YouTube has become the unofficial classroom of the diamond painting hobby. For a craft that is mostly learned by watching someone else's hands, that makes sense — a written explanation of pen technique will never be as useful as seeing it done.
A note before the list: this guide is a rebuild of a 2019 original, and YouTube channels come and go. Rather than simply reprint names that may no longer be active, it is organised by what you need to learn, with pointers to the channels and formats that have defined each category. Check that a channel is still posting before relying on it, and use the search terms given — they will always find current equivalents even if a specific channel has moved on.
Why video beats text for this hobby
Diamond painting looks simple and has a real technique layer that is nearly impossible to describe in writing:
- How much wax to load on the pen
- The angle and pressure that picks a drill cleanly
- How to tap a drill into place without disturbing neighbours
- How to work a section efficiently without losing your place
- What a well-seated drill looks like versus a loose one
- How to organise drills while actually painting
All of that is visual. Watching is the fastest route.
Category 1: "Paint with me" and ASMR sessions
What it teaches: pacing, technique by osmosis, and company.
The largest and most distinctive corner of diamond painting YouTube. These are long, minimally edited videos of someone simply painting — often an hour or more, frequently with no talking, just the sound of drills being tipped into trays and placed on canvas.
They serve two purposes:
- Background company. Painting alongside someone else makes long sessions more enjoyable and is a genuine motivator to keep going.
- Passive technique learning. You absorb how an experienced painter handles their pen, tray, and canvas without anyone explicitly teaching it.
The ASMR angle is real — the sound of resin drills pouring and tapping is genuinely pleasant, which is why the original site had a whole category devoted to it.
Search for: diamond painting with me, diamond painting ASMR, diamond painting no talking, paint with me diamond art.
Category 2: Beginner tutorials
What it teaches: the fundamentals, end to end.
If you are starting out, this is where to begin. Look for videos that walk through an entire first kit: unboxing, sorting drills, using the pen, working a section, finishing, and storing.
Good beginner tutorials cover:
- What comes in a kit and what each part is for
- Round versus square drills and which to start with
- How to load the pen and pick up drills reliably
- How to read the symbol legend
- Whether to work by section or by colour
- What to do when drills will not stick
Search for: diamond painting for beginners, how to diamond paint tutorial, diamond painting first kit, diamond painting basics.
Category 3: Tips, tricks, and hacks
What it teaches: efficiency and problem-solving.
Once you have painted one or two kits, this category is where the real improvement happens. These are usually short, dense videos covering specific problems: drills clumping, pens that will not pick up, canvases that will not stay flat, sorting systems, and storage.
The format matters here. A well-made tips video is five minutes of specific, actionable solutions. A poorly made one is ten minutes of filler. Check the comments — experienced painters will say plainly whether the advice worked.
Search for: diamond painting tips and tricks, diamond painting hacks, diamond painting problems, diamond painting storage ideas.
Category 4: Reviews and kit comparisons
What it teaches: what to buy, and what to avoid.
Reviewers compare kits from different sellers — canvas print quality, adhesive strength, drill consistency, colour accuracy, and how the finished piece actually looks against the mockup.
This is genuinely valuable, because marketplace listings are unreliable and product photos are frequently borrowed from better brands. An honest reviewer holding the actual canvas to the camera tells you more than a hundred listing photos.
What to look for in a reviewer:
- They show the finished canvas, not just the unboxing
- They comment on adhesion and print quality specifically
- They mention canvas size versus image area, a common source of disappointment
- They are not purely affiliate-driven — some disclosure is fine, but every video being a sponsored plug is a warning sign
Search for: diamond painting kit review, diamond painting brand comparison, cheap vs expensive diamond painting kit.
Category 5: Large project series and progress diaries
What it teaches: long-project strategy and stamina.
These follow a single large canvas — often 70×90cm or bigger — across weeks or months of videos. They are useful for learning how to approach a genuinely big project: how to break it up, how to stay organised, how to deal with the middle-of-project slump, and how long things actually take.
If you are about to start your first large canvas, watching someone else complete one is worth several hours of your time.
Search for: diamond painting large project, diamond painting progress update, 70x90 diamond painting, diamond painting marathon.
Category 6: Storage, organisation, and accessories
What it teaches: how to keep the hobby sustainable.
A less glamorous but genuinely useful category. Drill organisers, canvas storage, lighting setups, work surfaces, and ways to manage leftover drills.
Anyone who has painted more than three kits ends up with a surplus of loose drills and no idea what to do with them. These videos solve that.
Search for: diamond painting storage, diamond drill organizer, diamond painting leftover drills, diamond painting setup.
How to get the most out of it
- Watch one full beginner tutorial before starting. Not three. One, all the way through.
- Subscribe to two or three channels rather than twenty. Consistency beats volume.
- Read the comments. They are often more useful than the video, full of corrections and alternatives from experienced painters.
- Be sceptical of sponsored content. Disclosure is fine; uncritical enthusiasm is not.
- Check upload dates. A great video from 2018 may recommend products that no longer exist.
- Cross-check advice. If a trick sounds odd, search for it separately and see whether others confirm it works.
What YouTube will not teach you
Worth being realistic:
- How long a project will actually take. Videos compress weeks into minutes. A 50×70cm canvas is typically 30–60 hours of work.
- Whether you will enjoy the hobby. That you have to find out yourself, ideally with a cheap small kit.
- Quality judgement from mockups alone. Only a finished canvas under real light tells you that.
A starting point
If you are new, do this: watch one complete beginner tutorial, then buy a small, cheap, simple kit and paint it while referring back to the video. Then, and only then, start watching the tips and hacks category — the advice means far more once you have hit the problems yourself.
Related reading: What is Diamond Painting? Welcome To The Wonderful World of Diamond Painting if you have not started yet, The Top 6 Tools Every Diamond Painter Must Have! for the kit side of things, and More Weird Diamond Painting Tricks & Tips That Work! for the written version of category three.