To paint by numbers, you fill each numbered area on the canvas with the paint pot that carries the same number, one color at a time. Work from the top of the canvas down, let each coat dry before painting next to it, and add a second thin coat where the printed numbers still show. You don't draw or mix anything. The picture and the palette come prepared.
Here's how to do paint by numbers in working order, from opening the box to a dry painting ready to seal.
How to Paint by Numbers in 10 Steps
- Check the kit and the paint.
- Flatten and secure the canvas.
- Set up your workspace and light.
- Decide your painting order.
- Load the brush and paint your first color.
- Clean the brush between colors.
- Let each color dry before painting next to it.
- Add a second coat where numbers show.
- Fix gaps and small mistakes.
- Check the finished painting in daylight.
What You Need Before You Start
The kit covers the painting itself: a canvas printed with numbered areas, acrylic paint pots numbered to match, usually three brushes, and a reference sheet of the finished image. Add these from home:
| Item | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Two cups of water | First rinse in one, clean rinse in the other |
| Paper towels or a lint-free cloth | Blotting the brush and shaping the tip |
| Toothpicks | Stirring paint and dotting areas smaller than the brush tip |
| Desk lamp with neutral white light | Telling similar shades and faint numbers apart |
| Masking tape and a flat board | Keeping a rolled canvas flat |
| Old shirt or apron | Dried acrylic rarely washes out of fabric |
| Optional: LED magnifier, white acrylic paint pen | Tiny numbers, and pale areas where the print shows through |
Choosing your first kit? Look at the smallest areas in the product photo, not the canvas size. Large areas and fewer colors make an easier start, which is what our easy kits for beginners are built around.
Step 1: Check the Kit and the Paint
Match every pot to the color key on the canvas or reference sheet before you start. It takes two minutes and saves you from discovering a missing color halfway through.
Next, check the paint itself. The lids snap on tightly, so keep the pot upright on the table and lift the edge of the lid with your thumbnail. Squeezing the pot can squirt paint out.
Good paint is smooth and creamy, and settled pigment just needs a stir with a toothpick. Close each pot again after checking it. A pot that arrived thick or dry needs a different fix: see how to fix dried paint by numbers paint, which also explains how to ask for a replacement.
Keep the reference sheet next to the canvas for the whole project.
Step 2: Flatten and Secure the Canvas
Creases make the brush skip and stay visible after the paint dries, so flatten the canvas first.
- Rolled canvas: leave it under a few heavy books for a day, or iron the back on low heat with a cloth in between (how to get wrinkles out of a canvas). Then tape all four edges to a board.
- Pre-framed canvas: lay it flat on the table for your first kit. An easel feels professional, but a flat canvas keeps your hand steadier.
- Side margins: if you'll stretch the canvas on a frame later, its white border wraps around the sides. Paint the border in the neighboring colors and no white will show on the edges.
Step 3: Set Up Your Workspace and Light
Similar shades and faint numbers are hard to tell apart in dim, warm light. Use daylight or a neutral-white lamp, and place the lamp on the side opposite your painting hand. Otherwise your own hand throws a shadow exactly where you're painting.
Cover the table with paper, line up the pots in numerical order, and open only the pot you're using. Small open pots of acrylic thicken within one session. Water cups go on your painting-hand side, away from the canvas edge.
Step 4: Decide Your Painting Order
Paint by numbers has no required order, and kit instructions often contradict each other on this point. Four decisions make the difference between a clean painting and a smudged one.
Work From Top to Bottom, Away From Your Painting Hand
Your hand rests on the canvas while you paint, so start where it will only touch dry, unpainted areas. Right-handed painters start top left and move toward the bottom right. Left-handed painters start top right and move toward the bottom left.
Color by Color or Section by Section?
Default to color by color. Open one pot, fill every area with that number, close it. You wash the brush less and keep only one pot drying out at a time.
Switch to section by section for detailed zones like faces, eyes or lettering. Searching dozens of tiny shapes for a single number is slow and error-prone, and finishing one small zone at a time is not. Portraits made from your own photo, such as custom paint by numbers kits, have many small areas in faces and almost always need this method. On large canvases most painters mix both approaches.
Light Colors or Dark Colors First?
Each order fixes a different problem.
| Order | Light colors first | Dark colors first |
|---|---|---|
| Advantage | Light paint that slips over a border disappears when you later paint the dark neighbor on top. | The image takes shape quickly, which helps motivation on big canvases. |
| Risk | The painting looks unfinished for longer. | A dark slip into a pale area can need 2–3 coats of the pale color to hide. |
| Suits | Portraits, pale skies, designs with many light areas | High-contrast designs, night scenes, silhouettes |
Our recommendation: where a light area borders a dark one, paint the light color first. Elsewhere, pick whichever order you enjoy.
Small Details or Large Areas First?
Do the tiniest areas at the start of a session, while your eyes are fresh. Leave big backgrounds for the end of the evening.
Step 5: Load the Brush and Paint Your First Color
Use a damp brush with a little paint on the tip, and push the paint from the middle of each area out toward its printed line.
- Stir the paint.
- Dip the brush in water, then blot it on the towel. Damp, not wet: extra water turns the paint see-through.
- Dip only the tip into the pot. Paint that reaches the metal part of the brush is hard to control.
- Start inside the area and work outward, covering the printed line slightly so no white gap remains.
- Move on to the next area with the same number. When every area with that number is done, close the pot before opening the next color.
