Morning Ride
- Free shipping on orders over $40
- 30-day returns on unopened items
- A veteran-owned business
Morning Ride is a paint by numbers kit for adults, taken from Abraham Hunter's painting of a bicycle on a dune path at sunrise.
A sandy path runs between two weathered timber fences down toward the beach, with sea oats leaning in over the rails on both sides. A white bicycle is propped against the right-hand fence with flowers in its basket, as though somebody has stopped for a moment. The sun is coming up over a flat sea and the cloud above it has gone orange and violet, and small yellow wildflowers are scattered through the grass along the fenceline.
Hunter builds the whole picture out of one warm light. Ledgebay licenses the original artwork rather than copying a stock image, so what you finish is a real painting, not a generic design.
What's in the box
- Pre-printed cotton canvas, rolled in a tube rather than folded, so it arrives without creases to iron out
- Full set of acrylic paints, vacuum-sealed so they arrive moist
- Four brushes in different sizes, wooden handles
- Printed instructions and a full-color reference photo
- An 11" x 17" printout of the design, useful if you'd rather not lean over the canvas
- Framed sizes also include a wooden tabletop easel
Choosing a size
The framed 12x16 and framed 16x20 arrive pre-stretched on a wooden frame, ready to hang the moment you put the brush down. No mounting, no separate frame to buy. The unframed 16x20 gives you the same canvas and the same paints for less. It is trimmed close to the printed edge, so it suits taping or mounting to a board rather than stretching over your own frame.
Will I be able to see the numbers?
Take the 16x20 and keep a magnifier to hand. Reviewers of this design mention needing one in places, and the sea oats are the reason: a great many thin blades crossing each other, each its own numbered sliver. The 11" x 17" printout is genuinely useful on this one for working out which blade is which.
Who it suits
One of our best-rated designs and one of the more demanding. A reviewer puts it well: not for the faint of heart, a lot of small straight lines, keep your paint thin. The sky and the sand are broad and lovely, and then there are the fence rails and the grass. It is also the kit customers most often describe as absorbing, one noting her daughter spends hours on it, feels she has covered very little, and finds it takes her mind off things entirely.
Common questions
Do I need any painting experience?
None. Every section is printed with a number that matches a numbered pot, so there is no drawing, no color mixing and nothing to work out in advance. Start with the biggest areas and work down.
How long does Morning Ride take?
Longer than most. Budget nearer 25 hours than 15 on a 16x20. There is no rush and nothing spoils if you leave it a while.
Any advice for the grass and the fence rails?
Thin the paint slightly with water so it flows off the brush instead of dragging, and pull each blade in one stroke from the base outward rather than filling it in like a shape. A fine brush of your own is worth having for this design.
What if a color runs low or dries out?
There is a matching replacement paint set for this design, so a dried pot never ends the project. If a pot has only thickened, a drop of water and a stir usually brings it back.
- Work from the top down. Painting downward keeps your hand off sections you have just finished, which is the most common way a canvas gets smudged.
- Finish one color everywhere before moving to the next. Every section marked 4, then every 5. It uses less paint, means less brush cleaning, and the painting comes together faster than working area by area.
- Two thin coats beat one thick one. Pale colors in particular will let the printed number show through on the first pass. Let it dry and go over it again rather than loading the brush heavily.
- Keep the reference print beside you. Every kit includes a full-size 11 x 17 print. The numbers on the canvas are small, and the finest sections are much easier under a good lamp, with a magnifier if you use one for reading.
- If the paint thickens, add a single drop of water. Stir it in and close the pot firmly between sittings. Acrylic dries fast once it is open to the air.
- Stock designs. 12 x 16 framed, 16 x 20 framed, or 16 x 20 unframed.
- Custom kits from your own photo. 12 x 16, 16 x 20 or 18 x 24, framed or unframed.
- How long it takes. A few evenings if you paint steadily, or a few weeks treated as a relaxed hobby. The more detailed designs take considerably longer than the open ones, which is worth knowing before you pick.
- A pre-printed cotton canvas. It ships rolled in a tube rather than folded, so it arrives without a crease through the middle. Framed or unframed, depending on the option you choose above.
- A complete set of acrylic paints. Numbered to match the canvas and vacuum-sealed, so they arrive workable rather than dried out.
- Brushes in a range of sizes. Enough to cover the broad areas and pick out the finer sections without swapping tools constantly.
- An 11 x 17 reference print. A full-size copy of the numbered canvas, which is a good deal easier to read than the canvas itself.
- A color photograph of the finished painting. So you can see where the piece is heading before you start.
- An easel, with the framed sizes. The unframed option does not include one.
- Orders ship within 2 to 4 business days. Often sooner.
- Sent from a US warehouse. We ship from the fulfillment center closest to your address.
- Free shipping on orders over $40. A flat $5.95 below that.
- 30-day returns on unopened items. Returned unopened within 30 days of purchase and we refund in full.
