For paint by numbers you need far fewer brushes than a general brush guide will tell you. Two or three small round brushes and one small flat will paint an entire canvas. Everything else in a twenty-piece set is for a different kind of painting.
That is worth saying plainly, because most advice on this subject is written about painting in general and then labeled paint by numbers. A numbered canvas asks for something quite specific, and knowing what it is saves both money and frustration.
What a numbered canvas actually asks for
You are filling small, closed, irregular shapes with flat color, up to an edge you are trying not to cross. There is no blending to do, no wet-in-wet, no washes, no texture to build. The whole job is control at a small scale, with enough paint on the brush to cover a printed number underneath.
So the qualities that matter are a fine point that holds its shape, a bristle stiff enough to push slightly thick paint into a corner, and a brush small enough to get into the tightest section on the canvas. Almost nothing else does.
The shapes, and which ones you need
Round. A round ferrule tapering to a point. This is the brush that does the work. The point handles the fine sections and the belly of the brush carries enough paint to fill a medium one, so a single good round can cover most of a canvas. If you buy one brush, buy this.
Flat. A square-ended brush that lays down a broad, even band of color. Worth having a small one for skies, water and background areas, where a round takes four strokes to do what a flat does in one. The edge is also useful for painting up against a long straight boundary.
Filbert. A flat brush with a rounded end. It is genuinely good at soft edges and blending, which is why every set includes one. On a numbered canvas there is nothing to blend, so it mostly sits in the pot. Useful later if you take up freehand painting.
Fan. Splayed bristles for texture — foliage, grass, clouds, dry-brush effects. There is no use for it on a numbered canvas at all. Guides recommend it because it sounds impressive.
Liner or script. Very long, very thin bristles for continuous flowing lines and lettering. The long hairs make it flexible and hard to control in a small space, so it is worse for tiny sections than a small round, not better. Skip it.
The short version: rounds and one flat. The rest of the set is decoration.
Sizes worth having
Brush sizes are not standardized between brands, so the number on the handle is only a rough guide. What you want is a range:
- A very small round — for the finest sections, the ones you need good light to see.
- A medium round — the brush you will spend most of the evening holding.
- A small flat — for the largest open areas.
Three brushes is enough for almost any canvas. A fourth in the smallest size available is worth adding if you have chosen a detailed design, because the finest brush is the one that wears out first.
Synthetic or natural
For paint by numbers, synthetic, without much argument.
Paint by numbers kits use water-based acrylic, and synthetic filaments are made for water-based paint. They keep their shape when wet, they do not swell and go limp, they clean easily, they cost less, and they last longer under the repeated washing this kind of painting involves.
Natural bristle has real advantages elsewhere. Stiff hog bristle moves thick oil paint and holds a texture. Soft sable holds a superb point and carries a lot of water, which is why watercolorists pay for it. Neither is an upgrade for filling numbered sections in acrylic, and both are less durable in water.
One piece of shopping trivia worth knowing: a brush sold as camel hair contains no camel. It is a trade term for soft brushes made of squirrel, pony, goat or ox hair, or a blend of them, usually at the cheap end. If you see it on a label, it tells you the brush is soft and inexpensive, not what animal it came from.
Are the brushes in the kit good enough?
Mostly, yes, and this is the question people actually want answered.
Every one of our kits includes brushes in a range of sizes with wooden handles, and the feedback on them is good — customers regularly say they are better than the thin plastic-handled brushes that come with cheaper kits. The consistent exception, and it comes up often enough to be worth stating, is that a few people find them too coarse for the very finest sections on a detailed design.
If that describes you, the fix is small: one good synthetic round in the smallest size you can find, from an art store. It costs very little and it changes the tightest ten percent of the canvas. There is no need to replace the rest of the set.
Keeping them alive
Acrylic ruins brushes faster than any other paint, because once it dries in the ferrule it is not coming out. A few habits make the difference between brushes that last one canvas and brushes that last years.
- Never stand a brush in a jar of water. This is the single most common way brushes die. The weight of the handle bends the bristles permanently against the bottom of the jar, and prolonged soaking swells the wooden handle and works the ferrule loose. Lay brushes flat instead.
- Rinse before the paint dries, not after. Acrylic sets in minutes. If you are stopping mid-section, rinse first and think second.
- Wash at the ferrule, not just the tip. Paint creeping up into the metal band is what splays a brush. Work the water right up to the base of the bristles with your fingers.
- Reshape the point while wet and let it dry flat or bristles-up. A brush left to dry in a bent shape stays bent.
- Do not use solvents. Acrylic needs soap and water. Alcohol, acetone and turpentine will attack synthetic filaments and are not needed.
Our fuller guide to cleaning fine-tip brushes covers what to do if paint has already dried in one.
When to replace one
A brush is finished when it will not come back to a point after washing, when the bristles splay in two directions no matter what you do, or when the ferrule has come loose on the handle. Stiffness at the base that does not soften in warm soapy water means dried paint has built up inside, and at that stage it is cheaper to replace the brush than to keep fighting it.
You will get through small rounds faster than anything else, because they do the most work and are the most easily damaged. That is normal, and it is the reason to buy them singly rather than in another large set.
If you are choosing a canvas to go with them, our kit collection lists every design, and the beginner's guide covers what to expect from the first evening.
