The 50 Ultimate Paint by Numbers Tips, Tricks & Hacks (The Only Guide You Need)

The difference between a good painting and a great one is often a few simple tricks.

Paint by numbers for adults is easy to start, but genuinely rewarding to master. Most painters hit the same frustrations early on: lumpy paint, numbers showing through, shaky hands on small sections, or colours that look flat rather than vibrant. Every single one of those problems has a solution.

We have gathered the collective wisdom of the paint by numbers community into one comprehensive resource. Here are 50 essential tips to elevate your art, organised by stage so you can find exactly what you need when you need it.

Quick Navigation: Jump to Your Stage

Phase 1: Preparation and Setup (Tips 1-10)

How you set up before you paint determines how much you enjoy the process and how good the result looks. These ten tips take minutes to implement and make a significant difference.

• 1. Iron Out Creases First: Before you start, lay the canvas face down on a clean towel and iron the back on a low to medium setting to remove any folds or creases from storage. A flat canvas is essential for clean, even brushwork.
• 2. The Gesso Hack: Apply a coat of clear acrylic gesso to the canvas before painting. This gives the surface extra texture, known as tooth, making the acrylic paint adhere better and flow more smoothly across the canvas.
• 3. Tape it Down: Use masking tape to secure your canvas to a flat board or table. This prevents the canvas shifting mid-stroke, which is a surprisingly common cause of uneven paint edges.
• 4. Good Lighting is Non-Negotiable: Never paint in dim or yellow light. Use a bright daylight lamp or sit by a window. Colour accuracy suffers significantly under warm artificial light, and eye strain increases quickly in poor conditions.
• 5. Photograph Your Blank Canvas: Take a high-quality photo of your canvas before you start painting. If you accidentally paint over a number, zoom in on your phone to check what colour belongs there without hunting for the reference sheet.
• 6. Set Up for Comfort: You will be painting for extended sessions. Use a comfortable chair with back support and ensure your table is at the right height to avoid shoulder and neck strain over time.
• 7. Mise en Place: Have everything ready before the first brushstroke. Water jar, paper towels, all brushes, and opened paints should be within reach. Stopping mid-section to find supplies disrupts your focus and lets wet paint begin to dry on the canvas.
• 8. Use a Magnifying Lamp for Fine Detail: For tiny intricate sections, a magnifying lamp or magnifying headset is genuinely transformative. What looks impossibly small at normal size becomes manageable when magnified.
• 9. Create a Wet Palette: To keep your acrylic paints from drying out during a session, place a few layers of wet kitchen paper towel underneath a sheet of wax paper on your palette. The moisture transfers slowly through the wax paper and keeps the paint workable for much longer.
• 10. Choose the Right First Kit: If you are new to paint by numbers, start with something designed for beginners. Our beginner-friendly kits use larger sections and simpler colour palettes that build confidence before moving to complex designs.

Phase 2: Paint Management (Tips 11-20)

Acrylic paint dries fast. These ten tips prevent waste, keep your paints workable for longer, and protect the quality of every pot in your kit.

• 11. Open Pots Carefully: Paint pots are often vacuum-sealed during packaging. Open them slowly over a paper towel to avoid an unexpected spray of pigment across your workspace.
• 12. Stir Every Pot Before Use: Even if the paint looks fine, the binder and pigment separate during storage. Give every pot a thorough stir with a toothpick before using it to restore the correct consistency and colour.
• 13. Work With One Pot Open at a Time: Only open the pot you are currently using. Acrylic dries quickly when exposed to air and leaving multiple pots open simultaneously wastes paint.
• 14. Use Flow Improver Rather Than Water: When thinning paint, use a professional acrylic flow improver medium rather than water. Water breaks down the acrylic binder and weakens adhesion. Flow improver maintains paint quality while improving consistency.
• 15. Revive Thick or Gummy Paint: If a pot has thickened, add a single drop of warm water and stir vigorously. Only add one drop at a time. Over-thinning is difficult to reverse.
• 16. Clean the Rims Before Closing: Before resealing any pot, wipe the rim clean with a paper towel. Dried paint on the rim prevents a proper seal, causing the paint to dry out between sessions.
• 17. Never Press the Brush to the Bottom of the Jar: When rinsing brushes, avoid pressing the bristles against the bottom of the water jar. This permanently bends and splays the bristles and ruins the point on fine brushes.
• 18. Blot Rather Than Wipe After Rinsing: After rinsing, press the brush gently against a folded paper towel to remove water. Never drag or pull the bristles. Dragging destroys the brush shape over time.
• 19. Always Use a Palette: Never load paint directly from the pot onto the canvas. Decant a small amount onto a palette plate first. This prevents the main pot from drying out, keeps the paint clean, and lets you control the amount on your brush.
• 20. Save Leftover Paint: Do not throw away remaining paint when you finish a kit. Seal the pots tightly and keep them for touch-ups after varnishing, future small projects, or other craft work.

