smaller than the smallest printable region cannot survive the conversion. Text on a sign, the pattern on a dress, a distant face in a group — these come out as approximate blocks or vanish altogether.
Choosing the photograph
This decides the result more than anything else. Spend ten minutes here and you will be glad you did.
- One clear subject, close in the frame. A person, a pet, a house, a boat. The subject should fill a good part of the picture. A person standing small in a large landscape becomes a small painted blob in a large landscape.
- Good, even light. Daylight is ideal, side light better than flat. A photo taken with a flash in a dark room has no shadow structure to convert, and the result looks flat.
- One or two faces, not eight. This is the single most common disappointment. Faces need room. A family of six on a 12x16 gives each face about an inch, and an inch of face is a handful of numbered shapes. If there are several people, use the largest canvas.
- The highest resolution version you have. The original from the phone or camera, not a screenshot of it, not one pulled off a messaging app, which will have compressed it.
- Contrast between subject and background. A black dog against a dark sofa has almost nothing to separate them. Same dog on a light rug reads immediately.
Photographs that struggle: group shots, very old and faded prints, heavily filtered images, anything blurry, and screenshots of screenshots. An old photo can work well if the contrast is still there — faded is fixable, out of focus is not.
What the result will actually look like
The honest version, because expectations are where these purchases go wrong.
It will look like a painting of your photograph, not a copy of it. Recognizably the same subject, in the same pose, in the same light, rendered in flat areas of color with visible edges between them. Standing close you see the construction. From across a room it reads as a painting.
If what you want is an exact reproduction of the photo on canvas, a printed canvas will do that and will do it better. A numbered kit is for someone who wants to have made it.
Pets do particularly well. Fur breaks into tonal areas naturally, and a slightly loose edge reads as fur rather than as an error. Houses and landscapes do well too — architecture is already made of flat planes. Faces are the hardest, because we are all experts on faces and a shape half a degree out reads as a stranger.
Choosing a size
Bigger is easier, not harder. The same photo on a larger canvas gets larger numbered sections, which are easier to see and easier to stay inside.
- 12x16 — one subject, simple background. A pet, a house, a single portrait.
- 16x20 — the general-purpose choice, and the one most people should take.
- 18x24 — more than one face, a detailed scene, or a painter who would rather have larger sections to work in. This is the largest we make.
How to judge a custom paint by number seller
Custom kits are personalized, which means they generally cannot be returned, which means the judging has to happen before you order. Six things worth checking, whoever you buy from.
1. Where it is printed, and how long shipping takes. A great many custom kits sold online are drop-shipped from overseas, which is why delivery estimates of three to six weeks are common in this category. If a seller is vague about where the kit is made or gives a wide delivery window, that is usually the reason. Ask before you order, particularly if it is a gift with a date attached.
2. Whether you see a preview before it prints. A seller who shows you the converted image before printing lets you catch a bad conversion while it is still fixable. Without that step you find out when the box arrives.
3. Real finished results, not renders. Look for photographs of completed customer canvases rather than a digital mockup of what the artwork might look like. The gap between a render and a finished kit is where most disappointment lives.
4. Whether replacement paint exists. On a custom kit the paints are mixed for your image, so if a heavily used color runs out mid-way there may be no way to match it. Check whether extra paint can be ordered, and if it can, consider buying it up front.
5. Rolled or folded. A canvas shipped folded arrives with crease lines through the image, and they often never fully flatten. Rolled in a tube is what you want. This is the most-mentioned thing in our own reviews and it costs sellers money, which is why not everyone does it.
6. The return policy on a personalized item. Most sellers, including us, cannot take back a canvas printed with your photograph. Know that going in, and read what they do offer if something arrives damaged or printed wrong.
What we make
Plainly, so you can weigh it against the list above.
Our custom paint by numbers kits are made from a photo you upload and printed in the USA rather than drop-shipped from overseas, which is the main reason they arrive in a reasonable time. They come in 12x16, 16x20 and 18x24, framed or unframed, and you can add one or two extra paint sets at checkout, which is the sensible answer to the running-out problem.
Every kit ships rolled in a tube, never folded, with vacuum-sealed paints, brushes in a range of sizes, and an 11x17 printout of the design so you can check a section without leaning over the canvas. There are 197 reviews on it at an average of 4.9 stars.
You can see what finished ones actually look like, painted by customers rather than rendered, in the customer gallery. That is the page to look at before deciding, more than anything on the product page.
If a numbered canvas of somebody else's artwork is closer to what you wanted, our 39 stock designs are licensed original paintings — landscapes, wildlife, cabins and florals.
Common questions
How long does a custom kit take to make and ship?
It depends entirely on where it is printed. Kits made domestically are usually a matter of days plus transit. Kits drop-shipped from overseas commonly quote three to six weeks. If there is a date attached to the gift, ask for a specific answer before ordering rather than relying on a range.
How do I know a custom paint by number company is legitimate?
Look for finished customer photographs rather than renders, reviews that mention specific designs and specific problems rather than generic praise, a clearly stated return policy on personalized goods, and a straight answer about where the kit is printed. A seller who will tell you what their kit does badly is usually telling the truth about the rest.
Can I use an old or damaged photograph?
Often, yes. Fading and color casts are correctable. Blur and low resolution are not. If the photo is a print, photograph or scan it flat in good daylight rather than snapping it at an angle.
Can I have more than one photo on a canvas?
Not usually, and it is rarely a good idea. Two subjects on one canvas means each gets half the space, and space is what makes the detail survive.
How long will it take to paint?
Around 10 to 20 hours on a 16x20 for most people, spread over a few weeks. Custom canvases sometimes run a little longer than stock designs, because a photograph tends to convert into more sections than a painted original does.
Is it a good gift?
It is a good gift for someone who will enjoy painting it. It is a poor gift for someone who will feel obliged to. If you are not sure, the safer version is to give it to yourself and give them the finished painting.
