What to do when moping and apathy strike, especially in the sunless fall and winter. When the former entertainment does not bring pleasure. And the cat is munching somehow wrong. And a book is read on an unfinished balcony quite depressing. And even sporting activities do not produce well-deserved endorphins. In such a situation, only paintings by number will save you!

Video version of the article

Hello, everyone!

Welcome to Shopping Paradise. As you have understood from our short introduction, today we are going to talk about paint by numbers. In as concise and accessible a way as possible, I will answer the most popular questions about paintings. And also I will pay attention to paintings ordered from Aliexpress – dwelling on their pros and cons.

What is a paint by numbers?

To begin with, let’s understand what a painting by number is. These are some blanks of canvas, wood or cardboard, with marked areas containing the number of colors you need to color them with. That is, we get an advanced coloring, which does not need to be creative over the choice of palette. This greatly simplifies the work on the picture and allows you to create with your own hands a real work of art.

For anyone who is wondering what material is better to buy a painting – I advise you to choose canvas. It is on it that the paint will look professional. And they can be used without a joke to decorate an interior or a gift.

What comes in a paint by numbers kit?

The next question that should arise for anyone who is interested in the topic is what is included in a painting by number set. Here everything is quite flexible and depends on the manufacturer and the seller. The most complete set includes canvas with stretcher, brushes, paints, checklist, thumbnail, picture suspension, brush cloth, varnish and even instructions, if they are not on the box.

Paint by numbers kit

Let’s look more closely at each of the components.

Everything is clear with the canvas, but I want to say one thing about its condition. More often than not, when ordering from China, the canvas comes rolled up in a tube and may even be wrinkled. There is nothing wrong with it, as long as it is not torn. When the canvas is stretched on the stretcher, all the defects will be completely hidden.

The stretcher is a wooden or cardboard frame on which the picture is stretched. The wooden bars make the picture look three-dimensional, while the cardboard frame keeps it flat.

Brushes are almost always synthetic. This is because they are tougher and work better with acrylics. And I’ll share a tip right away. If all the brushes that come in the set have too thick a nap, and you can’t paint small fragments of the picture with them, you can refine them. To do this, take one brush and apply nail polish or PVA glue on the bottom half of the hair. The fleece will stick together and the end of the brush will allow the paint to be accurately applied to the miniature parts of the picture.

Кисти для рисования

Paints, as I said, will be acrylic in 99% of cases. These paints are water-based, which is both a plus and a minus.

Краска для картин по номерам

A plus would be that the paints dry quickly on the canvas, and once completely dry, they stop affecting with water. The disadvantage is a similar situation for paint cans. If they are open for a long time, the paint can dry out. When the paint becomes too thick, you can easily add a little water and bring it back to its former consistency. The main thing is not to overdo it, so that the consistency is not too watery and the color is not too pale.

Засохшая краска


Acrylic thinner is also commercially available. It doesn’t thin the color as much, and it can dissolve acrylics that have dried out a lot. For those who are worried about the condition of the paint in the can, here’s a tip. Buy a cheap palette, on which you apply a small amount of paint from the jar. Then close the jar so that it does not dry out, and paint the picture from the palette.

Палитра для красок

Checklist. This is a scaled-down version of the painting template with zones and color numbers that you can use as a clue. For example, you may accidentally overpaint a number on the canvas, or they simply won’t be in the main element. This happens when the zone size is very small, or someone messed up in production. Sometimes you may need glasses or a magnifying glass to work with the checklist.

Контрольный лист

Miniature. Here everything is simple and straightforward – it is a reduced copy of the finished painting. Most often applied to the box or sent as a separate sticker.

Hanging for the painting. These are small fasteners along with screws that can be used to hang the finished work on the wall. If you bought a version with a wooden stretcher, you can hang the painting without any hangers, just by hanging it on a nail, just like Uncle Podger, the hero of “Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)” did.

Подвесы для картины по номерам

The manual is something you won’t need after reading this article. But for the sake of decency, review it.

Инструкция к картине по номерам

Varnish. An extremely rare element of a painting by number set. It is used to cover the finished painting, in order to add brighter and shinier tones to the colors. It also serves as additional protection.

Varnish

And the last component, which has never yet fallen into my hands is a brush cloth. Let’s be honest, I don’t really need one, since there are enough rags and napkins in every home.

Ветошь для кисточек

Paint by numbers from Aliexpress

And right away I want to answer the question – what is the difference between the coloring by numbers from Aliexpress, from those sold in local stores.

There is no difference in components.

Содержимое набора картин по номерам с Алиэкспресс

The first difference is that most kits from Ali can be bought without a box – this greatly affects the cost downwards. And the second difference, stemming from the same reasons, the canvas is not nailed to the stretcher, it may not be in the set at all. This process must be done on its own. But do not get upset if you personally or your loved ones can not do it. Any picture framing studio will hammer down a stretcher and nail a canvas to it for a small fee.

Вариант картины с подрамником

Also note that you should paint the picture only after it is stretched on the stretcher, otherwise the paint will crack and deform on the finished work.

Selecting the goods

Now you know pretty much everything about painting by numbers, get to the selection and don’t understand how they differ from each other except for the kit we discussed.

There are not many factors. The first thing every buyer sees is the image itself. This is probably the main reason for purchasing this or that paint by numbers. And behind the scenes there are several secondary differences: the manufacturer and the complexity.

The quality of the product mainly depends on the manufacturer. But let’s be honest – regardless of the brand, all the components are made in China, so this factor should not even be taken into account.

