Great Gifts For Artists

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Have an artist in your life, or someone who is ready to explore the world of art making? Here are some thoughtful gifts - they are the things I love and wish people would give me! I have been painting for twenty years and still get excited over a great new brush or a bar of my favorite artist's soap. These gifts are suitable for an artist who is pursuing traditional visual arts practices like painting and drawing landscapes, figures, stilllifes etc.

Dick Blick Recommended Gifts

I buy my art supplies online from Dick Blick Art Materials
. They ship very fast, and offer free shipping when you buy more than $250 worth of stuff. They have made some pages of suggested gifts good for fine artists as well as crafters or people who like "projects".

Art Gifts Under $50: Includes Gifts for Children. This price range has more drawing and crafting supplies. A nice set of water brushes is the Escoda Kolinsky Sable Pointed Round Set, and the Fabriano Tiziano Paper & Sennelier Pastel Set might be nice for someone starting out.
Art Gifts Under $100: The oil sets by Gamblin and Sennelier are nice choices here. Prismacolor pencil sets are great for teens who like to draw and illustrators. The Da Vinci Kolinski brush set is nice for those who draw in Ink or paint in watercolor.
Art Gifts Over $100: More gifts here... when you are on the site they have more gift pages with a variety of prices/themes.

Decent Quality Paint Sets

A paint kit or set is a nice idea, but many of the ones you see are full of inferior paint. Crummy paint only will take an artist so far, so why frustrate a beginning artist with paint that is very limited. If you want to buy a paint set for someone, buy a decent brand so that they can continue to use and enjoy your gift until it is gone. Think of a starter kit as a good selection of colors to get someone going. I will recommend some kits I found below, but you can also go buy your own at an art supply store, or make one by selecting essential colors in a good brand. Some good reasonably priced acrylic brands are: Liquitex and Golden. Some good reasonably priced oils are made by Gamblin, Windsor Newton, M Graham. I do not recommend student grade paint, as it really is inferior for blending, but if you are on a budget the Winton brand or Sennelier's Etude Line are adequate. For sort of inexpensive landscape paints, I actually like Bob Ross brand. I find them to be of better quality in many colors than the other student priced brands.

A sample starter kit might include:
Titanium White
Burnt Umber (dk. brown)
Alizaran Crimson
Phtalo Blue and/or Ultramarine Blue
Cadmium Red
Cadmium Yellow
Yellow Ochre and/or Raw Sienna

Oil Paint Sets at Blick: For medium priced paints, I like Gamblin. The "Sennelier Artists' Extra Fine Oil Paint Sets" are not terribly expensive and it's also nice paint. The Windsor Newton sets are also a safe bet. I would personally be thrilled to get a super expensive set of Old Holland Paints... but it would be a waste of money to buy them for a beginning painter, in my opinion.
Acrylic Paint Sets at Blick: Acrylic paints are a bit less messy, and to some less intimidating. If your giftee has small children or pets, maybe stick to acrylics which are a bit less toxic (tho you can't sway me away from the allure and romance of oils). My picks here are the standby acrylic brands..."Golden Heavy Body Artist Acrylic Sets" and the "Liquitex High Viscosity Acrylic Sets"

A Watercolor Set Makes A Great Gift

A set of paints, a few brushes, a book of paper are all you need!

Click here to see some pretty spiffy Watercolor Gift and Travel Sets
which make a wonderful gift. Depending on how much you'd like to spend, you can get a set with an elegant travel box, or something functional and less put together like I use below.

Watercolors are very portable, and are a great gift to encourage someone to start expressing themselves. I use mine when I travel, or when I just want to spend some time outside painting the world around me. I have added an image of my humble kit which serves me well slipped into a bag or backpack.

For a complete starter set you will need a set of watercolor paints, a pad of paper or a hardbound book for painting in the field, and a few brushes (watercolor brushes have a broad range in the type and size of stroke they make, so you don't need to have many to get a variety of lines and thickness).

