Paint by Numbers for Beginners: How to Start and Finish Your First Canvas

Your first paint by numbers canvas is easier than it looks. There is no drawing and no color mixing. You match a number to a pot and fill in the shape.

What trips people up is the small stuff nobody mentions: which area to start with, what to do when the paint goes outside the line, whether a brush is ruined after you let it dry stiff. None of it is hard once you have done it once, so this guide walks through the whole thing in order.

What you need before you start

Your kit has the painting part covered. Our kits come with the canvas, a numbered pot for every color, and six brushes.

From your own cupboard you want:

• Two cups of water, one for rinsing and one that stays clean
• A few sheets of paper towel
• An old plate or scrap of card to rest brushes on
• A bright lamp
• Something to protect the table

A lamp matters more than people expect. Paint by numbers is close work, and good light makes the numbers readable so you stop squinting after twenty minutes.

Set up a spot you can leave alone

A canvas takes several sittings, so the best setup is one you do not have to pack away. A corner of a spare table or a desk works well. If you must clear it each night, keep everything in a shallow box so the whole lot moves in one trip.

Sit with the light coming over your shoulder onto the canvas, not into your eyes. Keep a picture of the finished design where you can glance at it without moving the canvas. The photo from the product page works, on a phone or printed out.

Three things to do before the first brush stroke

Flatten the canvas if it came rolled. Lay it face up under a few heavy books overnight. Taping the edges to a board or a tray also works and stops the corners curling while you paint.

Check your pots against the numbers on the canvas. Make sure the numbers you can see on the canvas all have a pot. Every pot in our kits has its number printed on it, so this takes a minute.

Open one pot and stir it gently with the handle end of a brush. Acrylic settles in the pot, and a quick stir brings it back together.

What order to paint in

This is the part that makes the difference between a painting that stays clean and one that gets smudgy.

Big areas first

Start with the largest shapes on the canvas. Sky, water, a wall, a plain background. They go quickly, and getting the bulk of the canvas covered early makes the picture start to appear.

Save the small fiddly shapes for when your hand knows the brush.

Light colors before dark

Work from your lightest colors toward your darkest. If a light color strays past its line, a dark color will cover it later. The other way round does not work, because light paint over dark leaves a grey smear.

Top to bottom

Within a section, work from the top of the canvas down. Your hand then rests on bare or dry canvas instead of on paint you just laid down. Left to right helps too if you are right handed, and the opposite if you are left handed.

One color at a time

Open one pot and find every shape with that number, all over the canvas. Paint them all, then close the pot and rinse the brush.

This saves a lot of rinsing, and it keeps colors from drying out in open pots. It also means the picture appears in patches, which is strangely satisfying to watch.

How to hold the brush and load the paint

Hold it like a pencil, fairly close to the bristles. More control that way.

Dip only the tip. A brush loaded to the middle drips, and the paint dries up inside the bristles where you cannot wash it out.

For a thin shape, touch the tip down and pull. For a wide shape, lay more of the brush on the canvas and work in short strokes in one direction. Paints that cover in one coat, like ours, only need one pass. Going back over a drying patch is what makes a surface look lumpy.

Looking after the brushes

Brushes last for years if you rinse them. What ruins them is being left to dry with paint still in the bristles.

Rinse as soon as you finish a color. Swirl the brush in the rinse water, wipe it on the paper towel, then rinse again in the clean water. Keep going until no color comes out.

Pinch the bristles back into a point with your fingers before you set it down. Lay brushes flat or stand them bristles up. A brush left standing in a cup of water bends at the tip and never comes back.

If a brush does dry stiff, soak the bristles in warm water for an hour and work the paint out gently with your fingers. Often it comes back. Never pull dried paint out with your nails, because that takes the bristles with it.

Fixing mistakes

Every mistake in paint by numbers is fixable. Acrylic dries opaque, so you can paint over almost anything.

Painted outside the line? Let it dry, then paint the correct color over the stray part. Do not try to wipe it while wet, because wiping spreads it.

Used the wrong color in a shape? Same answer. Let it dry fully, then paint the right color on top. Give it two coats if the wrong color was darker.

Covered a number before you painted it? Find the matching shape on a picture of the finished design. The colors around it usually tell you which one it is.

Paint gone thick or claggy in the pot? Add a single drop of water and stir. One drop at a time, since too much makes the paint thin and streaky.

Blob of paint where you did not want it? Wait. A dried blob can be painted over. A wet blob you poke at becomes a bigger problem.

How long a canvas takes

Most people finish over several sittings of an hour or two rather than in one go, and that is the nicer way to do it.

A simple design with big open shapes moves fast. A busy one with small shapes, like a face or water with reflections, takes much longer, and a detailed canvas can run to a few weeks of relaxed evenings.

Size changes it too. Our Classic size is 12 by 16 inches and Large is 16 by 20 inches. The larger canvas has roomier shapes, which often paints quicker even though there is more of it.

If you stall halfway, that is normal. The middle stretch is the least rewarding part, because the easy areas are done and the picture is not finished enough to admire. Do one color and stop. The last quarter goes quickly.

Finishing and framing

When the canvas is full, hold it at an angle under the lamp and look across the surface. Missed slivers show up as a shine or a different texture. Touch them up and leave it to dry fully, at least overnight.

A coat of clear acrylic varnish from a craft shop is optional. It evens out the finish and protects the surface. Matte varnish keeps it looking like a painting, and gloss makes the colors pop. Test it on a corner first.

For hanging, a stretched canvas goes straight on the wall. A rolled canvas needs stretching over wooden bars or a frame with a backing board. You can also buy a standard frame that fits the size, which is the cheap route. On our kits you can skip that step by choosing the framed option when you order, so the canvas arrives on its stretcher and is ready to hang the day you finish.

Picking a good first design

The design decides how your first canvas goes, more than your skill does.

Look for big open shapes and clear areas of light and dark. Simple flowers, one animal against a plain background, or a landscape with a lot of sky are all kind to a beginner. Our beginner collection is picked on exactly that basis.

Leave faces, night scenes, and still water with reflections for your second or third canvas. They are full of small shapes and close shades, and they are much more fun when you already trust your hand.

Pick a picture you want on your wall. You are going to look at it for a few weeks, and wanting to see it finished is what gets you to the end.