Phase 3: Technique and Application (Tips 21-30)

These are the tips that move a paint by numbers canvas from "filled in" to genuinely impressive. All apply to beginners and experienced painters alike.

• 21. Always Paint Darkest Colours First: Dark paint is transparent enough that light colours can cover it on a second pass. Light paint over dark is much harder to cover completely. Starting with darks establishes your foundation and makes subsequent layers easier.
• 22. Work Top to Bottom, Right to Left if Left-Handed: This prevents your painting hand from resting on wet sections. Right-handed painters should work left to right, top to bottom. Left-handed painters should reverse horizontally.
• 23. The Toothpick Trick for Tiny Sections: For sections too small for even your finest brush, abandon the brush entirely. Use the pointed tip of a wooden toothpick loaded with a tiny amount of paint. It gives far more precise control than a brush for single dots or very narrow areas.
• 24. Hold the Brush Close to the Bristles for Control: For detail work, hold the brush near the ferrule (the metal band), as you would hold a pen. This greatly increases precision. Hold further back only when making broad, sweeping strokes.
• 25. Paint Slightly Over the Border Lines: Do not be afraid to slightly overlap the printed border lines. This ensures there are no white canvas gaps between adjacent colour sections. Tiny gaps become much more visible after varnishing.
• 26. Two Thin Coats Are Always Better Than One Thick Coat: Thick paint dries with a lumpy, uneven texture. Two thin smooth coats, the second applied after the first is fully dry, produce a professional, flat finish. This applies to every colour in the kit.
• 27. Feather the Edges of Landscapes: In landscape sections like sky meeting clouds or hills meeting fields, use a dry brush with minimal paint to feather the boundary between two colours. This creates a natural gradient rather than a hard-painted line. Essential for our landscapes and scenery kits.
• 28. Zig-Zag Blending for Smooth Transitions: To blend two adjacent wet colours together, use a clean dry brush in a rapid zig-zag motion across the boundary line. This mixes the two colours in a natural gradient without smearing them together.
• 29. Scumbling for Animal Fur Texture: For animal kits, use a dry brush with very little paint and drag it lightly across the surface using short directional strokes. This creates a fur-like texture that looks far more realistic than flat filled sections. For detailed guidance, read our complete guide to painting animal fur and feathers.
• 30. Load the Brush Generously: A common beginner mistake is using too little paint and scrubbing it onto the canvas. Flow paint onto the surface with smooth strokes. Scrubbing creates visible brush marks and drags underlying paint into the new colour.

Phase 4: Troubleshooting and Fixes (Tips 31-37)

Every painter faces problems. Here is how to resolve the most common ones without panicking or restarting.

