The Best Gifts for Artists that Love Watercolor and Acrylic Paint

It can be hard to know how to choose a gift for the artist in your life. Choosing the best gifts for artists can be challenging, especially if you don’t know much about art supplies. In this guide I’ll share with you some fantastic gifts for artists and how to decide which gift is the best for the artist in your life.

Hop-A-Long Studio is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. Learn more.

Choosing the Best Gifts for Artists

Part of choosing the best gifts for the artist in your life is to answer the following questions. This will help identify what type of artist they are and what they might enjoy for a gift. 

What Type of Art Do They Do?

What type of art does the artist do? Do they love to draw, to paint on canvas, or to create in a journal? Understanding a bit about what they create with will help you narrow down what to purchase and find a gift that is meaningful.

How Much Art Experience?

How much art experience does the artist have? Is the person you are buying for new to art? Or have they been creating for a while?

If you are purchasing for someone that is new to art, purchasing student quality supplies would be greatly appreciated. But if you’re purchasing for someone who has been creating for a while, or is a professional artist, it is better to get high quality art supplies. A small but more expensive gift will be more meaningful than a bunch of cheaper supplies.

I’ve been creating for a long time, and I have been gifted cheap supplies that is lesser quality than what I’m already using. I appreciate the thought, but I tend to re-gift these supplies to newer artists because I know that they’ll enjoy the supplies.  

What is Your Budget?

You don’t necessarily need to spend a large amount of money to get a nice gift for an artist. Stay within your budget. Realize that a smaller but higher quality gift will mean a lot more than many cheap supplies. I know I would prefer getting one really nice brush or a couple professional paints over a bunch of cheap supplies that I wouldn’t use. 

If the person has been doing art for a long time, they will value the small size of the gift. They have the understanding to see a small, quality gift that has much thought put into it.

Best Gift Ideas for Artists

Here are a few gift ideas for artists that love watercolor and acrylic paints. I’m providing both the cheap and more expensive option for each item I suggest so that you have a range of options at a variety of price points.

Gifts For Watercolor Artists

There are 3 gifts that I would suggest purchasing for a watercolor artist: watercolor paints, watercolor paper, and watercolor brushes. These are the basic things that every watercolorist uses and will appreciate as a gift.

Watercolor Paint

Watercolor paint is basically ground pigment mixed with a binder. The difference between expensive and cheap watercolor paints is the quality of pigments.

Sets for Beginners

For the beginner watercolorist, I would highly recommend the Sakura Koi Watercolor Sketch Box. This is the set I started with when I first started to watercolor. The quality of the paint is excellent, and it comes with a water brush included in the set.

This set is great for those learning watercolor but is also an excellent travel set. I still use this watercolor set for travel and plein air painting due to the quality of the colors and the portability.

If price is a factor, these sets can be found in 12, 24, 30 and 60 color sets. There are many other cheaper sets available, but this is one that I can recommend from personal experience.  

Sets for Seasoned Artists

If the artist has been watercoloring for a while, purchase tubes of watercolor paint for them over getting a full set of watercolors. Most artists will move away from a set of colors to buying a blank palette and individual colors. This lets them mix and match using the paints and colors they like the most.

Watercolor Palettes

When purchasing a blank palette, there’s many options out there. I personally like palettes with lids as this keeps dust off the watercolors when not in use. I also love these palettes because of the large mixing areas available. Here are a couple of my favourite watercolor palettes.

Watercolor Paints

There are two types of watercolor paints in tubes: student grade and professional grade paints. I love and still use the student grade tube watercolors like Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolors. They have vibrant colors, mix well and they are at a good price point.

If the person is proficient in watercolor, I would suggest gifting professional watercolors from Daniel Smith, Winsor and Newton, M. Graham & Co. or Holbein. These tubes will be filled with beautifully pigmented, quality watercolors. Based on your budget you may only be able to gift a few of these to an artist, but they will be delighted that you took the time to purchase good quality pigments for them to enjoy.

Watercolor Paper

Watercolor paper is a staple for the watercolor artist. They come in a range of weights, qualities, and styles.