Use the finest brush for eyes, branches and outlines, and the widest one for skies and backgrounds. For areas smaller than the brush tip, dot the paint on with a toothpick.
A simple rule for sizes: a 00 or 0 pointed round for eyes and narrow edges, a size 1 round for most numbered areas, and a small flat brush for backgrounds. Brush numbers aren't standardized between makers, so judge by the point: when damp, it should be slightly narrower than the area you're painting.
Step 6: Clean the Brush Between Colors
Rinse at every color change, and every few minutes during long stretches of one color, because acrylic starts drying inside the bristles while you work. Swirl in the first cup, then the clean one, blot, and pinch the tip back into a point. Never leave a brush standing bristles-down in the water cup. The tip bends and stays bent.
Step 7: Let Each Color Dry Before Painting Next to It
Thin acrylic layers are dry to the touch in about 10–20 minutes. Cool or humid rooms slow that down.
While one area dries, paint areas that don't touch it. If the paint turns tacky under your brush, stop. Brushing half-dry acrylic lifts it into a rough patch. Wait, then go back with fresh paint.
Step 8: Add a Second Coat Where Numbers Show
Printed numbers showing through after one coat is normal, especially under white, yellow, skin tones and light blue. Once the first coat is dry, add a second thin coat only where the print is visible. Very pale shades sometimes need a third.
As a rule of thumb, two thin coats hide the print under most colors. Expect a third on white, cream and yellow, and plan for it in portraits and bright skies, where those shades cover large areas.
For numbers that still won't disappear, see how to cover lines and numbers in paint by numbers, including the white paint pen method.
Step 9: Fix Gaps and Small Mistakes
Most slips can be fixed once you know whether the paint is still wet.
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Wet paint in the wrong area | Rinse and blot the brush, then lift the paint with the damp tip. Don't rub. |
| Dried paint in the wrong area | Paint the correct color over it. Pale over dark needs extra coats. |
| Small unpainted gaps | Tilt the canvas under a side light. White specks show up at once. |
| Streaks or brush marks | Once dry, add one thin, even coat. |
Keep nail polish remover and solvents away from the canvas. They dissolve the printed surface. For problems the table doesn't cover, such as running out of a color, mixed-up 6s and 9s or a water drop on fresh paint, see our guide to paint by numbers mistakes and how to fix them.
Step 10: Check the Finished Painting in Daylight
Wait until the next day before you judge the result. Look at it in daylight from 1–2 meters away, then up close, and compare it section by section with the reference sheet. You're looking for visible numbers, missed gaps, streaks, and paint over a border that changes a shape, which matters most around eyes.
Happy with it? Sign a corner with the finest brush. To take the result further with highlights, softer skies and sharper edges, read our paint by numbers tips and tricks.
After You Finish: Seal and Frame
Sealing is optional. Varnish protects against dust and light scratches and evens out the sheen between colors. Wait several days first, not just until the surface feels dry, because thick and pale areas stay soft underneath for longer. The method and finishes are in how to seal a paint by numbers painting.
Framing: a rolled canvas goes on stretcher bars or into a standard frame, and a pre-framed canvas is ready to hang. Our guide on how to frame a paint by numbers walks through both methods step by step. Either way, hang it out of direct sunlight.
How to Pause and Store an Unfinished Painting
A typical kit takes several sessions, and paint left in a loosely closed pot can thicken between them.
- Press every lid down until it clicks. Store the pots upright, somewhere cool and out of the sun.
- Wash the brushes, reshape the tips and let them dry lying flat.
- Keep the canvas flat under a sheet of paper. Rolling a partly painted canvas can crack fresh paint or make it stick to itself.
- Snap a phone photo of where you stopped, so you can see at a glance which numbers are done.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do you start on a paint by numbers?
In the top corner away from your painting hand (top left if you're right-handed), so your hand rests on unpainted canvas. Step 4 explains the rest of the painting order.
Is paint by numbers hard for beginners?
No. You don't draw or mix colors, so the skills you need are brush control and patience. Difficulty depends on the size of the smallest areas and the number of colors, not on the canvas size. A design with large areas and few colors makes a comfortable first project.
Do you have to follow the numbers exactly?
For a first kit, yes. The numbers already contain the design's shading and color decisions. With some experience, you can soften a border or add a small highlight of your own.
How do you thin paint by numbers paint?
Usually you don't need to. Most pots arrive at the right consistency. If a color feels thick, add one drop of water, stir and test before adding more. Too much water makes the paint transparent, and the numbers show through.
Do you paint over the printed lines?
Yes, slightly, so no thin white gap remains between neighboring areas (see Step 5).
How long does paint by numbers paint take to dry?
About 10–20 minutes to the touch for thin layers, and several days before the finished painting is ready to seal.
What if you run out of a color?
Contact the seller with your order number, the color number and the design name, and ask for a replacement pot. Don't mix a substitute for a large area. An exact match is hard, and the difference shows once it dries.
How long does it take to finish a paint by numbers?
It depends mostly on size and detail:
| Kit size | Typical painting time |
|---|---|
| Small, 20 × 25 cm (8 × 10 in) | 2–6 hours |
| Medium, 30 × 40 cm (12 × 16 in) | 10–20 hours |
| Standard, 40 × 50 cm (16 × 20 in) | 20–40+ hours |
| Extra detailed or custom photo kits | 40–80+ hours |
At 30–60 minutes an evening, a standard kit usually lasts several weeks.
Ready to start your next canvas? Browse our paint by numbers kits by subject, size and difficulty.
