I finally jumped on the paint by numbers bandwagon. I wanted a painting that I would want to frame, so I searched for a long time on Amazon (up to page 7 or 8, which is crazy) and didn’t find anything. I didn’t want to wait 2-3 months for shipping from Aliexpress nor did I want to buy from some random website on Google search; so, I ended up spending 20 USD plus tax on Etsy for The Great Wave off Kanagawa paint by numbers kit. You can definitely get most kits for 10 USD on Amazon, so 20 USD is on the higher end.
Here is my little mandatory rant about the U.S. customary units. Both the painting and the frame are advertised as 16 x 20 inches. But the canvas is actually 40 x 50 centimeters. When you convert 40 x 50 centimeters to inches, it is about 15.748 x 19.68 inches; and rounding up, it is 16 x 20 inches. But if you convert 16 x 20 inches to centimeters, it is 40.64 x 50.8 centimeters; and rounding up, it is 41 x 51 centimeters. So, my 16 x 20 inches Ikea frame was bigger than my 16 x 20 inches painting.
I purchased the kit from a U.S. seller, so I got it within 5 business days of ordering despite all the crazy USPS delay drama. The kit comes with hanging hooks, a numbered canvas, a paper copy of the numbered canvas, a colored sticker of the painting, pre-numbered acrylic paint, and three paint brushes of varying sizes.
The canvas was rolled up in the packaging, so I ironed the canvas on high heat to get rid of wrinkles. The tips didn’t specify if I should iron the front (numbered side) or the back of the canvas. I ended up ironing the front of the canvas and none of the numbers rubbed off; so I guess it does not matter which side you iron.
Day 1 (2 hours) - The tips suggest that you start with the dark colors first. The paint brushes are cheap and flimsy, so I had a hard time painting within the lines. I figure I should let y’all know that this was my first time painting, so I clearly did not know how much water I should use or how much pressure to put on the paint brushes. I was also surprised at how much time passed and yet how little progress I made.
Day 2 (2.5 hours) - I decided to swatch the colors to the right of the canvas to see all my color options. At the time, I didn’t know if I would have enough paint to finish the painting, so I didn’t want to waste the paint I used to swatch and applied the remainder on to the canvas. Spoiler alert, you get a lot of paint left over. I didn’t run out of any colors.
Day 3 (3 hours) - They recommend you do one color at a time to ensure freshness of the paint but I got bored and started playing with the other colors. FYI that it has been more than 15 days since I started this paint by numbers kit and none of the paint has dried out.
Day 4 (3 hours) - You definitely want to paint in bright light. The numbers are printed very lightly so that the paint can cover them. The lighter colors are not opaque enough, so you will need to do several coats to completely cover up the numbers and lines. I am glad they provided the paper copy of the numbers for reference as I made a few mistakes. Luckily, you can cover up any mistakes with enough layers of paint. Note to noobie self, let the paint dry before applying a new coat.
Day 5 (3 hours) - The tips recommend that you start from top to bottom and left to right (if you are left-handed, then right to left). I obviously did not follow that tip. I found it easier to divide the canvas into four quadrants and rotate the canvas as you go. The quadrants are especially critical if you paint with others, as they have their own workspace.
Day 6 (3.5 hours) - At this point, I was just doing the finishing touches. I added extra layers to cover up any lines or numbers and I went back and fixed mistakes. I also added some extra details to the boat on the bottom right to make it look more like the original.
Overall impression: Paint by numbers is fun and I definitely want to do it again, though not immediately. My eyes got tired from squinting at the numbers and my neck ached from looking down for a long period of time. I do want to point out that the colors do not match the original painting exactly but to my untrained eye, it looks close enough.