The Frida Kahlo kit is a portrait in the style of her 1940 self-portrait with a thorn necklace and hummingbird: the face in the centre, large green leaves framing it, a monkey on one shoulder and a black cat on the other. The face and the leaf texture carry most of the detail. The rest is more forgiving than it looks. Here is what each part of the canvas asks of you, and the order we would paint it in.

The leaves

Start here. The leaves fill the outer part of the canvas, and they are built from a few greens in large, clean regions with lighter veins running through them. They go on fast, they teach you how the kit's greens relate to one another, and finishing the frame first makes the portrait in the middle feel less daunting. Paint the dark greens first and the pale veins last, so the light lines sit on top of a finished leaf instead of being painted around.

The face

This is where the kit lives or dies. The skin is several warm tones that divide the face into regions along the planes of the cheek, the nose and the brow. Paint them in order from darkest to lightest and the modelling appears on its own. The famous joined eyebrows are a long, dark shape and they are easy. The eyes are not: small regions, close together, with the whites and the catchlights down to the width of a fine brush. Use the thinnest brush in the box, or a liner from the detail brush set, and leave the catchlights for the very end, when your hand is used to the canvas.

The thorn necklace and the hummingbird

The necklace winds across the throat and shoulders in a dark, thin line with small thorns branching off it. It is one color, which is the good news, but the line is narrow, so this is liner work. The hummingbird hangs at the centre of the necklace in a few dark regions. Paint the skin behind the necklace first, let it dry, then lay the dark line over it. Trying to paint around the thorns is how people lose an evening.

The monkey and the cat

The monkey sits on one shoulder in a few browns and blacks, with a lighter face. The black cat on the other shoulder is almost a single dark shape with two eyes. Both are simpler than they look because they are mostly dark fur against dark leaves, and the regions are generous. The eyes of both animals are the only fine work.

Colors and size

The kit comes in 24, 36 or 48 colors. For a portrait, 36 is the sensible minimum: the extra skin tones are what make the face read as a face rather than a flat shape. The 48 color option adds more intermediate tones in the skin and the leaves and looks better close up. On size, the 16x20 inch canvas is the one we recommend for portraits. Smaller than that and the eyes become very fine work; the 20x26 gives the face more room and suits anyone who finds small regions tiring. Most people finish the kit over two or three weekends.

What it looks like on the wall

Deep greens, warm skin, a few dark accents. It hangs well in a room with plants, and against a white wall the leaves do the framing for you. The tabletop easel helps with the long face sessions; looking down at a canvas flat on a table for two hours gets felt in the neck. More portraits in the same style are grouped in the paint by numbers for adults collection.

Questions people ask

Is this a copy of a real Frida Kahlo painting?

It is an illustration in the style of her self-portrait with a thorn necklace and hummingbird, redrawn for paint by numbers. The composition follows the original; the regions are simplified so each one holds a single flat color.

Is it a good first kit?

It is a good second kit. Faces reward a little practice. If this is your first canvas, the setup guide covers the basics, and the leaves give you a gentle hour before the face.

Which brush for the eyes?

The finest one you own. A 000 or 00 liner holds a point small enough for the catchlights without touching the lid.