Do you remember color-by-numbers and paint-by-numbers from your childhood? I do. I use to love them. Recently I was asked to review an adult paint-by-number from Winnie's Pick. They said I could pick whichever one I wanted and I was excited to see the Photo to Custom Paint-By-Number option. I thought it would be neat to paint a family portrait. A childhood friend, who is a professional photographer, took a photo of us at another childhood friend's daughter's wedding last summer that we love. I sent it along.
I was a little nervous when I looked at the canvas and saw all the little areas for different colors.
Plus many of the 35 paints looked very close in color.
I really only used two of their brushes. I also opened another small set of brushes to see if there was a finer one for those small spaces. I couldn't find one fine enough for some of those really slim spaces, but am very happy with how it came out.
I was amazed by some of the colors. Many of the blacks in our hair are actually the same paint as the navy blues in the shadows of our clothes. Some of the skin coloring I would never have thought to use on me and was surprised by how much of the shading was the same for all three of us even though Steve has slightly darker skin than us. I adjusted a few things in the painting. Half of Steve mouth got lost so I added a bit more of a darker paint to see it. My necklace was showing as skin colors instead of something to look like the rhinestones that it is, and Hazel's hair seemed to have a lot of grey in it. I added more brown. Though looking at the photo I think it was more of her scalp showing, but it was a large area of grey for just her scalp. I also was amazed at how the shading really made it look like the photo.
Now I guess we need to frame it and hang it up. I have to admit I may need to get another paint-by-number. I really enjoyed doing it. I tended to paint after cleaning up from dinner for an hour or two each night and found it so relaxing!! I did have to pull out a magnifying glass to read some of the numbers and even with my reading glasses and magnifying glass I still had trouble with some of them. At times I wished I had done a sunset photo or a picture of one of the cats. But I will admit I love how it came out. The details really amaze me and I learned so much more about colors and shading than I had previously. I hope you will check out Winnie's Picks and either do a premade kit or try your own custom one. They are so much fun!