• 31. The Whiteout Trick for Showing Numbers: If a number is showing through a light-coloured paint, first cover it with a small dot of white paint and let it dry completely. Then apply the correct colour over the white base. The white acts as a primer, and the number will not show through.
• 32. Never Wipe a Wet Mistake: If you paint the wrong colour, do not wipe it off. Wiping spreads the mistake and damages the canvas surface. Leave it to dry completely, then paint over it with the correct colour. Two coats over the mistake may be needed for full coverage.
• 33. Stabilise Shaky Hands: For fine detail sections, rest your painting wrist on a stable object such as a soup can or a mahl stick (a painter's rest stick, available inexpensively from art shops). This eliminates hand tremor on small sections.
• 34. Sections With No Number: If you find a section with no printed number, check the reference sheet carefully. It is usually intended to be the darkest colour in the kit, most commonly black or very dark grey, representing deep shadow areas.
• 35. Redefine Blurry Lines: If the printed border lines are faint or blurry and hard to follow, use a fine-tip black marker pen to redraw them before you start painting. This takes a few minutes and prevents constant confusion about section boundaries.
• 36. Paint Not Adhering to a Section: If paint beads up and does not stick in certain areas, there is likely residual oil on that part of the canvas from the manufacturing process. Gently clean the area with a barely damp cloth and one tiny drop of dish soap, allow it to dry completely, then repaint.
• 37. Reviving a Frizzy Brush: If a brush has developed splayed or frizzy bristles, dip it in very hot water for five seconds, then reshape the bristles with your fingers back to a point. Hold them in shape for thirty seconds, then let the brush dry bristles-up. This resets the bristle memory for many brushes.

Phase 5: Finishing, Framing, and Mindset (Tips 38-50)

These final tips cover how to complete, protect, and display your work, and how to get the most from the process itself.

• 38. Step Back Regularly: Close up, a paint by numbers canvas looks like a collection of coloured patches. Step back two to three metres regularly to see the image resolve properly. This perspective also helps you spot areas that need a second coat.
• 39. Find Your Flow: Paint by numbers is designed to induce a meditative flow state. You are not racing against a clock. If you feel yourself rushing or frustrated, put the brush down for ten minutes. The painting will wait.
• 40. The Final Inspection Under Different Light: Once you believe the painting is finished, take it to a different room with different lighting. Areas with thin coverage, missed sections, or white canvas gaps that were invisible under your painting lamp will often become obvious under new lighting.
• 41. Always Seal Your Finished Work: Apply a clear acrylic varnish once the painting is complete and fully cured. This protects against dust, UV fading, and moisture. Read our complete guide to sealing and varnishing paint by numbers for the correct technique.
• 42. Frame It Yourself: Professional custom framing can cost more than the kit itself. Our DIY Wooden Frame Kits let you stretch your canvas professionally at home in under 30 minutes with no specialist tools.
• 43. Display It Properly: Once framed, your work deserves thoughtful placement. Read our comprehensive guide to displaying finished paint by numbers for framing options, hanging methods, and room placement.
• 44. Sign Your Finished Work: You painted it. Sign your name or initials in the bottom corner using a fine brush and a contrasting colour. A completed canvas is a genuine piece of original art and deserves a signature.
• 45. Listen to Audiobooks or Podcasts While Painting: Painting occupies your visual attention and fine motor control but leaves your auditory brain free. Long painting sessions are perfect for catching up on audiobooks, podcasts, or long-form radio. It doubles the value of your time.
• 46. Take Regular Breaks: To avoid neck strain, eye fatigue, and hand cramps, take a five-minute break every hour. Stand up, stretch, look at something at a distance to rest your eyes, then return fresh.
• 47. Build Confidence Gradually: If your first kit felt overwhelming, choose a simpler design next time rather than abandoning the hobby. Our beginner-friendly collection includes designs specifically selected for approachable section sizes and manageable detail levels.
• 48. Do Not Compare Your Work to the Box Image: The reference image on the kit box is digitally rendered. Your hand-painted version will look different and that is entirely the point. The brushwork, the slight imperfections, and the texture are what make it a piece of original art rather than a print.
• 49. A Completed Kit Makes an Exceptional Gift: A finished paint by numbers canvas is one of the most thoughtful personalised gifts available. It represents hours of focused, careful work. When properly framed, it becomes a meaningful piece of art rather than a purchased item. For custom gift options, explore our personalised gifts collection.
• 50. The Joy Is in the Painting, Not Only the Finished Piece: Every session spent painting is time spent in a calm, focused, creative state. The finished canvas is the reward, but the hours spent painting are the real gift. Protect that time, enjoy the process, and let the art take care of itself.

About the Author

Written by William Murdock, founder of Paint on Numbers UK. We are passionate about helping you create art you are proud of. We believe that with the right tips and the right tools, anyone can master paint by numbers.