Advanced Techniques: How to Blend Paint by Numbers Colours
Summary
Ready to take your canvas to the next level? This guide covers the exact techniques professional artists use to eliminate harsh lines, create smooth gradients, and make your paint by numbers look like an original masterpiece.
When you first start painting, simply keeping the colours inside the lines is an achievement. However, as you complete more canvases, you might notice that the finished piece looks a bit rigid. In our Ultimate Guide to Paint by Numbers, we promised to cover the secret to fixing this: blending.
Blending is the process of softening the borders between two adjacent numbered sections. Instead of a hard, jagged line separating light blue from dark blue, you create a smooth, natural transition. This is how you transform a basic craft project into a piece of professional looking art.
| Blending Technique | How It Works | Best Used For |
|---|---|---|
| Wet on Wet | Applying two wet colours next to each other and mixing them directly on the canvas border. | Skies, oceans, sunsets, and smooth human skin tones. |
| Dry Brushing | Using a brush with almost no paint to drag a thin, textured layer over a dry base colour. | Animal fur, grassy fields, and weathered wood textures. |
| Zigzag Blending | Painting small zigzag strokes back and forth across a wet border to force the colours to intermingle. | Cloud formations and dense floral backgrounds. |
Figure 1: Softening the hard lines between sections adds incredible realism to your finished canvas.
The Wet on Wet Technique
Acrylic paint dries quickly, which is usually a benefit for paint by numbers. However, when you want to blend, fast drying times work against you. The wet on wet technique requires you to work quickly while both colours are still fluid.
First, paint section A up to the border. Immediately wash your brush, dry it quickly on a paper towel, and paint adjacent section B. While both sections are still wet, take a clean, slightly damp brush and gently sweep it back and forth along the line where the two colours meet. The acrylics will mix right on the canvas, creating a seamless gradient. This is highly recommended when working on personal photos through our custom paint by numbers kits, as it helps create perfectly smooth skin tones and soft background fades.
If your house is warm or your paints are drying too fast to blend, add a single drop of acrylic flow improver or a tiny drop of water to your paint pots. This extends the drying time, giving you a wider window to work the colours together on the canvas.
Mastering the Dry Brush
Not everything should look smooth. If you are painting a portrait of your dog or cat using a custom pet paint by numbers kit, you want the texture to look incredibly realistic. Dry brushing is the perfect technique for adding depth to animal fur and textured subjects.
To dry brush, you must wait until your base layers are completely dry. Dip the very tip of a stiff, dry brush into your highlight colour. Wipe almost all of the paint off onto a paper towel until the brush feels dry. Then, lightly drag the brush over the canvas. The bristles will only catch the raised texture of the linen, leaving a beautiful, scratchy fade that perfectly mimics individual strands of fur or rough surfaces.
Figure 2: Choosing the right stroke completely changes the texture of the final piece.
When NOT to Blend
Blending is a fantastic tool, but you do not need to blend every single line on the canvas. Some areas rely on sharp, crisp edges for definition. Architectural details, the outline of a face, or the hard edge of a flower petal should remain distinct.
A good rule of thumb is to look at the real world. Does the object have a soft edge like a cloud, or a hard edge like a brick wall? Only soften the boundaries that would naturally fade into one another.
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