How to Create a Gift Set for Painting and Drawing: Tips from an Artist

Step 1: Purchase a Cheap Joe’s Gift Card. (Just kidding, sort of, but it is an artist’s favorite gift!)

We know it’s hard to know what to buy for an artist. Artists can be picky people, and you don’t know what they really need or want. So our resident artists here at Cheap Joe’s put together an easy guide to making a gift set that will show that personal touch. Whether you’re encouraging a beginner or gifting a professional, you can DIY a custom gift set within your budget.

1. Pick something to make art on, such as a paper pad, a canvas, a sketchbook, or a panel

and/or

2. Add a set to make art with, such as a paint set, colored pencil set, or a marker set.

and/or

3. Add tools to apply the art media with, such as a brush set, a colored pencil accessory kit, or a nice palette.

We’ve put together a few ideas as examples for different levels of art experience and media in painting and drawing. Simply mix and match art supplies from 2 or 3 of the columns, and you’ll create a set any artist will be happy to receive. (Especially if you also add a gift card to their stocking!) You can call our helpful Customer Service Team at 1-800-227-2788 or visit one of our store locations to get more recommendations.

Gift Sets for Beginner Artists

Mix and Match from 2-3 columns depending on your budget

Watercolor

Paint On: For beginner watercolor paper, we recommend a paper that has a sturdy surface for the watercolor to move around, even if it’s made from wood pulp instead of the ideal 100% cotton. While you don’t have to spend on professional quality papers for a beginner, avoid bottom-rung quality papers not designed for watermedia that will only frustrate their first paintings. 

Paint With: For the paint, we chose good quality beginner watercolor sets with brilliant color, balanced color selection, and fun formats.  

Brushes and Tools: For the brushes, we chose soft absorbent bristles in sets that take the guesswork out of which shapes are useful.

Acrylic

Paint On: Beginning acrylic painters can paint on mixed media paper or canvas. Our choices here will give them lots of less-precious options so they won’t be afraid to experiment as they learn.

Paint With: Student-grade acrylics usually contain more filler and less expensive pigments but are still a good place to start when learning. You only need a few colors to begin, and with these sets they can learn to mix their own colors.

Brushes and Tools: Practical tools for new acrylic painters are a disposable palette and brushes that work well with watermedia. A simple easel for the dining room table would also be a plus!

Oil

Paint On: Oil painting takes practice, so it’s best to provide a beginner with several less intimidating options for surfaces to paint on. Canvas panels, pads, and stiff paper-like cartón are perfect for studies yet still framable.

Paint With: Just like acrylics and watercolor, these good quality oil painting sets contain the basic colors to get started while allowing them to learn to mix colors as well. We also included an earth palette Pigment Stick Set which is a great introduction to oil paint for artists who are already comfortable drawing. It’s like drawing with oil!

Brushes and Tools: Oil paint brushes need to be stiffer than those for watermedia, so we picked some economical sets that offer good bristles and helpful shapes. Oil paint also requires solvent instead of water to thin the paint. A glass palette is ideal for oils because it’s non-absorbent, silky to mix color on, and can be easily scraped clean.

Drawing & Sketching

Draw On: The most commonly chosen paper for drawing is smooth with a little bit of ‘tooth,’ or very light texture, to hold dry media. We chose drawing paper in pads and sketchbooks with lots of sheets to encourage practice. Pads are great for making drawings one by one that can be removed and displayed, while sketchbooks are ideal for sketching ideas and trying out techniques while collecting their progress and development.

Draw With: Drawing supplies are so varied and artists routinely use many types for sketching. Colored pencils, art markers, Micron fine line pens, and a variety drawing materials set are useful choices as they discover their particular preference.

Drawing Accessories: Drawing is a refreshingly simple and inexpensive way to begin making art, so you could truly stop with something to draw on and with, but we added some nice extras for transporting drawing materials as well as a set of erasers every artist should have.

Gift Sets for Advanced Artists

Mix and Match from 2-3 columns depending on your budget

Watercolor

Paint On: Every watercolor artist will appreciate a 100% cotton watercolor sketchbook for their studies or travel watercolor. Here, we chose high quality paper in hardback formats.

Paint With: We chose unique professional watercolor sets that will add to their existing collection, from popular super-granulating watercolor to QoR’s modern watercolor to a selection of artist-curated sets by American Journey and Daniel Smith.

Brushes and Tools: Advanced watercolorists will already have a selection of brushes, but we chose some high quality options we believe they’ll love to add to their rotation.

Acrylic

Paint On: Painters always need a supply of surfaces to paint on so we’ve collected some old favorites plus some new options they may not have tried yet, like Aluminum Panels and real canvas pads with lots of sheets for studies.

Paint With: Each acrylic paint here is professional quality with high pigment loads and excellent working properties. These paint brands are popular with acrylic painters for a reason!

Brushes and Tools: We’ve included traditional acrylic brushes alongside fun scraping tools that might encourage play in a new direction. Painting knives and glass palettes are helpful tools for any acrylic painter.

Oil

Paint On: We’ve collected some classic oil painting surfaces like linen and wood panels, as well as a cotton oil paper that doesn’t require gessoing. Whether they use these for studies or plein air painting, painters always need more surfaces on which to make art.

Paint With: Each oil paint here is highly pigmented professional quality and a joy to paint with. We also included something they may not have tried yet, Pigment Sticks, which is like drawing with pure oil pigment.

Brushes and Tools: Oil painting requires more accouterments than other paint mediums and so choosing the right ones can be tricky. Instead, we collected some nice-to-have practical brushes and a mediums set plus a fun pochade box and an ergonomic painting knife.

Drawing & Sketching

Draw On: Many artists already have plenty of paper, so we chose some unique surfaces they may not have tried yet to inspire some adventurous exploration.

Draw With: One thing we’ve learned is that every artist draws and sketches, even if that’s not the final form their artwork takes. That means gifting drawing supplies is always a win. From paint markers to pastels, we chose professional quality drawing supplies that are ideal for sketchbook studies up to finished works of art.

Drawing Accessories: Since drawing doesn’t require a lot of fussy equipment, we chose some nice-to-have accessories like a travel drawing case, a fantastic sharpener, and some drawing supply organizers.