Hummingbird is one of the more forgiving designs in the range, which is why it turns up so often as somebody's first canvas. It is a Hautman Brothers painting: a hummingbird hovering at a stand of blue morning glories climbing a weathered post, with soft green behind. Here is what comes in the box, and what to do with the one part of it that is genuinely tricky.
The design
The artwork is by the Hautman Brothers, who are among the best-known wildlife painters working in the United States. Ledgebay licenses the original painting rather than adapting a stock photograph, which is why the composition holds up: the flowers lead the eye up the post, the bird sits where the two diagonals meet, and the background is deliberately quiet so that the bird and the blooms carry the picture.
You can see it, and the other bird designs, in the animals collection. Orchard Puzzle is the busier Hautman Brothers piece, with a dozen songbirds in blossom, and Rural Route Bluebirds is bluebirds on a mailbox.
Sizes and what is in the box
- 12x16 framed and 16x20 framed — canvas already stretched on a wooden frame, ready to hang when you finish, and a wooden tabletop easel included.
- 16x20 unframed — same canvas and paints, lower price, no easel. Trimmed close to the printed edge, so it suits mounting to a board rather than stretching over your own bars.
There is no 24x36. The largest canvas available anywhere in this catalog is 18x24, and only on a custom kit made from your own photograph.
Every kit contains:
- Pre-printed cotton canvas, rolled in a tube rather than folded, so it arrives with no creases
- Acrylic paints, vacuum-sealed so they arrive moist
- Brushes in a range of sizes
- Printed instructions and an 11x17 printout of the design
Why it suits a first canvas
Three reasons, and they are worth understanding because they apply to choosing any design.
The background is broad and soft, so a large share of your hours are spent covering big areas with a big brush, which is the enjoyable part. The morning glory blooms are wide, curved shapes with clear edges, and a slightly imperfect petal edge still reads as a petal. And the palette is unusually coherent: blues and violets against warm greens, with no sudden jumps, so the canvas looks right long before it is finished.
The one demanding area is the bird itself, which is small relative to everything else and carries most of the fine sections. If you take the 16x20 those sections get meaningfully larger, and that is the single most useful decision you can make.
Painting iridescence
A hummingbird's throat is not colored the way a robin's breast is. Much of that flashing red or green comes from microscopic structure in the feathers scattering light, rather than from pigment, which is why the color seems to switch on and off as the bird turns.
Paint cannot do that, and trying to force it is what makes hummingbird paintings look wrong. What works instead is contrast. Keep the surrounding feathers darker than feels natural, and let the numbered highlight color sit against them without softening the edge. The impression of a flash comes from the jump between two adjacent values, not from the brightness of either one.
Practically, that means resisting the urge to blend at the throat. Everywhere else on this canvas a soft transition helps. There, a hard edge is correct.
Working through it
- Work from the largest sections down to the smallest, and from the top of the canvas downward so your hand is not resting on wet paint.
- Do one color at a time across the whole canvas before rinsing the brush. Less washing up, less wasted paint.
- The pale flower highlights often need a second coat to cover the printed number. Let the first dry first.
- Keep the 11x17 printout beside you and read the numbers off that rather than leaning over the canvas.
- Good light beside you matters more than good eyesight. A lamp to one side, not behind you.
Expect somewhere between ten and fifteen hours on the 12x16, a few more on the 16x20, spread over as many evenings as you like. Nothing spoils if you leave it a fortnight.
If a color runs low
The greens do most of the work on this design and are the ones that tend to run out. There is a matching Hummingbird extra paint set, so a heavily used or dried pot never ends the project. If a pot has only thickened, a drop of water and a stir usually brings it back.
Finishing and hanging
Let it cure for a few days before it goes on a wall, not just until it is dry to the touch. A framed canvas needs nothing else. An unframed one is best mounted to a board or framed under a mat, which covers the trimmed edge; there is a walkthrough in how to frame a paint by number canvas.
If you would rather paint a photograph of your own, a custom kit converts one into a numbered canvas the same way. Other customers' finished pieces are in the customer gallery.
