Custom Color By Number Kit • Pet Portrait, Photo to Paint (Printable PDF)

send a photo, get a color by number kit for the markers you already own. 👋

built for alcohol markers (ohuhu, copic) and coloured pencils (prismacolor, polychromos). nothing to mix, no water, no palette, no brushes to wash, no waiting for anything to dry. print it and uncap a marker.

you pick the photo, your dog, your wedding, the trip you still talk about, the house you grew up in. I turn it into a custom colour-by-number kit you print at home (or at any print shop) and colour in yourself. no drawing skill needed: if you can match a number to a number, you can do this.

and because every colour comes with its exact hex and RGB, you can match it to whatever is already in your pen cup, whatever the brand.

WHAT YOU GET (5 printable PDFs, 78 pages for the 26-colour kit in the photos)

• the outlines, 20 pages, not 1. a cover, a contents page, then EIGHTEEN outlines: four darknesses, and each one comes plain or numbered, with or without the colour bar along the top. this matters more with markers than with paint: alcohol markers are see-through, so a heavy line or a printed number will still be sitting there when you're done. print the faintest plain one to colour on, keep the numbered one next to you as your map, and your finished piece has no numbers showing anywhere.

• every region carries a number, including the slivers too small to hold one, which get a thin pointer line drawn in from outside. nothing is left for you to guess at.

• the last two outlines sit over a red 1-inch grid, so you can copy the design onto stretched canvas or a sketchbook by hand. you are not stuck at printer size.

• the swatch card, and this is the one that matters if you own markers. every colour prints as a true 1-inch square with its name, its exact hex and RGB, and its coverage in square inches. print it on the same paper you'll print your outline on, then swatch your own markers right beside each square and write the codes in. now you have a matching key made on your paper, with your printer, for your collection. no guessing off a screen, where nothing matches anyway.

• the colour-by-colour guide, one page per colour, that colour alone on the page. wondering where every #12 hides? turn to page 12. with markers this is the page you actually work from: you find every region of one colour and lay them all down while the nib is still wet, which is exactly when alcohol markers blend cleanly into each other.

• the build-up guide, the same one page per colour, but each page shows the whole painting as it will look once that colour is down. you watch it arrive before you start.

• the finished preview in full colour, plus a second copy with the numbers printed right on the colours, so you can check yourself halfway through without unrolling anything.

WHY THIS ONE

• eighteen outlines, not one. four darknesses, each plain or numbered, with or without the colour bar, and two of them gridded so you can copy the design onto your own canvas by hand.

• every colour comes with its hex and RGB, and its closest match in ohuhu, copic, prismacolor premier and faber-castell polychromos, by code and by name. you can match your own markers to it without eyeballing anything off a screen.

• every region carries a number, including the slivers too small to hold one, which get a pointer line drawn in from outside.

• the colours run lightest to darkest, which is the order markers and pencils actually want. you can always go darker over a light colour, never lighter. the numbering does that thinking for you.

• I check your photo will work before I build anything, and swap it free if it will not.

BEFORE YOU PRINT (markers and paper)

• print the swatch card first, on the exact paper you plan to use, and scribble a marker on it. that one test tells you two things at once: which of your markers match, and whether your printer's ink smears. some inkjet inks lift when alcohol hits them; laser and toner prints don't move. if yours smears, a print shop or a laser printer solves it for a dollar or two.

• marker paper or smooth cardstock beats copy paper. alcohol goes straight through thin sheets, so put a scrap behind it either way.

• coloured pencils are happiest on toothier cardstock, and they want the medium outline, not the faint one.

HOW IT WORKS

1. order, then send me your photo in a message

2. I check it’s a photo that will paint well, if not, I’ll ask for another (no charge)

3. your kit arrives in your inbox within 1 to 2 days

4. print it, uncap your markers, and go one number at a time

SIZES, COLOURS AND TURNAROUND

• sizes from 4x6 inches up to 16x20 inches, tell me where it’s going and I’ll recommend one

• between 10 and 40 colours depending on your photo. fewer colours if you're working from a small marker set, more if you own hundreds. tell me roughly what you have and I'll build to it.

• your swatch card tells you the piece count before you start (the kit in the photos is 26 colours and 1,810 pieces), and it flags in writing any piece smaller than a size-0 brush tip, which is about a fineliner's worth. those are the spots you'll want your smallest nib or a sharp pencil for. I'd rather you know than find out on a sunday afternoon.

• built for alcohol markers and coloured pencils, and it works just as well with acrylics or watercolour if that's what you reach for

• this is a digital kit, nothing ships, nothing to wait for at the door

photos that paint best: good light, one clear subject, not too far away. when in doubt, send it over, I’ll tell you honestly.

one photo rule: please send photos you took yourself, or ones you have the rights to use. professional photographers own their images, so a quick ok from your photographer covers a wedding or portrait shot.

MADE BY MEGAN (and what that means here)

• I choose nothing about your picture except how to build it. you send the photo, I check it will survive being cut into flat colours.

• I set it up myself. every kit is tuned by hand: how many colours, how fine the detail, how dark the lines print, which two colours to merge when nothing could tell them apart.

• it runs on software I wrote. not an app I bought and not a website: I built it in python and I keep fixing it, kit after kit.

• then I read it. every page of your kit, before it reaches you.

so yes: 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 before it reaches you. I teach high school maths. after school I make these, one picture at a time.