Paint by number Aliexpress Brands

But I’ll say a few words about complexity. Most often, the complexity of a painting by number hides the number of small zones that need to be painted. If the sketch contains a huge number of miniature sectors – the picture will have the maximum complexity. Sometimes, though, when ordering from Aliexpress, sellers follow a slightly different logic, and sort the complexity of the coloring according to the number of colors in the set.

Separately, I would like to note that on Aliexpress you can order a painting by numbers with your picture. It costs a lot less than in regular DIY stores, so the service enjoys unprecedented popularity. You choose a photo, the number of colors and the size of the final product – voila, and in a couple of weeks you get a beautiful gift!

Fact

How to paint by number?

Finally, we got to the most exciting part, in which I will tell you how to draw properly and share my experiences and secrets.

Before you start the process, you need to secure the painting so that it doesn’t wiggle, so as not to smudge the paints while painting. I used to put it on the table and paint horizontally.

Now I have a magnetic board at home, on which I hang a stretcher with a canvas. If you have an easel, of course use it.

Рисование на мольберте

Next to the work area I put a cup of water in which I rinse the brush, changing the color. Now we look at the number on the canvas, open the can of paint, dip the brush and begin to paint. While, there are several approaches to coloring a picture by number.

By the color of the elements. Choose one color and paint all the areas marked with the right number. Moreover, it is better to start with the faintest colors, so that later you can correct accidentally painted over wrong elements. From the pluses of this approach I can allocate that there is no need to wash a brush and you work only with one can or tube of paint. The disadvantage, of course, is also there, namely the long search for the right areas, especially when the picture is complex.

Схема рисования по цветам. Шаг 1
Схема рисования по цветам. Шаг 2
Схема рисования по цветам. Шаг 3
Схема рисования по цветам. Шаг 4
Схема рисования по цветам. Шаг 5
Схема рисования по цветам. Шаг 6

Parts of the picture. We divide the picture visually into several areas. Most often these are 4 sectors if you imagine a rectangular coordinate system, known as a Cartesian coordinate system, in the middle of the picture. I suggest you start with the farthest upper area from your working hand. In my case it is the upper left, then paint the upper right and repeat the sequence with the lower ones.

By Entity. Each picture has several objects from which it is composed. For example, a person, an animal, a building, etc. Completely finish one entity and move on to the next.

Схема рисования по сущностям

On the plans. This is a more complicated technique for beginners. It consists of painting the background, then the central part of the composition and finishing elements in the foreground. At the same time we paint more bold strokes of paint, which will add volumetricity to the finished work.

Personally, when coloring, I use a combined approach, starting with the backgrounds. Then I move on to the large and middle areas with the same colors, sometimes, in parallel, painting small ones, but most often I try to leave them for later, especially the dark parts.

To help reduce color confusion during coloring, you can use a pencil to fill in the painted areas of the main picture on a checklist. This may be extra work for some, but it sure helps someone.

Закрашивание контрольного листа

In my first paints, I colored a checklist and I’ll tell you honestly – this manipulation makes it much easier to find the numbers. And it’s a great clue, not just for small areas. Sometimes, even when painting large areas, it’s a good helper. You can paint and paint, then turn your head away and forget, and then it’s no longer clear whether it was the edge of color or whether you should continue painting. That’s why I strongly recommend using such a “cheat sheet” for starters.

Problems with paintings by numbers

I will also tell you about one of the problems that a large number of painters run into. After painting the area, when the paint dries, the number starts to show through.

Номер под краской

First, you can apply several coats of paint to make the picture look more effective. Once the first coat has dried, apply the next coat. But it is necessary to understand that paint, which is used often, may not be enough. Therefore, it is better to finish painting at the very end, when everything is painted.

Secondly, from a distance these figures may not be visible, so by hanging the picture on the wall this problem will disappear by itself.

Third, if you can’t overcome the problem with layers, especially when the paint is very light, you can smear the number on the canvas with corrector, and then apply the desired color.

Smoothing and refinishing

At the very end, when the whole picture is painted, you can do some shading. This process is needed to blur the borders of the sectors and make the image more professional. Coloring by number is done in different ways, but I’ll mention 2 that I’ve worked with personally.

For the first option, we need paint and a brush. Take one of the two colors that border, apply it over the border, and gently smear it with a semi-dry brush. The result is a kind of gradient – a smooth transition from one color to another. 

Растушевка кисточкой

The second option was used very rarely, because it is suitable for large objects, which are not so much in the paintings by numbers. For it, we need a sponge, cosmetic sponge or fine foam rubber. We trim the piece to make a rectangular cut, and apply two paints that are adjacent. The result is a kind of two-color flag. Now gently press the sponge on the junction of the zones on the canvas.

Растушевка губкой

That’s it. We created a masterpiece with our own hands. If you have a creative streak, you can refine the painting where possible. For example, I sometimes add flowers or birds, if it’s appropriate. Although originally I had no talent for drawing, after a few paintings I painted myself, I began to get such positive signals.

Review of my paints by numbers

At the end I want to show a few of the works that are now hanging in my house. All of them were ordered from Aliexpress, and came to me safe and sound.

Мои работы

I haven’t encountered any problems with paints or canvas. For pricing and assortment – I’ll leave links to sellers:

Flowers

Картина по номерам цветы

Tiger

Картина по номерам тигр

Lilac

Картина по номерам сирень

Ship

Картина по номерам корабль

Girl with a bird and flowers

Картина по номерам девушка с птицей и цветами

In the future, we will write articles of this format on diamond embroidery painting, metal constructors, and other DIY crafting kits at home.

This concludes the review. I hope that you have received answers to all the questions you have had about painting by numbers and that you are ready to start your artistic journey. I wish you a successful creation and shopping experience. Bye!