19 Exciting Gift Ideas For Artists (That They’ll Love)

Since birthdays and special occasions are important dates to remember, you’re often thinking about giving your friends and family members amazing gifts.

However, you’ve run into a problem: “What are the best gift ideas for artists?” you ask yourself, puzzled.

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!

In this article, I’m giving you my top recommendations for the best art supply gifts for artists! With this knowledge, you can:

• Make informed purchasing decisions that will give you the best bang for your buck
• Save precious time by reading this comprehensive list instead of spending hours scouring the Internet for recommendations
• Be assured that your gifts are well-reviewed and highly recommended by a fellow artist (That’s me!)
• Select from 19 art supplies that range in price, meaning there’s something valuable on this list for people of all economic brackets

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a qualified purchase using any of the links, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I appreciate every sale because it supports my mission as well as the continued growth of this website.

Gifts for Artists Who Paint

1. Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colour Sketchers Pocket Box

This famous set of watercolours is known for it’s quality student grade paints that come at a very affordable price.

They’re an excellent choice for watercolour beginners and novices or hobbyists who are dabbling in watercolour for the first time.

This set consists of 12 tubes with nicely pigmented colours that blend smoothly. The limited colour palette works well for beginners so that they don’t become overwhelmed with colour mixing.

As well, the small size and portable box make it a wonderful choice for plein air painting or for artists who paint when they are travelling.

2. White Nights Watercolour Set of 36 Pans

What makes this brand so appealing is the affordable price of the White Nights paints compared to other professional grade paints.

This set of 36 whole pans comes with a diverse range of excellent quality paints. They’re vibrantly pigmented, they glide smoothly on the paper, and nearly all the colours have great lightfastness.

Since the pans are so big, you won’t run out of paint anytime soon! And you’re able to buy individual pans to replace any you use up.

What’s more, the box comes with a detailed chart containing the colour name, lightfastness, transparency, staining properties, and granulating properties.

For these reasons, I believe this watercolour set is one of the best gift ideas for artists who are learning to paint with watercolours.

3. Sennelier Watercolors Set of 12

This watercolour set amazing because it comes with 12 tubes of paint that’ll last you a very long time.

What’s more, the pigments are rich, vibrant, and luminous. They’re easy to mix and they glide smoothly over paper.

Best of all, the colour selection is diverse. That means you’re able to mix a huge array of colours from just these 12 colours.

4. Silver Black Velvet Watercolour Brushes

I rave about these brushes in my watercolour blog posts because they really are the bee’s knees.

The Silver Black Velvet brushes are made from a combination of synthetic and real squirrel hair. This combination allows the brushes to be sold at a much more affordable price point.

The main reason why I recommend these brushes is because they’re so versatile in terms of brushstroke variation! 

The brushes have soft fine tips which can be used to create thin lines. However, when you apply pressure, you can create thick strokes.

In this way, you these brushes are perfect for creating all kinds of beginner and advanced watercolour techniques.

They hold a lot of water and pigment, which means you can paint for a while without needing to load up your brush.

5. Black Tulip Brush Set by ZenArts

If you’re looking for an affordable set of synthetic brushes, then the Black Tulip brushes are perfect for you!

This set comes with 6 brushes in total: a round #8, round #10, flat #8, 3/4 inch flat, 3/4 inch cat’s tongue, and a #2 rigger to meet all your watercolour needs.

All of the brushes are made of faux squirrel fibres that mimic real animal fur. As a result, the bristles are smooth but snappy, and each brushstroke lays down easily.

So, if you want a set of brushes that offer good water control and pigment absorption, invest in these brushes.

6. Arches Cold-Pressed 100% Cotton Paper

Full transparency: This product is known for being the crème de la crème of all watercolour paper! For this reason, Arches papers can be quite expensive, depending on what kind you purchase.

But here’s something that you must understand: Painting on good quality watercolour paper is essential!

So if you’re willing to splurge on any art supply, I recommend you put more money towards high quality watercolour paper than paint.

As for Arches watercolour paper, here are a few of it’s most defining characteristics that make it so wonderful:

7. Strathmore Watercolour Paper

If Arches paper is out of your price point, don’t worry, because I have a very good alternative that is more budget-friendly!

Behold, Strathmore watercolour paper!

This watercolour paper is ideal because it’s acid free, retains it’s whiteness and won’t turn yellow easily.

This paper is 300 gsm (140lbs), which means it is thick and holds water fairly well without buckling or warping. 

The colours lay down nicely and smoothly, and they remain vibrant even after drying.

8. Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Artist Watercolour Pencils Set of 24

If you’re looking for creative gifts for artists, why not give watercolour pencils a try? They’re a cool alternative to traditional ways of creating watercolour paintings.

This selection of 24 watercolour pencils comes in a tin. Each pencil has a unique ergonomic shape, so they fit nicely in your hand.

The coloured pencils lay down smoothly, and they are suitable for wet and dry media. Because these leads are water soluble, adding water will activate them, thus producing vibrant colours.

As opposed to traditional watercolour tubes and pans, these pencils don’t require tons of water, which makes them easy to handle. 

9. Arteza Gouache Paint Set of 60 Tubes

These gouache paints are really fun to paint with! And the best part is that they’re very economical for such a large set.

The colours are vibrantly rich and viscous, meaning they lay down thickly. So, you get maximum coverage in your paintings and the colour lays down smoothly.

What’s more, all you have to do is add a little bit of water and then you can use these paints like watercolour. The versatility makes this product really great for beginner gouache painters and hobbyists.

For this reason, I believe this could be one of the best gifts for teenage artists because it gives young artists flexibility to experiment without investing too much money!