My set is meant for paintings in the field... so I use a hardbound strathmore book and a set of cake watercolors. Here's my book (it's linked to the Dick Blick website if you want to buy it).

Strathmore 400 Series Field Watercolor Sketch Book

Strathmore 400 Series Field Watercolor Sketch Book

My travel paints are Pelikan brand watercolor cakes... they have good strong pigment, and are easier to use on the go than tube paints.

Pelikan Watercolor and Gouache Paint Sets

Pelikan Watercolor and Gouache Paint Sets

As far as brushes go, a basic assortment of watercolor brushes will work. Here is one at blick.

Blick Watercolor Brush Set

Blick has a large selection of put-together Watercolor Gift and Travel Sets
. Something like this
Sennelier Watercolor Deluxe Mahogany Box Set
would make a useful and impressive gift if you want to spend a bit more money.

Sennelier Watercolor Deluxe Mahogany Box Set

Less Expensive / Stocking Stuffers

Any artist or designer will always be happy to recieve a nice, useful sketchbook. I like these Moleskine sketchbooks... they are a time-tested classic choice.

Moleskine Cahier Sketchbook Sets

Another thing I always like to have on hand is a bar of the Master's Hand Soap and the brush cleaner of the same name. The soap smells like mint and takes oil paint right off... the brush cleaner is non-toxic and therefore lessens the need for toxic solvents.

An Ott "True Color" Light

This would be a great gift for painters OR crafters. I want one.

Ott-Lite TrueColor Easel Light

Attach an Ott-Lite to your easel and discover the same benefits enjoyed by other artists, designers, hobbyists, and crafters. The lamp simulates daylight so you can match colors accurately and see details easily. It's virtually glare-free, and it reduces eye strain. Ott-Lite's universal clamp fits most easels, and the flexible, telescoping neck easily adjusts for height and positioning. A 13 watt TrueColor bulb is included. 120V. 60 Hz. UL listed.

My Favorite Books for Painters

There are a lot of books for painters out there, and most of them are pretty corny. I have checked a ton of them out from the library... a few have been worth purchasing. The ones listed below are in my personal collection.

Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting

by: Richard Schmid

This is my favorite painting book
Usually the least expensive way to buy this book is directly from the

Amazon Price: (as of 01/05/2010)

Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

by: John F. Carlson

For beginners, this book will give much useful information about painting landscapes. For advanced painters, it is an opportunity to compare your approach and choices. For anyone, the tone and sense of artistic purpose of the writer is likely to inspire reflection on why we paint landscapes. It's a little quaint in some ways, but I find it both helpful and charming.

Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 01/05/2010)

The Oil Painting Book: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist (Watson-Guptill Materials and Techniques)

by: Bill Creevy

This is one of the better "basics" books. Will get someone comfortable with the materials used and basic techniques of oil painting. I recommend it fo beginners or artists new to oil paints. Very good materials info by brand.

Amazon Price: $15.16 (as of 01/05/2010)

Creativity Books

These are two books I like for exploring creativity. Good for people who always say they would like to try making art, but haven't seem to have gotten the courage up... They are totally different in approach,

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity [10th Anniversary Edition]

by: Julia Cameron

This is one of the most popular artist's "crativity" books. I have read it, and employed some of the methods...I think it is sound, and it really seems to work for a great number of people. I would recommend this highly for someone who always says they want to "start" creating, but doesn't seem to know how to get over their intimidation. This book is very concrete in daily and weekly things you can do to start your creative journey.

Amazon Price: $11.02 (as of 01/05/2010)

Life, Paint and Passion

by: Michele Cassou, Stewart Cubley

I love this book! It is full of direct, convention shattering insight on the process of painting. It encourages everyone to start painting and to let go of ideas of being "talented" or "good" at painting, and to skip right to the heart of the matter... that painting is creativity is life! For experienced painters, it's an interesting challenge to many establishment ideas of what good painting is.

Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 01/05/2010)

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I am a professional artist and oil painter, who enjoys all things art related.

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