I would suggest purchasing paper that is at least 140 lb (300gsm) for watercolorists. I personally love the Strathmore 200 watercolor paper for practice and Strathmore 400 paper for my final work. For the student artist, I would recommend any paper that is at least 140lb to start with.

For the more seasoned watercolorist, I would suggest purchasing Arches paper. Arches paper is 100% cotton which makes it a beautiful paper to work with. It holds up to a lot of water and a variety of techniques. You can get these papers individually, as a tear out sheets in a spiral set, or as a block. A block is basically watercolor paper that has been glued around the edges to prevent buckling as you use the paper. After the painting is done, the paper can be removed from the block with a palette knife or a craft knife.

Watercolor Brushes

Watercolor brushes fall into 2 categories: natural brushes and synthetic brushes.

Natural Brushes

Natural brushes are often made from squirrel and sable hair. These watercolor brushes hold and absorb more water than synthetic brushes. They also keep their shape better and come back to a point easier. They are also much more expensive than synthetic brushes.

For the professional artist in your life, this is an excellent gift. Even if you can only gift 1 or 2 brushes, a seasoned artist will be so excited to be gifted a quality brush. If money isn’t an issue, one of the most popular natural brushes are the Silver brushes. These are very good quality natural-hair brushes.

Silver Brush Atelier Quill Series Squirrel Brush – Size 60, Short Handle – $47.24
from: Blick Art Materials

Synthetic Brushes

Synthetic brushes use man-made materials and there is more variation in the quality of these brushes. These brushes don’t hold as much water and paint, but the price point makes them much more affordable than natural hair watercolor brushes.

I use synthetic brushes in my work and they do work well. They are an affordable gift for those who are beginner or seasoned artists. There is a variety of brands available, but the least expensive option that I can recommend is the Simply Simmons brushes. For the price point, this is an excellent brush.

The watercolor brushes I use are the daVinci Cosmotop Spin brushes. I like having a variety of flat and round brushes for my watercolor work. These are ones that I’ve been using in my watercolor work for many years, and I am very happy with the results I get from these brushes.

Other Gifts for Watercolor Lovers

Quality Pencils

Most watercolorists pencil in an initial sketch, so by gifting a good set of quality pencils makes a terrific gift. My favorite is a set of Faber-Castell Pencils that come in a tin. Having a range of pencils lets you decide on how dark you want your sketch. These also can be used for drawing and sketching as they are high quality pencils.  

Quality Pens

Quality pens are great for watercolorists that love to use pen and ink in their watercolor drawings. I love the Faber-Castell Pitt Pens because they are waterproof and have a beautiful, vibrant ink. These pens will work on a variety of watercolor papers, making them excellent for watercolor work.

Brush Stand

A beautiful brush stand will be appreciated by a watercolor artist. Watercolor brushes are delicate, so having a good brush stand to place your brushes on as you work is a wonderful gift.

Best Gift Ideas for Acrylic Painters

If you are looking for the best gift ideas for the acrylic painter in your life, I would suggest purchasing brushes, paint, gesso, and a variety of canvas and board surfaces.

Acrylic Paint

If you are looking to purchase acrylic paint for even a beginner artist, I would suggest purchasing a good quality paint. These range from student grade to professional grade paints. I would avoid craft paint as most craft paints don’t have pigment in them, but are dye-based paint. This means that the color will fade over time and won’t be as vibrant as student or professional artist paints.

If you want to get more details about comparing craft, student, and professional paints, visit this article “Is Craft Paint Really Cheaper? What is the Best Paint?”

Student Grade Paints

If you are purchasing paint for a beginner or more seasoned artist, the student grade paints are a good choice. They are made with good materials and pigments. They are less pigmented than professional paints but come in colors and consistencies similar to professional paints. If or when the artist chooses to move up to nicer paints, the textures and colors will be similar to what they’ve used before.

I can recommend Amsterdam and Pebeo student grade paints as I use them often in my art journals and acrylic pieces. The quantity of paint for the price is excellent and, in some cases cheaper, than designer craft paints. If you want to gift a new artist a large set of colors, try one of the Pebeo or Amsterdam gift sets. This is a good gift choice because of the balance between quantity and price.

Professional Paints

Professional paints have beautiful, vibrant pigments and the difference between the student and professional acrylics is that you’re paying for quality of pigments and binders. I would suggest this paint for a seasoned or professional artist.