10. Meeden Porcelain Mixing Palette

The best mixing palette you can buy is one that is made of porcelain.

Why?

Because it’s much easier to mix on compared to plastic, which has a tendency to make the paint pool into beads of watery pigment.

The Meeden porcelain mixing palette is a great choice because it has 12 spacious wells in which you can mix different pigments.

As well, it’s medium-weight. That means it’s sturdy and won’t move or be knocked over easily.

11. Meeden Empty Watercolour Tins

If you need more space for your watercolour tubes, then you should definitely invest in a set of empty watercolour tins.

This Meeden tin set comes with 26 half pans which allows you to carry a wide range of watercolour pigments in a single palette.

Each pan is removeable and customizable, meaning you can create your own palette to suit your personal painting needs.

Moreover, this set is lightweight, compact, and the perfect size for travelling or doing plein air painting outside.

Gifts for Artists Who Draw

12. Canson XL Mixed Media Pad

This sketchbook is HANDS DOWN my absolute favourite sketchbook! I love these sketchbooks so much that I’ve already filled 5 of them completely on both sides of the pages, too!

I love these books because they’re mixed media sketchbooks. That means they can handle a variety of mediums including graphite, coloured pencils, ink, acrylic, and light washes of watercolour.

Because you can use so many different mediums on this paper, the Canson sketchbooks are useful because you can experiment nearly any art supply. 

So if you’re struggling with art block, you can easily use this sketchbook to help you brain dump your ideas onto paper.

13. Staedtler Mars Lumograph Set of 12

These graphite pencils are absolutely perfect for artists! I’ve tried other brands such as Derwent and Faber-Castell graphite pencils, but I ALWAYS return to these bad boys.

I adore these pencils for several reasons:

1. They lay down smoothly and beautifully
2. They have a hexagonal shape, which means that they’re made to fit your hand ergonomically
3. They sharpen to a fine bit and the lead doesn’t break easily
4. The darkest and softest pencils (B) are very black, which works wonderfully for shading and creating high contrast

Since I love how these graphite pencils lay down on paper, I always find inspiration to draw something new so that I can experiment with these drawing pencils.

14. Prismacolor Col-Erase Erasable Colored Pencils Pack of 24

Let me be clear about something:

These coloured pencils are wonderful tools for sketching and drawing! I use them all the time to draw  thumbnails, sketch dumps, doodles, and the like.

However, I wouldn’t necessarily use them as my go-to pencils when it comes to colouring (I have 2 great suggestions for that coming up).

The reason I enjoy these pencils so much is because they lay down smoothly, which means you don’t have to press down hard to get vibrant colours.

As well, they erase fairly well (although not completely), and they don’t smudge the way graphite pencils do.

15. Faber-Castell Polychromos Set of 36

If the fragility of the Prismacolor Premier Pencils is a concern for you, then I highly suggest you check out this alternative.

The Faber-Castell Poly Chromos lay down soooooo smoothly! This makes them very easy to blend and layer without much effort.

Also, the colours appear so vibrant and beautiful on paper.

Unlike the Prismacolor Premier Pencils, the Poly Chromos are oil-based instead of wax-based. For whatever reason, the Poly Chromos are much stronger and will not break easily.

Overall, these are very high-quality coloured pencils that come in a wide range of appealing colours.

16. Faber-Castell Kneaded Eraser

There’s not much to say about kneaded erasers other than you should definitely have one in your pencil case.

I find kneaded erasers are a lot more versatile than a standard rubber eraser because kneaded erasers are pliable.

You can squish them, shape them, and mold them to fit your need. And, most importantly, they erase extremely well!

Also, they are gentle enough that they don’t tear the paper the way rubber erasers do.

17. Winsor & Newton White Ink

This option is one of those underrated gift ideas for artists.

Winsor & Newton’s white ink is a great companion for artists who enjoy inking. The white ink can be used to make highlights or add little stylish details to an inked piece.

This brand of ink works well because it applies evenly and smoothly. If you use a brush, you can apply the ink over a larger surface area.

Just note that you may have to shake the bottle to get the consistency just right, and you’re good to go!

The white ink is fairly opaque and gives good coverage when used over watercolours, coloured pencils, and toned paper.

18. Speedball Black Ink

The Speedball Black ink is an affordable and reliable product.

The ink is very opaque due to the carbon black pigment. It lays down easily and dries very quickly, just as the name implies!

In addition, this ink has great lightfastness, and it’s waterproof! So you can paint over the ink without worrying about smudging.

This ink works well for calligraphy, lettering, stamping, and producing nice line weight for your illustrations.

19. Copic Multiliners Set of 9

In my opinion, I prefer these Copic multiliners waaaaaaay more than the super popular Sakura Pigma Micron pens.

Why, you might be wondering?

Well, unlike the Sakura Pigma Microns, I’ve never had any problems with the Copic multiliners’ nibs, which have always performed admirably.

What’s more, the ink is mostly waterproof and richly dark, which makes it ideal for all kinds of inking styles and techniques.

This set comes in a wide variety of nib sizes, which provides you with a lot of versatility in terms of the brushstrokes you create in your art.

Gift Ideas for Artists: Conclusion

There you have it: a comprehensive list of 19 gift ideas for artists!

All of these products perform well in my experience, which is why I have chosen them specifically for this list.

If you’re purchasing gifts for Christmas, a birthday, or perhaps as a congratulatory gesture, you could always create an artist gift basket! 

Select a few different art supplies that compliment each other well, and voila! You’ve just created the perfect gift for your artist friend.

What kinds of gifts have you given to your artistic and creative friends? Comment below!

---