Is Paint by Numbers Art?

When paint by numbers first became popular in the 1950s, art critics were not impressed. They said the product took the creative process of painting and turned it into a cookie-cutter hobby. One critic even called the people who painted them "morons."

The average American, it turns out, didn’t care what the critics thought. Due mostly to the genius marketing ideas of Max S. Klein, owner of the Palmer Paint Company, their products flew off the shelves.

What is Art?

This is a question people have pondered for hundreds of years. The definition changes with each new era and each generation. According to Oxford Languages, art is “works produced by human creative skill and imagination.”

By that definition, graffiti is an art and so are cereal boxes. Do you consider either of those examples art? The thing is, there's no right answer to that question. Ask any three people and they're likely to have a different opinion. Art is art if you think it is.

Museums

If you consider the proof of an artist's merit a display in a museum, then paint by numbers is certainly art. Andy Warhol, a famous American pop icon, painted several paint by numbers images. They're rare, but you can find at least one in the Andy Warhol Museum.

Creativity

Some say that paint by numbers doesn’t involve creativity, that it takes the uniqueness out of painting entirely. However, the act of painting, no matter what the subject matter, is a creative process. Although many canvases might be printed with the same design, no two people will paint them exactly the same.

The differences lie in how you hold the brush, the direction of your brushstrokes, how closely you filled in the lines, and how many layers you used. They may seem minute, but they set your particular painting apart from all the others.

Learning

Paint by numbers kits, like the ones you can get from www.paintingkits.net, give people access to the art of painting in ways they may not have had before. Investing in a full set of artist's tools, canvases, and individual tubes of paint can be daunting, especially if you're not sure you'll enjoy the pastime.

Paint by numbers teaches you how to hold a brush, how to apply color, the basics of composition, and a little bit of color theory. Just getting familiar with the paint is a lesson unto itself. Is it thick or thin? How much should you add to your brush? How much water should you use?

Practice

Many people who start with paint by numbers go on to make their own compositions from scratch. For them, paint by numbers was an inspiration and a learning experience, sort of like a sketch. Great artists throughout history used sketches to prepare for their final paintings.

Sketches from Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Monet have survived and made their way into museums alongside their finished works. If their sketches are considered art, then why not yours as well?