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Gift Ideas for Artists
If you have a creative person in your life that you want to spoil, this is a collection of Christmas gift ideas (or birthday gift ideas) that would appeal to artists.
Last month’s best black Friday deals for artists article was well received, so I thought I’d see if I could compile some good gift ideas that artists would find useful – particularly with Christmas coming up later this month.
Painting Software
- Corel Painter and Rebelle are both good options for traditional artists who want to transition into digital art.
- Paintstorm Studio and Clip Studio Paint are great for artists who want to become professional illustrators. The more expensive version of Clip Studio Paint has pro-level tools for comic book and manga artists.
- The Affinity Suite of software are great for graphic designers.
- Procreate is ideal for artists who want to paint on the go with their ipad and apple pencil.
Digital Brushes, Reference Packs, Assets, & Art Tutorials
- Gumroad and Cubebrush are digital marketplaces that sell all kinds of digital products like brushes, photo reference packs, 3D assets and also a lot of great tutorials. Cubebrush is smaller but more specialised for artists and 3D modellers, whereas Gumroad is just a massive digital marketplace, so probably still has the widest selection.
- Wingfox and Proko both have tons of tutorials for artists of all kinds. Proko is more aimed at traditional artists, whereas wingfox is more aimed at concept artists and other industry level jobs.
Drawing Tablets
- Huion makes amazing graphics tablets at a fraction of the price that Wacom does, and they’re just as good. I speak from personal experience. I have a Huion Inspiroy 1060p.
- Still if you want a Wacom, I can suggest the Intuos S as an entry level tablet where you won’t have to sell a kidney to afford it.
- Other good established brands are Xencelabs, Gaomon, and XP-Pen.
- Ipads (even old second hand or refurbished ones) also make great digital tablets. Just make sure it is compatible with an apple pencil. Mine is an old 6th Gen and its great.
Art Canvases, Sketchbooks, and Scratchboards
- Canvas Boards are suitable for Oils and Acrylic.
- Sketchbooks are for Pencils, Charcoal, and Pastels.
- Watercolor pads are for Watercolours and Gouache.
- Scratchboards are for etching, and you also get rainbow scratchboards now.
Easels, Palettes, and Pochade boxes
- Easels are for traditional artists to prop their canvases on whilst they paint. I have an old wooden one, but you get fancy portable ones now, that you can adjust for table or floor.
- For oil and acrylics, a flat style palette is ideal, but for watercolours and gouache, rather get the indented palettes.
- A pochade box is a portable easel with a built in palette for plein air artists.
Graphics Tablet Stands and Arms
- For better posture, digital artists also like to use stands to adjust the angle of their devices. The Voomy laptop stand is cheap and according to a friend who owns one, it feels good with his Huion tablet.
- You can also get flexible arms to hold your display tablet at the precise angle you need it. Just make sure that it will fit your specific tablet before purchasing.
Wet Media (Paints and Pens)
- If you’re shopping for paints, you don’t need to buy every single colour, but you definitely need black, white, red, yellow and blue for mixing. Most small paint sets, like this Windsor and Newton Oil set, come with those and a few extra “convenience colours”.
- For the comic book and manga artists in your life, I’ve been told by peers that you can’t go wrong with a refillable Pentel brush pen.
- Avoid Pantone markers. They’re stupidly overpriced and not justifiably better than other alcohol marker brands.
Dry Media (Pencils & Pastels)
- When shopping for graphite (normal drawing) pencils, you generally want to go for a pack that at least has a 2B and a 4B. The H pencils are very light so only suitable for people who press too hard. 8B and higher are very dark, almost at the level of charcoal pencils, which are very fun.
- Coloured pencils aren’t all the same. Even some of the expensive brands can be horrible to draw with because you have to press so hard on account of the core being hard and the pencil being oil based instead of wax. I’d rather suggest the wax based pencils, and the Prismacolor ColErase is cool because you can erase them.
- Oil pastels, and chalk pastels are also enjoyable for most artists.
Art Books and Games
- 3DtotalShop is a publisher of art books – mainly by living artists that are in the industry, like Loish, but there are also tribute books, like Frank Frazetta.
- Amazon is if course king of books, with the widest variety on offer. Anatomy books are always useful, but there’s also a lot of graphic novels, which artists tend to appreciate more than other folk.
- An art game that is a really clever concept is Art Dice which is a random way to generate drawing prompts.
- Another prompt based drawing game is Mythical Creatures. This one targeted at children, but could be fun for adults too.
Tattooist Gifts
- Jim&Glorias Temporary Tattoo Pens & Bic BodyMark are both types of markers you can use to give draw temporary tattoos. Unlike the typical temporary tattoo transfers, you can freely draw with these and get as creative as you want.
- Henna Kits are another fun non-permanent tattoo solution that allows a lot of creativity. Most kits come with stencils, but you can also pipe the henna mixture freely and make your own patterns.
- Fake Practice Skin is essential for those serious about getting into a career of tattooing.
I might need my woman card revoked because I don’t actually enjoy shopping, and I always get nervous about buying presents because I’m not sure if I’m choosing something useful or not. So, if you’re of a similar mindset whilst shopping for the artist in your life, I hope my expertise as an artist has given you some confidence on gift ideas for artists that are useful and desirable. Just a quick disclaimer: Where possible, I’ve used affiliate links above, but you know me by now – I will never endorse something just for the sake of a commission. The commission is just a bonus for me. I would have recommended the product anyway.