Well, I did it again. After AGES and now that we’re in the new place and my office is set up, I figured I’d take on wrapping up the paint-by-numbers that I had started before we moved. I’d only gotten two colors into it, so it was no big deal.

I decided to do the sister painting of the original I had done. I liked the style and vibe and it was kind of neat to have them as a set.

No great reason WHY I decided to paint the same picture but slightly different other than, like I said, I liked the art style. Very modern. Colorful. Vibrant. And reminds me of Europe. Or a Simon and Garfunkel song.

Some tips I’ve learned:

• I’m left-handed, so painting right to left is much easier and keeps me from dragging my hand through paint
• Painting in spurts in various sections (like bottom or top) to let the paint dry
• I know they say paint the large sections first, but I simply HAVE to start at the highest color number (like 21 or 24) and paint my way down – I mean, I MUST do it this way. It is known.
• I let the paint sit for a good year before reopening it up and the acrylic got pretty clumpy and dry so adding a bit of water and swooshing a bit helped loosen it up again
• The brushes they give you are meh. I bought a nice selection of varying sizes (for large swaths of color vs. small meticulous work) and the ones I have purchased have ridges, so they’re actually easier to hold in my hand
• Even after I got my eye surgery and no longer need to wear trifocals, I STILL wear the glasses with the light AND with the magnification lenses, it makes those teeny tiny numbers pop, especially if you can’t decide if it’s a 5 or a 6
• Paint seems to apply to canvas left to right better than it does up and down or diagonally
• For really teensy spots, I dab-dab-dab rather than try dragging the brush — I have much more control that way
• Buy an easel! I had bought one and it was simply too small for the 16 x 20 canvases I was purchasing so I got an extra wide easel and now my framed canvases don’t hang over or I don’t see weird edges where the canvas ran out of wood
• If you have one, painting on a raising/lowering desk is a DREAM. This one is new since I didn’t have a desk like this before, but I found a) it’s nice if you don’t feel like sitting anymore and b) it’s nice if you don’t feel like standing anymore and c) it’s nice if you need to scooch down to the bottom of the painting or tippy toe up to the top – it just makes accessing everything easier
• Don’t get sloppy towards the end — I get it it’s nearly done, but that’s not the time to start going over lines or NOT going over lines (so they don’t show)
• You may need to do a few coats to make sure the numbers don’t show – especially on those lighter colors
• Sign your work! I get it, we’re just acrylic colorists, not actual painters, but it’s kind of a big deal and these things can take a good week or two to complete so it’s worth noting your hard effort with your name and the year!

Enjoy!!