<p>My personal experience with the paint by numbers kits is that:</p>
<ul>
<li>They contain watery paints that deliberately have a uniform flat texture. They are probably supposed to resemble an Aquarelle painting instead of an oil painting.</li>
<li>They contain cheap paints. Some cannot even achieve full coverage in one pass and have to be applied several times. Mixing such cheap paints with texture medium makes them even more transparent.</li>
<li>Using a stiffer brush usually only leads to an untidy painting, but the watery paints cannot pick up any texture.</li>
<li>Trying to dry the paints out will lead to disaster. Sooner or later you will forget that you left them open and once they dry completely they are water resistant and cannot be diluted again.</li>
</ul>
<p>So trying to give the paints contained in such a kit more texture is destined to fail.</p>
<p>Instead, you could apply an acrylic texture medium on top of the dried paint. But please test this technique on some scraps before you apply it to your favorite painting. You may not like the way it looks in the end because the medium is transparent and the color is only at the bottom.</p>
<p>The next best option is to look for paint by numbers kits with oil paints. These tend to have a thicker consistency which allows you to apply texture. But be aware that oil paints take a long time to dry and have a strong odor. It takes some getting used to.</p>
<p>There are also kits with acrylic paints available specifically marketed for adults. I expect them to be more expensive than the usual kits and have paints with a slightly thicker consistency. I personally had one such kit that even had you mix paints to achieve a more professional result.</p>
<p>But honestly, from that moment there's only a small step to buying some high quality paints and cardboard canvas and creating your own paintings. You can still print or draw an inspiration image as a template, but you don't have to throw money at companies to do the printing for you. That is exactly how I made the transition from paint by numbers to painting my own paintings.</p>
<p>One last word towards paint quality:<br />
Don't buy cheap tubs from a home decor store or children's paints. Those are just as bad as the ones in the paint by numbers kits. You'll want to go to a hobby or artists store and get the medium priced paints. They are often called &quot;college&quot; or &quot;studio&quot; grade (as opposed to &quot;artist&quot; grade) and have a much thicker consistency and much better coverage than the cheap stuff. And you don't need to buy exactly the same colors as in a kit, you can mix most of them from only a handful of paints. It's worth getting help from a shop assistant.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-16T15:52:05.000Z
You could also replace the cheap included paints with your own sourced higher quality acrylics.
rebusB
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-16T06:41:36.073Z
2023-10-16T06:41:36.073Z
Elmy
<p>I have been exploring the world of paint by numbers through NumeralPaint kits and am quite fascinated by the potential for artistic expression. I am currently on a quest to discover ways to achieve texture variation within these structured frameworks. Has anyone experimented with mixing mediums or applying different brush strokes to create a more dynamic texture using NumeralPaint kits? I am eager to learn from your experiences and possibly incorporate some new techniques in my next project. Your insights will be highly valued<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/zlkQx.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-13T12:28:16.443Z
Hi Marsha, this is a very broad question with a lot of potential answers and thus not a good fit for this platform. We tend to focus on specific problems here. If you have some specific effect you like to achieve, we can help, but otherwise I fear this is too broad.
Joachim
<painting><acrylic-paint><oil-paint><paint-brushes>
Techniques for Achieving Texture Variation with NumeralPaint Kits?
Marsha Sky
# Techniques for Achieving Texture Variation with NumeralPaint Kits?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-10-13)

I have been exploring the world of paint by numbers through NumeralPaint kits and am quite fascinated by the potential for artistic expression. I am currently on a quest to discover ways to achieve texture variation within these structured frameworks. Has anyone experimented with mixing mediums or applying different brush strokes to create a more dynamic texture using NumeralPaint kits? I am eager to learn from your experiences and possibly incorporate some new techniques in my next project. Your insights will be highly valued![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/zlkQx.jpg)

**Tags:** painting, acrylic-paint, oil-paint, paint-brushes

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hi Marsha, this is a very broad question with a lot of potential answers and thus not a good fit for this platform. We tend to focus on specific problems here. If you have some specific effect you like to achieve, we can help, but otherwise I fear this is too broad.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2023-10-16. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

My personal experience with the paint by numbers kits is that:

* They contain watery paints that deliberately have a uniform flat texture. They are probably supposed to resemble an Aquarelle painting instead of an oil painting.
* They contain cheap paints. Some cannot even achieve full coverage in one pass and have to be applied several times. Mixing such cheap paints with texture medium makes them even more transparent.
* Using a stiffer brush usually only leads to an untidy painting, but the watery paints cannot pick up any texture.
* Trying to dry the paints out will lead to disaster. Sooner or later you will forget that you left them open and once they dry completely they are water resistant and cannot be diluted again.

So trying to give the paints contained in such a kit more texture is destined to fail.

Instead, you could apply an acrylic texture medium on top of the dried paint. But please test this technique on some scraps before you apply it to your favorite painting. You may not like the way it looks in the end because the medium is transparent and the color is only at the bottom.

The next best option is to look for paint by numbers kits with oil paints. These tend to have a thicker consistency which allows you to apply texture. But be aware that oil paints take a long time to dry and have a strong odor. It takes some getting used to.

There are also kits with acrylic paints available specifically marketed for adults. I expect them to be more expensive than the usual kits and have paints with a slightly thicker consistency. I personally had one such kit that even had you mix paints to achieve a more professional result.

But honestly, from that moment there's only a small step to buying some high quality paints and cardboard canvas and creating your own paintings. You can still print or draw an inspiration image as a template, but you don't have to throw money at companies to do the printing for you. That is exactly how I made the transition from paint by numbers to painting my own paintings.

One last word towards paint quality:  
Don't buy cheap tubs from a home decor store or children's paints. Those are just as bad as the ones in the paint by numbers kits. You'll want to go to a hobby or artists store and get the medium priced paints. They are often called "college" or "studio" grade (as opposed to "artist" grade) and have a much thicker consistency and much better coverage than the cheap stuff. And you don't need to buy exactly the same colors as in a kit, you can mix most of them from only a handful of paints. It's worth getting help from a shop assistant.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: You could also replace the cheap included paints with your own sourced higher quality acrylics.  

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