From Math Class Pixel Matrices to Custom Paint-by-Number Pet Portraits
Hi! I’m Megan — a high school math teacher, data nerd, and devoted dog mom who figured out how to turn any photo (especially your pet!) into an easy, relaxing custom paint-by-number digital download.
Like a lot of teachers, I doodled truly terrible stick figures on the board while explaining calculus and matrices. This past spring I picked up mindful coloring to unwind after long school days — but I kept getting frustrated. Mandalas were soothing, yet my color choices clashed. Adult coloring books? Meh: thin paper, numbers that showed through markers, and I couldn't stand buying a whole book for just a few pages that I actually liked.
Then inspiration struck in — of all places — my matrices & image-processing lesson. We’d been talking pixels, RGB values, and how filters transform photos. I thought: What if I cluster the pixels in a favorite photo into color groups, outline the regions, hide the colors, and reveal one color at a time so I can paint confidently — no guesswork?
I coded a Python pipeline in VS Code (yes, nerd alert 🤓): it analyzes your image, groups similar colors, cleans up tiny specks, generates printable outlines in light gray (so numbers and lines won’t show through once painted), and outputs full digital paint-by-number kits with color swatches (RGB + Hex), numbered guides, progressive paint layers, and printer-friendly PDFs. The first test subject was my sweet pup Riley, whose expressive face never survived regular photo-to-art apps. When I finally painted her and saw her personality pop, I knew I had to share this with others.
My goal: help non-drawers jump straight to the fun part — painting! No art degree required. If you can match shapes or numbers, you can make wall-worthy art of your dog, cat, wedding photo, travel memory, or favorite place. Along the way you’ll actually see where highlights and shadows fall, which is a sneaky-good way to learn painting + color theory by doing.
I’m building Artist’s Assistant to make creative wins easy, affordable, and personal — and to support more people (especially kids & classrooms) in discovering the STEM-to-Art magic hidden in pixels, patterns, and paint. Once the shop finds its paws, I hope to sponsor pet rescues and creative learning programs. Thanks for being part of the start! 💚
