PBN DIY Bostie Babies

I'm super excited to show off this set of Paint-By-Number crafties I did showcasing my favorite critters, Boston Terriers!



These were not a vintage unfinished set that I just merely painted.  The story starts with my trying to locate/obtain wall art for our still in the midst of decorating, living room.  The main focal wall needed something spectacular and you can't get anything better than Boston preciousness contained in the format of PBNs.  I started my search on ebay and miraculously there was a set!  Only they cost 120 bucks.  That's a bit steep for me, as you all know of my extreme tight wadding ways.  I put them in my 'watch' list and periodically checked for a more reasonable set to pop up for sale...which never happened, these were the only ones.  So I got to thinking, PBNs were made for the amateur to do as a simple hobby past time, so surely someone with a bit more advanced talent (with a even stronger desire to pinch pennies) such as myself should be able to just make a set. And that I did!

The above photo is from the ebay listing and happens to be a good quality, fairly straight-on photo shot with very little angle distortion of the subject matter. Perfect!  I already had a set of large metal frames I wanted to use.  I then purchased a pack of cheap canvas boards in a size that would work with them.  I then saved the PBN images and lightened them up a bit in an image editing program so I could distinguish each color and it's borders better.  I printed the images the size of my canvas board using a wide format printer (they were bigger than a sheet of regular paper) at our public library.  Then came the task of tracing each color block and working out the paint colors.  I was able to differentiate 8 colors, 5 of them being shades of black, white, and greys.



The original painting had a lovely green background but since my walls are all ready that color I decided to go with a contrast and chose one of my accent colors, teal.  Next came the most tedious part which was transferring the image onto the canvas board.  I didn't have any carbon paper so I had to go low brow with it.  For this process you simply turn your paper over and cover the back with shading scribbles from a graphite pencil (6B).  Then place your image right side up, graphite scribbles against the canvas and use a ball point ink pen to trace around all the lines.  The graphite will transfer to the board faintly.  I went back over the lines on the canvas with a pen and numbered all the spots according to how I thought the colors translated. I then mixed up little containers of all of the paint shades, hoping I made enough to get me through both canvases.  Finally came the best part: painting, which was actually pretty fun!

Here they are on the focal wall as a set.
And below with the green display shelf (still working out this area decorating-wise).



I am pretty stoked with how they turned out...but even more so with how little they cost me to make...3 bucks!!!!  All I had to buy was the canvas boards and one thingy of teal paint.  I already had on-hand plenty of black and white paint.  I didn't even use 'artist paint', I used craft acrylics that come in those small plastic squirt bottles.

The vintage set of the Boston Terriers PBNs on ebay did eventually sell, I would guess to some Mr. Moneybags collector, but I am just dandy with my set because...



If you are gettin' the itchin' to do one yourself, check out
The Paint By Number Museum
for some inspo!

🎨🎨🎨🎨