Complete Guide to Diamond Painting
What is diamond art?
Diamond painting is a craft activity that consists in creating magnificent relief paintings by applying small colored diamonds to a sticky canvas. In other words, to create a diamond painting, you just need to apply small diamonds on a pre-printed canvas, where the symbols will show you how to place the correct diamonds.
The canvas should contain all the necessary information to create your own diamond painting, and all you have to do is choose the right diamonds and place them carefully. This activity does not require a fortune to get started, nor is it technically demanding, but it is incredibly fun and amusing. That's why it's a popular pastime hobby for everyone alike right now.
As far as the topic is concerned, it's up to you. You have found a wide range of diamond painting designs such as: animals, landscapes, cities and even Disney! There are also remakes of famous works of art such as Van Gogh or Klimt. In short, there is something for everyone!
You don't need any special skills to make a diamond painting, patience and motivation should be enough to carry you to the end! Just like with a jigsaw puzzle, you create an original work of art that you can later hang on your wall and show your guests.
For this reason, this activity is suitable for all ages and for all skill levels, as you always have an easier one (as recommended by your diamond art shop of choice) and later proceed to a larger canvas with more sophisticated and colorful details.
How do I create a diamond painting?
Here is a simple illustration with 6 simple steps to complete a diamond painting:
A little advice before you start: you will most likely not finish your painting in one go. So always reserve a spot somewhere where you can work undisturbed. Also, don't remove all of the backing as you may compromise the adhesive quality of sections you can't finish right away. Finally, be careful not to mix up the diamonds, they are tiny and you don't want to be Cinderella trying to sort them by a small mistake. For these types of accidents, most shops should have an "I screwed it up" insurance where they will send you a free replacement for your diamonds.
What is the difference between square and round diamonds?
If you go to a diamond painting shop nearby, you can see that they usually ask for round or square diamonds. This usually does not affect the final quality of the artwork and is more a matter of subjective taste. But for beginners it is recommended to go for the round diamonds which should be easier to work with, while for highly detailed and sophisticated art we would recommend square diamonds to bring out the details a bit more.
Read more in our other blog post describing how to choose between round and square diamonds.