HOS DIY Oil Painting Paint by Number Hand Paintworks Glass Frog 16X20 Inches (6)

These adult paint-by-numbers are a nice diversion, or hobby, for anyone with a crafty or artistic side - but not necessarily great at creating artwork. Don't be fooled. These are easy, but not simple. The numbers and regions, at certain point, are incredibly tiny. In certain areas we actually resort to using an eye loupe to read a few of them. All of this said - they are easy in that you do not have to be perfect, going a little outside of the lines won't make a huge difference. The painting will still look awesome when you're done. It took my other half a little less than two months to complete one painting - at a leisurely pace. The description states they recommend this for "beginners". I might agree, in that the work is not complex, but I disagree in that the work can be a touch tedious. Depending on your frame of mind, you might consider this rewarding or challenging.It comes with all of the paints necessary. The paints are acrylic, not oil. They do not have to be mixed, thinned, or diluted. You use the paint right from the tiny plastic-capped resealable containers. It won't look like you have enough paint for many of the larger areas... but trust me, you will have plenty of paint. The acrylic paint is nice in that you can stretch the canvas after you've painted it and the paint will not crack.About the terminology "frames". Some of these paint-by-numbers advertise availability with a frame or without. They are referring to a support frame, not a cosmetic picture-style frame. All of ours, so far, have been ordered without any frame. You'll receive a folded piece of canvas with the image and numbers printed on it. You'll also receive the tiny paint containers, a small reference photo of the completed work, and a few reasonable quality brushes. My better half lays the canvas flat on a table, and paints directly on the canvas. When the work is done we take it to Michael's and have it mounted in a cosmetic frame. Michael's did not recommend placing glass over it, they suggested the art might stick to the glass with temperature and humidity changes in the room. It sounded reasonable - not that we would know if that's true or not.Summary: A good deal for the price. Easy, from a technical standpoint, but challenging enough for most adults. Perhaps more-so if you're over 40 and reading glasses are a staple in your tool kit. In our case, even reading glasses were, at times, not enough. We used an eye loupe to read a few of the numbers. The results are rewarding and fairly impressive. The only variation we found disappointing from kit to kit was that the canvases differ in how smooth they are. The more rough the canvas, the more difficult to paint. As yet, we have not been able to find out which one's will be smoother just by looking at the description on the Internet.

So this was my first painting ever.. by numbers or otherwise! I enjoyed it..I did run out of number 2 and 3.. so had to order another set to finish. Might be me..Here is my finish product.

This was so much fun to do! I'm gonna frame it!

Had a rude awakening after ordering not framed. It comes folded up. I expected the usual wooden backer that comes with a "canvas" at Michael's. I thought "framed" meant a decorative frame around the outside of the perimeter of the canvas. I guess terminology counts. I thought I was getting a great bargain., but not so much after I have to take it in to get the backing-frame put on. Do people paint these on a flat surface and only frame them up if they come out good?I wish I had done the enclosed drawing on paper with markers or colored pencils first. It would have made it easier to see everything and have a better idea for doing the actual painting for how it would go; including finding many spaces with no numbers. As it was I painted first thinking the paper was just a guide and making due along the way, eventually just painting with whatever color I wanted in spaces too small to see the number or just painting over tiny spaces with whatever color surrounded them. I had glasses over contacts and still some were near impossible to see. Glad I chose an abstract for my first time with these products.

Don't buy from this company. The kit came in a plastic bag, no box, no instructions. There is not enough paint to finish the painting. Some of the numbers are really hard to make out bc the print is so small and faint. Also some of the spaces disnt have any numbers printed in them. I had to guess and improvise in order to finish the painting. The paint is water based acrylic paint - NOT oil as they advertise. Other companies provide a much better product.

I love the painting itself but the paint wells come half or less full. The colors that were the most used ran out before the painting was complete. I bought this to make as a gift now I am having to find paints to match the colors I have run out of.

Only started doing this two days ago and I'm loving it. I find it very relaxing. I am not artistic at all. My friend suggested trying to do Paint-by-numbers so I found this one to do. I love that there is no blending. Appears to be enough paint in those little pots. The colors are soothing, soft and very pretty.

All supplies were included. Colors don't quite match (a bit lighter) but still looks good. A bit disappointed that the details seen in the picture aren't printed to paint i.e birds, leaves, etc. Numbers were printed visible. Overall a fun activity.