Diorama painting time-saver - stop base coating in black!

When I first started making dioramas in 2018, I thought I had to base-coat every piece in black. Many of the YouTube channels that I subscribed to and artists on Instagram that I followed seemed to be doing this, so I thought it was the best way. 

I was wrong! It turns out what I was doing was costing me valuable time and effort. But I didn't learn this until years later. Here's a video breakdown that features an experiment that shows why you shouldn't always use black to prime your pieces: 

Now, this doesn't mean that you should never prime your dioramas with black paint. There are certain scenarios where it totally makes sense to do that; like if you're creating asphalt or certain color rock formation pieces. 

What should you do instead? 

I'm a big fan of base coating my diorama pieces in a color that is similar to the final paint color I am trying to achieve. As an example, I base coated this terrain piece in brown with the desire of having it appear to be desert rock that was a sandstone color. 

Example of diorama rocks

If you'd like to watch my process for painting these rocks, click here. 

I promise you that doing this will save you a lot of time (especially if you are painting something large). Give it a shot and leave me a comment letting me know how you liked it! 

Paint Supplies

DISCLAIMER - VASCO Toys is part of the amazon associates program. If you click on any of the amazon product links in this blog, I will receive a small commission on those sales at no extra charge to you. 

I am not responsible for any harm or injury that may be caused a result of others attempting this type of project. Build at your own risk.

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