Diamond painting is not painting at all. You place thousands of tiny resin facets onto a printed adhesive canvas, following a symbol key, until the whole surface sparkles. It is closer to cross stitch or mosaic than to anything involving a brush.
Straight away, so you know where this is coming from: Ledgebay does not sell diamond painting kits. We make paint by numbers. This guide is written because the two get compared constantly, and there is a fair comparison at the end.
How it works
The canvas arrives printed with a grid of colored symbols and coated in adhesive, protected by a plastic film. Each symbol corresponds to a color of drill — the little faceted resin pieces, confusingly called diamonds or drills though they are neither.
You pick a drill up with a wax-tipped applicator pen and press it onto its matching symbol. Repeat several thousand times. The finished surface catches light from every facet, which is the whole appeal.
Round or square drills
The first decision, and it genuinely changes the experience.
Round drills are easier to pick up and place, and they are more forgiving of being slightly off-center. They leave small gaps between neighbors, so the finished piece has a beaded texture. Faster, and the right choice for a first kit.
Square drills butt edge to edge with no gaps, giving a fuller, more mosaic-like surface and cleaner lines. They snap into place satisfyingly. They also demand more precision, and a misaligned one throws off the whole row.
AB drills — aurora borealis — have an iridescent coating that shifts color with the light. Kits often use them for water, snow and highlights.
You will also see full drill and partial drill. Full covers the entire canvas; partial leaves parts as printed image, which is quicker but rarely as satisfying.
The tools that matter
- The applicator pen. Comes with every kit. A dab of wax in the hollow tip grips each drill. When it stops picking up, re-load the wax rather than pressing harder.
- A tray. The grooved plastic tray that shakes drills flat-side-down. Do not skip it — picking drills off a table is miserable.
- Tweezers, for lifting a misplaced drill before the adhesive sets firm.
- A light pad. The one genuine upgrade. Lighting the canvas from beneath makes the symbols far easier to read and takes a lot of strain off your eyes. If you are going to buy one accessory, buy this.
- A roller. A small brayer or a rolling pin pressed over finished areas beds the drills into the adhesive so they do not pop off later.
- Storage. Labeled containers, or an egg box for a small project. Sorting and labelling before you start saves far more time than it costs.
Working method
- Flatten the canvas first. Lay it face down under heavy books overnight, or under a mattress. Creases stop drills sitting flat. Never cut a crease with a knife — you will cut through the canvas and there is no repairing it.
- Peel back only a small section of film. A few inches at a time. Exposing the whole adhesive at once means it collects dust, hair and fibers and loses tack before you get there.
- Work one color at a time, or one small block at a time. One color across the whole canvas is efficient; block by block is more satisfying because areas actually finish.
- Work top to bottom so your hand rests on the covered film rather than on finished drills.
- Press down as you go, and roll each completed section.
- Check alignment every few rows. Square drills drift, and a drift is much easier to fix early than after four hundred pieces.
Finishing
Roll the whole canvas firmly once complete. A brush-on or spray sealer will lock the drills down and is worth it on anything that will be handled, though some people prefer the unsealed sparkle.
For framing, avoid glass pressed directly against the surface — it flattens the sparkle, which is the entire point. A frame with a spacer, or no glazing at all, shows it far better.
Store unfinished pieces flat with a sheet of paper over the exposed adhesive, in a portfolio case or a flat box. Rolling a partly finished canvas pops drills off.
Diamond painting or paint by numbers?
People choose between these constantly, and they suit different temperaments.
Diamond painting is more repetitive and less skilled. Every piece goes in one place and there is no judgment involved, which is exactly why some people find it deeply calming — it is closer to knitting than to painting. It is also entirely mess-free. The trade-off is that the result looks the same whoever made it, and the sparkle reads as craft rather than as artwork.
Paint by numbers takes more from you and gives more back. Brush control matters, colors can be softened and blended where they meet, and you can go beyond the printed guide to add detail the kit does not provide. Two people painting the same design produce visibly different results. It is also messier, and mistakes need drying time to fix.
On practicalities: diamond painting is harder on the eyes — the symbols are small and there are thousands of them — while paint by numbers has larger sections and the option of going up a canvas size. Diamond kits take longer per square inch. Neither is cheaper by much.
If you want an evening that asks nothing of you, diamond painting. If you want to end up better at something, paint by numbers.
If you want to try the painting side
Ledgebay's kits are licensed artwork — Americana scenes, wildlife, cabins and florals — with vacuum-sealed paints and a large reference print. You can see them in the shop, or turn a photo of your own into a custom canvas.
Our beginner's guide covers the whole process, and the customer gallery shows how finished ones turn out.