I use professional artist paints for canvas paintings, but also for mixing with acrylic mediums. These super pigmented paints work very well and for a seasoned painter, would make an amazing gift! I use a variety of professional paints with my favorites being Holbein, Winsor & Newton, Golden Acrylics, and M.Graham & Co.

Gesso

Gesso is a great gift for any acrylic artist as it is used in most acrylic paintings. Acrylic gesso is applied to boards, canvas or an art journal before paint is added. This creates tooth to the surface so that the paint sticks better. By coating the surface with gesso, you will use less paint. Gesso ranges from inexpensive student varieties to professional acrylic gesso. For a seasoned professional artist, I would suggest Golden gesso. For a beginner artist, Liquitex Basics Gesso works very well and is reasonably priced.

Acrylic Surfaces

For acrylic painters, having a good surface to apply paint can make or break a project. I use 3 main groups of surfaces when painting: an art journal, canvas, or boards.

Art Journal

An art journal is a great place for practice and experimentation. Purchasing a good quality art journal gives you so many surfaces that you can work and practice on. One of my favorite surfaces is a mixed media journal because not only does it take acrylic paint, but you can also use this surface for watercolor as well.

For a student art journal, I would suggest the Strathmore Visual Journal with Mixed media paper. This is a 90lb paper which is heavyweight enough for a variety of projects. It’s a good choice for someone who is starting out. Until you work on a surface for a while, it takes time to figure out the weight and type of paper that you really like to work on.0

One of my favorite mixed media journals is the Pentalic Nature Sketch Book, this has a heavier, 130lb mixed media paper. You can add quite a bit of water to this paper without it buckling. This makes it perfect not only for acrylic painting but for watercolor. For the seasoned or professional acrylic painter, this is a great choice for an art journal.

For a more comprehensive list of art journals and what to look for, check out this article “Choosing an Art Journal for Your Creative Practice.”

Canvas

A stretched canvas is the traditional surface for acrylic painting. You can get stretched canvas in small to very large sizes. For any artist this is a great option as the stretched canvas has bounce (a little bit of give) which makes it fun to paint on.

If you’d like to paint on canvas but want a slightly cheaper option, try canvas sheets. I often use canvas sheets for practice. Use masking tape to tape it to a board and paint on it. If you end up loving the painting, it can always be stretched onto a canvas later.

Boards

If you want a slightly cheaper option than canvas, you can get canvas boards. These are canvas pieces that have been stretched and glued to a board. This is a cheaper option that can also be added to a standard frame to give the piece a completed look.

You can also use MDF or solid wood boards for painting. These will need to be prepared with gesso before paint is added, but they are a good choice, especially for beginner artists.

I also like using acrylic paper. This very stiff and thick paper takes paint beautifully and is an inexpensive way to get quality surfaces for painting.  

Acrylic Brushes

There is a variety of very cheap to very expensive acrylic brushes. I tend not to spend too much money on acrylic brushes because they do wear out or can stiffen up if not washed properly. I generally use flat brushes and have some smaller round brushes for detail work. 

For inexpensive acrylic brushes, I again recommend the Simply Simmons brushes. These apply paint beautifully and I don’t have issues with them stiffening up after washing. Be aware that the Simply Simmons watercolor brushes and acrylic brushes are made with different materials.

You generally don’t use watercolor brushes for acrylic painting as the acrylic paint is very hard on watercolor brushes. The watercolor brushes are designed to hold a lot of water, while acrylic brushes are meant to hold heavy mediums and paint.

For more expensive acrylic brushes, I have a variety of Princeton Dakota and Catalyst brushes that work very well for my acrylic projects. These I can highly recommend for professional and seasoned artists.

Choosing the Right Gift

If you’re not sure about what to gift an artist, you can always get a gift card. Even a $25 gift card for an artist is enough for them to get themselves a few beautiful things for their artistic practice.

Any Questions?

Any questions about choosing the best gift for artists? I would love to answer your questions. Leave a comment below and I’d love to start a conversation with you!

I have tried a lot of different brands and different materials over the years. These are my favorites that I hope that you’ll enjoy as well!