A Letter to Santa…from an Artist (Gift ideas!)

For a lot of skittish Santas, knowing what type of specific item to get for an artist is real – so I’m here to provide you some on-the-money gifts that’ll tickle the fancy of the artist in your life!

Want to “read” this book and flip through it yourself? Click here! You can download it and email it to your own Santa – there’s a clickable link on the last page that will bring them to this post to shop for you. Just saying!

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“Art Santa” prints

Visit Society6 to order up a print, a holiday tray, a mug – something that you can get out every year at this time and encourage Art Santa to visit the studio!

Gift cards for all artists:

Whether to fine art supply stores like Blick Art Materials or to one of my very favorite places to buy all the crafty goodies at Ellen Hutson or any of the sites on this page – even if your artist doesn’t know the shop, they’ll surely find some fun treats with your gift card!

You can also give a gift card for Art Classes! No need to pick out which class, just fill up a card; have it emailed to yourself so you can print and wrap up the code provided. Or order on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning for it to be sent right to them!

For Copic artists

You may not know the colors an artist needs – but could gift a Copic Airbrush ( EH Blick Amz) makes great use of markers they already have – they’ll need a compressor you can get at your local Harbor Freight, and it might come with the Cord. Great stocking stuffers: Uniball white pen (EH Blick Amz) or black multiliners (EH Blick)
NOTE: ON The compressor try in-store and see if they sell it $20 cheaper without the kit. They just took the solo compressor off the site.

For sketching artists

A set of sketching pencils is a great gift that never goes bad – just like   Kneaded Erasers EH  Blick Amz) and white and black ones too! Sketchbooks are always a great inspiration, all those blank pages to fill – there’s a cool tri-toned sketchbook or give a regular inexpensive sketchbook with mixed media paper (accepts up to light watercolor).

Watercolor artists

I picked out a few less common colors – like Nickel Azo (EH Blick) Wisteria (EH  Blick) Lunar Blue (EH Blick) Amethyst Genuine (EH Blick)  Cascade Green (EH Blick) Kyanite (EH Blick) Phthalo Blue Turquoise  (Blick).

Papers – Arches pads are great for crafters, (EH Blick) and the more they have, the more they’ll paint…it’s all about not feeling like you’re going to run out! For fine artists – Arches sheets or Arches blocks; Saunders Waterford is another brand that artists might want to try, and it comes in sheets and blocks! And Lake Michigan Book Press made me a custom watercolor sketchbook with Arches paper – it’s not something you can find on the shelf but you get to also pick out the color of the cover too!

Brushes for fine artists are an investment, just saying…my fave Sable Round or needle would thrill them! Crafters will like the synthetic blends: Silver #8 (EH BLICK Amz) or #12 (EH BLICK AMZ)

Crafty artists

First gift: call them an ARTIST and their craft room the STUDIO! Help them see the value of their creativity!

Rainbow ANYthing will be good. Cardstock, inks, anything! Tools like a MISTI for stamping (even if they have one, it’s always helpful to have two for mass production cardmaking techniques!). A Gemini Jr for diecutting (it’s electric, if they have a hand crank, they’ll be tickled) or Foil Press if they love shiny things!

Colored pencil artists

If your artist loves colored pencils – they’d love MORE colored pencils! If you can find out what they use now, get them the other brand, either Polychromos (EH BLICK) or Prismacolor pencils (EH BLICK)…but if you get them the same one by accident, they will love to have a backup as the first set becomes short nubs! And pair it with a sweet Anita Jeram coloring book or Bob Ross coloring book to give them something to work on right away!

And if all else fails

Whether or not an artist draws, a fountain pen is a gift that will make them feel so special – even while writing cards to mail or shopping lists! Pair it with a bottle of black waterproof ink…..if they do love to draw with black pens, then a pad of this paper will be another great item, it works nicely with fountain pens!