Covid Activities: From Puzzles to Paint-By-Numbers
Like many of you, after the first several months of Covid lock-downs, I was looking for new ways to occupy my free time (during the summer months, when outside activities weren’t possible, that is). I started with a few puzzles, as they were relatively mindless and quite relaxing…
After a while, I was itching to try something different – still brightly coloured and relaxing, but maybe just a bit more creative. I decided that I just didn’t have the mental reserves to draw or paint something myself… so I thought about getting a paint-by-numbers kit. I reasoned that it might be a fun, affordable mid-way point between doing puzzles and creating an entire art/craft piece by myself. So, I just ordered a kit that I liked from Amazon and gave it a go.
For the most part, it was the perfect “next step” for me – I just had to stay within the lines and follow the map, and everything was easy-peasy… Except that it wasn’t. Several of the colours did NOT match the photo that I was sent, and I had to dig out my stash of acrylics to mix new ones that would work better. But other than that… it was really cool to watch an entire image come to life right before your eyes. When I was done, I took a step back and added even more of my own creative input, tweaking a few things (like birds or clouds) here and there.
I enjoyed the process SO much, that I ordered a few more online. It was then that I discovered that sometimes you got canvases already on frames… and other times, you got *just* the canvases. But that wasn’t too much of an issue for me – I simply ironed the folded canvases, staple-gunned them on top of inexpensive framed canvases from the dollar store, and got to work.
Again, I had to remix a bunch of the colours to make them better match the image provided. In this particular beachy piece, SO many of the colours were almost identical to each other, and to get any kind of definition, I had to lighten or darken them and paint over the original colours. I also tweaked a few things again (birds, clouds, clothing)… but this time I looked up the “original painting” (using TinEye Reverse Image Search) to help guide me…
That’s when I started wondering if any of the artists whose work appears as a “paint-by-numbers” kit get ANY kind of compensation or residuals or whatever. Wait a minute, what about the art that appears in puzzles for that matter??? Oh, dear. Hmmmm…
Moral grey area aside, I started on my third painting in February…
… based on a cute fox piece by, I think, Mozaika Zestaw… but I got SO VERY FRUSTRATED with the complete lack of colour matching in this kit, that I kind of abandoned it because having to remix every single colour and paint over things again and again and again… well, it was the least relaxing thing to do.
I still have hopes of finishing it one day… but maybe after I am a little more inspired… or energized… or not trapped inside because of Covid.
Anyhow. I just wanted to share. If you are at all interested in giving paint-by-numbers kits a try, I would still highly recommend it! I would just caution you to get a kit from a reputable company, and read all of the fine print first. 😉 Shoot me a snap of whatever you come up with… Happy painting!
