Everything you need is in the box, and the canvas needs no preparation at all. That is worth saying first, because the most common piece of bad advice given to beginners is to prime the canvas with gesso before starting. Do not. A paint by numbers canvas arrives already primed, with the outlines and numbers printed on top of that priming, and a coat of gesso would cover the very thing you need to see.
What follows is what actually happens on a first canvas, in order.
Setting up
Give the canvas a night to flatten
A canvas that arrived rolled will want to curl. Unroll it face up on a table, weight the corners with books, and leave it overnight. It will lie flat by morning. Do not iron it and do not attack a crease with a blade.
Light matters more than anything else you will set up
Put a lamp to the side of your working hand rather than behind you, so your own hand does not throw a shadow across the section you are painting. If you already wear reading glasses, use them, and consider a magnifier if the numbers look small. More first canvases are abandoned over eyesight than over skill.
Lay things out
Cover the table. Put the paints in numerical order so you are not hunting for 14 with a loaded brush. Keep a damp cloth or sponge beside you, and a scrap of paper to test on.
One thing not to do: do not stand your brushes in a jar of water. It is the most repeated piece of advice in this hobby and it ruins brushes. The bristles bend permanently against the bottom of the jar, and water wicks into the metal collar and loosens the glue. Wipe on the damp cloth instead and lay the brush down flat.
Photograph the blank canvas
Thirty seconds now, and worth it. Once a number is painted over you cannot read it, and sooner or later you will want to check what belonged where.
Painting it
Start at the top
Work from the top 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. Slide a sheet of clean paper under your hand as insurance.
Starting with the background and the large areas is a good instinct for a different reason: it gives you visible progress in the first hour, which is what makes you want to come back tomorrow.
Finish one color before opening the next
Work through every section carrying the same number, then move on. Fewer brush washes, a consistent color across the whole canvas, and far less chance of losing your place. Hopping between colors is how a canvas ends up half-finished in a cupboard.
Light colors first
Dark acrylic covers a light color that has strayed over a line in one coat. Light acrylic will not cover dark, however many coats you give it. Painting the pale sections first keeps your mistakes fixable, which is the right priority on a first canvas.
Outline, then fill
For anything bigger than a fingernail, cut the edge in with the tip of the brush first, then fill the middle with the side of it. Load less paint than feels right, especially in small sections, because a flooded brush goes over the line before you can stop it.
Two thin coats, never one thick one
When a number shows through, the instinct is to bury it under more paint. Resist. Thick acrylic dries as a ridge that catches the light permanently and stays soft underneath for days. Let the first coat dry and go over it again. Whites, creams and yellows nearly always need the second pass.
If the paint is stiff, one drop of water
Stir in a single drop at a time until it moves cleanly off the brush. Overshoot and it turns transparent, and transparent paint will not cover a printed number at all.
Fixing mistakes
All of them are fixable, and the method is nearly always the same: let it dry completely, then paint the correct color over the top. Expect two or three coats if you are covering something darker.
What not to do is wipe wet acrylic off the canvas. It smears into the neighboring sections and can lift the printing underneath, turning a small problem into a larger one.
If two wet colors have bled into each other, wait, then re-cut the boundary: lighter color back up to the line first, darker color over it. The repair is nearly invisible. Preventing it is easier still, by giving a section ten minutes before painting its neighbor.
Finishing
Touch-ups first
Keep a little of each color back until the canvas is done, then go over the whole thing in good daylight, filling thin patches and tidying ragged edges. Twenty minutes here changes the finished result more than any amount of care earlier.
Varnish, if you want to
Optional. A matte or satin acrylic varnish protects the surface and evens out the patchy sheen you get where some colors dry glossier than others. Let the paint cure for several days first, not just until it feels dry, and apply thin coats in a dust-free room. Gloss varnish makes colors richer and also makes the surface reflect lamplight, which is worth considering before you commit.
Framing
A framed canvas is already stretched on a wooden frame and ready to hang. An unframed one is trimmed close to the edge, which means it suits a mat and a shop-bought frame rather than stretching over bars yourself, so decide which you want at the point of ordering rather than afterward. Hang it out of direct sunlight, which fades any painting over time.
Choosing a first canvas
Two pieces of advice that run against instinct.
Go bigger, not smaller. A 16 x 20 has larger sections than a 12 x 16 of the same design, which means less strain and less frustration. The larger canvas is the easier one.
Choose the picture, not the difficulty rating. The canvas you finish is the one you actually wanted on your wall. Broad areas of a single color, a light or mid-tone palette, and a subject you would hang anyway are what predict a finished painting.
Among ours, Hummingbird, Guiding Light, Away From It All and Rural Route Bluebirds are the forgiving ones. Orchard Puzzle, Sweet Petunias and Enchanted Woods are dense and demanding, which is fine if you choose them on purpose. All thirty-nine are in the full collection, and there is also a custom canvas made from your own photograph if you would rather paint something you know.
What is in the box
Pre-primed cotton canvas, shipped rolled in a tube rather than folded so it arrives without creases through the picture. Acrylic paints, vacuum-sealed so they have not dried on a shelf. Brushes in a range of sizes. An 11 x 17 reference print, large enough to actually work from. The framed sizes include a small easel.
Two things about us, since neither tends to come up on a page like this. Ledgebay is a veteran-owned business. And every design in the range is licensed from a working artist, who is paid a commission on each sale, rather than being a stock image printed without anyone's permission.
There is a longer companion piece in our guide for beginners, and a set of practical shortcuts in paint by numbers hacks once you have a canvas or two behind you.
Common questions
How long does a canvas take?
Ten to twenty hours for a standard size, spread over a few weeks. There is no correct pace, and nothing goes wrong if you leave it for a month.
Do I have to stay inside the lines?
No. The lines are a guide, and once the canvas is filled the boundaries largely disappear anyway. Nobody looking at the finished picture on a wall sees the edge that bothered you.
What if I run out of a color?
Every one of our designs has a matching replacement paint set, and on a custom canvas you can add spare sets at checkout. If you are buying from anyone else, check that replacements exist before you order.
Can I blend the colors?
Yes, and it is the easiest way to make a numbered canvas look less flat. Soften the join between two adjacent colors with a barely damp brush while both are still wet. Skies and water benefit most. It is entirely optional.
Is this suitable for a child?
Our kits are adult designs, and we do not make a children's range. An older child manages the more forgiving designs well with an adult alongside, particularly at the larger size where the sections are bigger.
