There’s is a certain amount of terminology very specific to diamond art paintings, which even experienced aficionados of diamond art painting tend to be confused about.
In this post, we’ll examine one of the most common misconceptions and conundrums related to diamond art painting — and that’s the difference between a partial and a full diamond drills.
What Are Diamond Drills
Okay, before we get into the differences between diamond art drills — we should examine what these drills are in the first place.
For starters — we need to dissuade you from one of the most common myths that people have. Before you get your first diamond art kit, you are likely to believe that the “drill” is some kind of tool that you’d use for the process of putting together your piece of art.
However — that assumption, while being fair, is completely wrong. In reality, the “drills” are the shiny beads which we also refer to as “diamonds”; we’re talking about all of the small pieces that are utilized to put the image together. So, the word “drill” is completely interchangeable with “diamond” or “bead”.
Of course, one thing that is completely true is that your diamond drills represent the single most important part of your art kit; make sure that you don’t lose them. Though, there are certain diamond art kit retailers which have replacement policies in case of lost or damaged pieces; but you shouldn’t count on that being possible by default.
Here’s a pro tip — if you’ve got any extra beads laying around after you finish one diamond art piece; we recommend keeping them for later. You may use them in small amounts as replacements on later pieces.
Round and Square Drills
Now that you’ve got the hang of the essentials of diamond art drills — we can take a closer look at how these myriad drills can differ. And in that vein, one of the first distinctions is between round and square drills. It’s important to note that some people like mixing these two, but we don’t recommend it. If you want to try both of the styles out, it’s best to do it on separate projects.
So, what’s the actual difference between them in practice? Generally, square drills will allow you to get something of a mosaic look to your art piece — seeing as all of the edges come neatly together. With these drills, there will be no amount of free space between each of them.
Conversely, the round drills are circular (duh), which is why they don’t actually cover your canvas below completely; parts of the canvas are usually part of the image itself.
If you’re wondering which is better — there’s no real answer to that. Most people have a preference, while some also like to alternate between the different ones. You’ll find that you may prefer the fact that square drills completely form the picture — while round drills give you an interesting cross-stitching aesthetic. In many cases, more beginner-friendly art kits utilize round drills because you don’t necessarily have to cover the whole image yourself; which is why you may use those at first and move onto square drills.
Still, if you have never done diamond art painting before — it’s our recommendation to give both of these a try. Whichever you pick, you’re guaranteed to have plenty of fun times and a lot of reduction in anxiety and stress!
Partial Drills and Full Drills
And now we arrive at the titular dilemma — what are full drills and what are partial drills? Well, now that you’ve got a decent understanding of what kind of drills are you can find — we can discuss the differences between partial drill and full drill canvases. First of all — both of these are available with both round and square drills, respectively.
Now, full drill diamond art pieces are those where the entire image is created using diamond drills. So, there are no huge gaps where entire chunks of the image are just printed out on the background beneath. And as you might expect — partial drills are those where the canvas isn’t entirely covered with the beads.
Picking the style that you want
As you can see, there are plenty of different choices to make when you pick each individual diamond art kit that you’ll be working with. However, we recommend that you don’t dismiss any one of these right from the start — before you’ve tried all of them out. Instead, try to do all types of canvases with individual projects — and then you’ll know what style you ultimately prefer the best.
After all, the diamond painting represents a uniquely personal crafting activity — it’s supposed to unleash the creativity inside you and allow you to focus on just your motor skills at the given time. As a result, there’s no one right answer when it comes to the specific type of drills you’ll use; it all comes down to the image you want to achieve and your interests.