diff --git a/src/containers/stage.jsx b/src/containers/stage.jsx
index 888dfa1c6fa105a4038a4c88f8ff7ce7812f7465..077006fccc29be381fe66b0ae4b224437a9e98e9 100644
--- a/src/containers/stage.jsx
+++ b/src/containers/stage.jsx
@@ -59,6 +59,12 @@ class Stage extends React.Component {
             this.canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
             this.renderer = new Renderer(this.canvas);
             this.props.vm.attachRenderer(this.renderer);
+
+            // Calling draw a single time before any project is loaded just makes
+            // the canvas white instead of solid black–needed because it is not
+            // possible to use CSS to style the canvas to have a different
+            // default color
+            this.props.vm.renderer.draw();
         }
         this.props.vm.attachV2SVGAdapter(new V2SVGAdapter());
         this.props.vm.attachV2BitmapAdapter(new V2BitmapAdapter());
diff --git a/src/lib/vm-manager-hoc.jsx b/src/lib/vm-manager-hoc.jsx
index cbbf10385d53935daadd571d2c5ccf214a2675d2..981fe8326f73baecc3576e24a47e55cc85b61fa2 100644
--- a/src/lib/vm-manager-hoc.jsx
+++ b/src/lib/vm-manager-hoc.jsx
@@ -53,6 +53,17 @@ const vmManagerHOC = function (WrappedComponent) {
             return this.props.vm.loadProject(this.props.projectData)
                 .then(() => {
                     this.props.onLoadedProject(this.props.loadingState, this.props.canSave);
+
+                    // If the vm is not running, call draw on the renderer manually
+                    // This draws the state of the loaded project with no blocks running
+                    // which closely matches the 2.0 behavior, except for monitors–
+                    // 2.0 runs monitors and shows updates (e.g. timer monitor)
+                    // before the VM starts running other hat blocks.
+                    if (!this.props.isStarted) {
+                        // Wrap in a setTimeout because skin loading in
+                        // the renderer can be async.
+                        setTimeout(() => this.props.vm.renderer.draw());
+                    }
                 })
                 .catch(e => {
                     this.props.onError(e);