Best Christmas Gifts for Artists (2026): $20 to $400

We watch what artists buy and what they wish they had, and the gap between those two lists is a scanner. Nearly every painter, illustrator, and printmaker we know has work they mean to digitize: a sketchbook they would like to post, a watercolor a friend asked to buy a print of, a body of work they should be archiving. A phone photo never does it justice. The Epson V39 II does, at 4800 dpi optical resolution, on a slim flatbed that draws its power from the USB cable and lives under a monitor when it is not in use.

That is why it leads this guide. A sketchbook is a lovely gift and a projector is a delightful one, but a scanner is the gift that quietly changes what an artist can do with the work they already make. Scan a sketchbook page and it becomes a print, a sticker, a portfolio piece, or a file to digitize into embroidery or vinyl. We wrote a full review of the V39 II and a guide to scanning artwork for prints, and both come down to the same thing: this is the scanner we send people to.

The limit is size. The bed is letter size, so an 11 x 14 watercolor takes two passes and a stitch in software, and a large canvas should be photographed instead. For the sketchbook, the small painting, the print, and the photograph, it is exactly right.

There is no such thing as an illustrator with too many sketchbooks, and the Moleskine Art Plus is the one they will reach for first. The large size (5 x 8.25 inches) fits a coat pocket or the front of a bag, the hard cover keeps pages flat and corners uncrushed, and the plain pages are heavier and smoother than the notebook Moleskines, so pencil sits cleanly, fine liners do not feather, and light marker does not bleed through.

Give it to anyone who draws. That is the whole pitch. Urban sketchers fill them on trips, designers keep one for meeting doodles that become logos, illustrators use them for thumbnails before a finished piece. It is also the ideal companion gift: tuck it in with the Epson scanner above, or slide a pen into the elastic band.

For twenty-one dollars, it is the gift we would add to every other gift on this page, and the one we would give on its own to the person whose medium we are not sure about. Our guide to sketchbooks for artists covers the alternatives if you want a different size or a toned page.

Printmaking usually needs a press, carving tools, and a workspace that tolerates ink. Gel plate printing needs a table and an afternoon. The Gel Press is a soft, clear, reusable plate. You roll a thin layer of acrylic paint across it with a brayer, lay stencils, leaves, lace, or torn paper on top, press a sheet of paper down, and peel off a monoprint. Lift the objects and pull a second, ghost print with the leftover paint, and that one is often the best of the two.

We recommend the 8 x 10 size because it is big enough for a real composition and small enough to store flat in a drawer. It is the plate that appears on our block printing kits guide and our printmaking pages, and for good reason: printmakers use it for layered backgrounds, painters use it to make collage papers, and mixed-media artists use it for nearly everything.

Keep the plate covered with a sheet of paper between sessions; it attracts dust and pet hair, and a dirty plate prints every speck. Otherwise it is nearly indestructible, and at $25 it is the gift most likely to be in use by New Year's.

Photographers are the hardest artists to buy for, because they have strong opinions about every piece of gear and you do not know what they own. A strap sidesteps all of it. The Peak Design Slide attaches to any camera with standard strap lugs, so it does not matter whether they shoot Sony, Canon, Fujifilm, or Nikon. It converts between a sling across the body, a neck strap, and a shoulder strap by sliding two adjusters, and the anchor connectors let the camera come off the strap in a second for a tripod or a bag.

That last part is what converts people. The strap that came in the camera box is a neck strap that is always in the way; the Slide is a strap that disappears when you want it gone and holds a heavy body comfortably when you do not. Its grippy side stops it sliding off a shoulder and its smooth side lets it glide when you want to swing the camera up. Photographers who try one tend to buy anchors for every camera they own.

If you want to go bigger for a photographer, our camera strap guide and photography backpack guide cover the next tier. For $80, though, this is the accessory most likely to be on their camera by Boxing Day.

Ask a painter what stops them from working bigger and the honest answer is often the drawing: getting a small sketch onto a large canvas in proportion is tedious, and tedious things get postponed. The Artograph LED Tracer removes the tedium. It is an opaque projector, meaning you lay a physical sketch, photo, or printout of up to 5 x 5 inches on its bed, aim it at the canvas or wall, and it throws the image at anywhere from two to fourteen times the size. The painter traces the outline in pencil or charcoal, and the hard part is done before the coffee is cold.

We like it as a gift because it is a surprise. Nobody puts a projector on their own list, and then it comes out of the box and the big canvas in the corner gets started that week. It suits muralists and set painters especially, and it is the tool behind a lot of nursery walls and garage murals that would otherwise never have happened.

If the painter on your list works from a phone rather than from printouts, our art projector guide covers the digital projectors that beam an image from a phone at much greater brightness, for more money. For a hundred dollars, the Tracer is the approachable one.

Every potter owns a pile of inexpensive loop tools, and every potter who has tried a DiamondCore knows why the pile stays in the drawer. The difference is the blade: hardened, ground, and shaped to slice a clean channel through leather-hard clay where a wire loop tears and drags. That clean cut is what makes sgraffito lines crisp, fluted mugs look deliberate, and relief carving read as carving rather than gouging.

The listing states this original DiamondCore four-pack includes the P1, P2, P5, and X1 tools, covering clay carving, sgraffito, relief, and fluting. It is the set that appears on our gifts for ceramicists guide as the pick potters ask for by name, and it is the ceramics gift we would choose for someone whose work has moved from making pots to decorating them.

Wrap it with a small leather or canvas tool roll if you can find one. The blades are properly sharp, and a pouch turns a set of tools into a kit they will carry to the studio for years.

The most common watercolor setup in the world is a Winsor and Newton Cotman set, and the most common watercolor wish is to upgrade it. Cotman is the student line: good, affordable, and what most painters learn on. The Professional line is the same company's artist-grade paint, with higher pigment loads, better lightfastness, and colors that stay clean in mixes instead of going muddy. Painters who make the jump describe it as the moment watercolor started behaving.

The complete travel tin is the way to give it. Half pans in a metal box that fits a coat pocket, with a mixing area in the lid, so it goes to the park, the cafe, and the trip as easily as it sits on a studio desk. It is the set that appears in our guide to the best watercolor sets as the artist-grade travel pick, and it is one of the few gifts on this page the recipient will still be using in a decade, refilling pans as they go.

For a beginner who has painted twice, this is more than they need. For anyone who paints regularly and still reaches for a student set, it is the best gift under $160 we can think of.

Ask a working digital illustrator what they draw on and the answer is either an iPad, a pen display, or a Wacom Intuos Pro. For the ones still on a mouse or a bargain tablet, this is the upgrade. The Intuos Pro Medium is a screenless pen tablet: you draw on its surface with the included Pro Pen 3 and the line appears on your monitor. It connects over Bluetooth or USB and works with Photoshop, Clip Studio, Krita, Illustrator, Blender, and everything else an artist opens.

Medium is the size to give. Small feels cramped for arm-driven strokes and Large swallows a desk; Medium matches the way most illustrators actually move and sits beside a laptop without a fight. The Pro Pen 3 is the part people notice first: pressure and tilt that translate a light sketch stroke and a heavy shading stroke the way paper does.

It is the most expensive gift on this page and the one with the longest life; Wacom Pro tablets stay in service for many years. For the illustrator who is serious, or wants to be, it is the gift that says you take their work seriously too. Our drawing tablet guide covers the alternatives at every price if a pen display is the better fit.