custom, from one photo
your photo, painted by you
pick the photo: a pet portrait, the wedding, the house you grew up in, the trip you still talk about. I turn it into a colour-by-number kit you print at home and colour in yourself, with every colour named for the markers and pencils you already own. no drawing skill needed: if you can match a number to a number, you can do this.
- proof usually the same evening
- free photo swaps
- in your inbox in 1 to 2 days
five steps
how a custom kit happens
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order, then send the photo
in an etsy message. tell me what you will colour with and who it is for.
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I check it first
that it will survive being cut into flat colours. free photo swaps if it will not, and I will tell you why.
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approve your proof
a watermarked preview, usually the same evening. one round of changes is free.
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your kit lands in your inbox
within 1 to 2 days of approving the proof. five PDFs, or a zip if you are painting on an iPad.
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paint, one number at a time
print it at home or at any print shop, or open it on your tablet. no drawing needed, ever.
what lands in your inbox
five PDFs, and not one of them is a single traced outline
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eighteen outlines to choose from
four darknesses, each one plain or numbered, with or without the colour bar along the top. print the faintest plain one and no lines or numbers show in your finished piece. the last two sit over a 1-inch grid so you can copy the design onto canvas by hand.
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the swatch card
every colour as a true 1-inch square with its hex and RGB, so you can swatch your own markers straight onto it. then a page naming the closest ohuhu, copic, prismacolor and polychromos for every single colour.
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the colour-by-colour guide
one page per colour, that colour alone on the page. wondering where every #12 hides? turn to page 12.
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the build-up guide
the same one page per colour, but each page shows the whole picture as it grows, with only the colour that page adds numbered on it. no hunting for which shape is new.
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the finished preview
in full colour, plus a second copy with the numbers printed on the colours, so you can check yourself halfway through.
painting on a tablet instead? the custom kit comes as a layered procreate file too, $10.95. see how the iPad kits work.
before you send it
what photo works best
good light, one clear subject, and the face big in the frame if it is a pet or a person. dark, blurry or very busy photos go flat and muddy when they are cut into colours.
send it anyway. I will look at it before I start, and if it will not paint well I will tell you why and swap it for free. that check is the whole reason to buy this rather than run a photo through a free tracer.
your proof: watermarked, usually the same evening, one round of changes free.
the part nothing else does
every colour, matched to the pens you already own
a free tracer hands you a hex code and wishes you luck. every kit here names the closest colour in four standard sets, by code and by name, on a card printed at true 1-inch squares so you can swatch your own markers right beside it.
ohuhu honolulu
320 alcohol markers
copic
357 alcohol markers
prismacolor premier
150 coloured pencils
faber-castell polychromos
120 coloured pencils
797 of the 947 colours across those four sets rest on real hand swatches, blended from nine independent swatch sets and checked against each maker's own chart. the rest are the maker's own chart corrected by that line's measured shift. where nothing comes close, the card says no close marker match instead of pointing you at something wrong.
the honest comparison
there are free generators. here is the difference
they are real and some of them are decent. this is what you get for paying instead.
| what you get | a hello paint kit | a free generator |
|---|---|---|
| outlines to print | eighteen: four darknesses, plain or numbered, with or without the colour bar | one |
| a page per colour | yes, plus a build-up page showing the picture as it grows | no |
| matched to real markers | ohuhu, copic, prismacolor and polychromos, by code and by name | a hex code, if that |
| piece count before you buy | yes, and the count of pieces smaller than a size-0 brush tip | no |
| a person looks at your photo | yes, and says so if it will not paint well. free photo swaps | no |
the honest bit
the tracing and the numbering are computer-assisted, by a program I wrote and keep fixing. then I check and finish every kit by hand. it is not a stock file and it is not a machine left alone with your photo.
premade kits download the moment you buy. custom kits land in your inbox within 1 to 2 days of you approving the proof.
no surprises
about custom kits
there are free paint-by-number generators. why pay?
because a free generator hands you one machine trace and wishes you luck. a kit here is eighteen outlines at four darknesses, a page per colour, the piece count and the small-piece warning in writing before you pay, and a swatch card that names the closest ohuhu, copic, prismacolor and polychromos for every colour in the kit. and a person looks at your photo first and tells you if it will not paint well.
do I need to be able to draw?
no. no drawing needed, ever. if you can match a number to a number, you can paint this. nobody is grading this.
how long does a custom kit take?
your proof usually lands the same evening. the finished kit is in your inbox within 1 to 2 days of you approving it. premade kits are instant, they download the moment you buy.
what photo works best?
good light, one clear subject, and a face big in the frame if it is a pet or a person. dark, blurry, or very busy photos get flat and muddy when they are cut into colours. send it anyway: I will look, and if it will not work I will say so and swap it for free.