Rock Pool Crabs and Starfish Beach Paint by Numbers

Rock Pool Crabs and Starfish Beach Paint by Numbers

This rock pool crabs and starfish beach paint by numbers scene looks down into a tidal pool on a rocky shoreline. Crabs work their way over the stones while starfish and shells sit in the shallow water. The pool runs turquoise and seafoam green, deepening into cobalt blue where the water thickens, and the rocks around it are warm ochre and grey. Warm white breaks mark the waves, with distant headlands under a partly cloudy summer sky in soft blues and creams. The brushwork is loose and impressionist rather than sharply outlined, and the detail is high in the shells and the rock surface. Expect around 12 to 30 hours at the canvas, depending on the size you choose.

The cool water colours sit well in a bathroom or a kitchen, where plain tiles and pale walls let the turquoise do the work, and the fine detail rewards a closer look in a hallway. As a gift it suits someone with a coastal holiday behind them, or anyone who wants a project that ends as a framed picture. Our beach and sea paint by numbers range covers the rest of the shoreline, and boats and seascape paint by numbers takes the same palette out onto open water.

Tips for painting this design

Paint the sky and the distant headlands first: they are the palest areas and they set the light for everything below them. Move on to the open sea and the breaking waves, then the rocks around the pool, and leave the crabs, starfish and shells until last so the numbered lines stay visible while you work. The fine brush handles the creatures and the small shells, the medium brush the rock faces and wave crests, the wide brush the sky and flat water. Take the 36 or 48 colour option if you want turquoise, seafoam and cobalt to shift gradually instead of reading as three flat bands. Keep the layers thin and let each one dry before the next.

Sizes, colours and painting time

The design comes in 15x15 to 70x80 cm (12 sizes). You choose a 24, 36 or 48 colour kit, on rolled canvas, with or without a wooden frame to assemble. Allow around 12 to 30 h depending on the size.

What's in the kit

• Canvas:a printed linen canvas with numbered outlines covering the pool, the crabs, starfish and shells, and the coastline beyond.
• Paint:numbered acrylic pots, ready to use, covering turquoise, cobalt blue, ochre, seafoam green and warm white, along with the greys and creams of the rocks and sky. Choose 24, 36 or 48 colours.
• Brushes:three, fine for the crabs, starfish and small shells, medium for the rocks and waves, wide for the sky and open water.
• Guide:a paper guide with the finished picture and the numbered colour plan for every area.
• Level: intermediate, built from medium areas with some fine detail.
• Sizes: twelve, from 15x15 cm up to 70x80 cm.
• Optional:a wooden frame to assemble, so the finished pool hangs straight on the wall.
• Dispatch: within 48 hours.

Living roomChild's bedroomHallwayBedroomHome office

Without frame

The canvas arrives rolled in a tube. You paint it flat and frame it afterwards if you wish.

With frame

Wooden stretcher bars to assemble stretch the canvas. You paint on a taut surface and hang the picture on the wall.