The Perfect Christmas List For Art Enthusiasts | Christmas 2021

Well guys, it is that time of the year again and in true Art Gear Guide and Ann Kullberg Color Magazine tradition, I have come up with some ideas for you this Christmas. Now this guide is exactly just that, a guide, but a special guide, one that can be accidentally on purpose placed in front of your loved ones, with a prominent red circle around it, perhaps the odd spot light, beamed upon the gift you would most like them to get you this Christmas.

Alternatively, if you are fortunate enough to own all you need regarding art supplies, then perhaps the Christmas guides I have provided this year will aid you in your decision making process when it comes to buying for the artist loved one or friend in your life. I am also aware of the fact there are many of my artist friends who do not celebrate Christmas and that is absolutely wonderful for diversity of cultures, religions, ideas and art is what we should all strive for. That being said, everyone is entitled to be spoilt and this guide is good all year round.

All of the products I have included in this review are products I myself have used, perhaps not in their gift presentation format, but I have used them and feel more than comfortable in presenting them to you in this list as a guide to possible gifts I’m confident you will enjoy using.

Every year I provide different Christmas Gift Guides just to add variety and make the selection process a little bit easier for you. This year I have presented five different guides. The first is a Luxury Art Guide, this is a selection of presentation art supply boxes that would be considered one off purchase, a gift for those special occasions such as Christmas, obviously quite expensive. The Second guide is a Stocking Filler list, this is full of smaller, less expensive yet incredibly desirable products that any artist would love to find in their Stocking. The Third guide is aimed toward the serious artists among you, those who need the highly lightfast product, all products in this list can be used for your commission or art competition entries. The Fourth guide is for the more hobby based or art enthusiast artist, those of us who just love excellent quality supplies that help provide us with the tools to create beautiful art. The Fifth and final list is wonderful art books that I have had the pleasure of reading and learning from over the years, hopefully you will find a book in this list that suits your artistic taste.

This list is for the colored pencil enthusiast, obviously the word enthusiast covers a broad term when it comes to artists, which is exactly why I hope you will find this particular list comprehensive. All to the products in this list are relatively budget friendly, this list doesn’t focus on lightfast products, mainly art products that can be used anytime, be it your sketch book, adult colouring book, your own portrait, basically wherever and whatever you like.

Koh-I-Noor Polycolor Colored Pencils 72 Set

The Koh-I-Noor Polycolor colored pencils are perhaps one of my favourite student / budget / artist colored pencils. The Koh-I-Noor Polycolor Colored Pencil is a well rounded, heavily pigmented colored pencils. They are considered lightfast but not of the Blue Wool or ASTM standard, hence the reason they are in this list. I have personally used the Koh-I-Noor Colored Pencils for quite some time now and have always loved their versatility. Although the Koh-I-Noor Polycolor range is now at a whopping 144 set, I have added the 72 set in this list for cost but also because the 72 set is a complete palette, you will want for nothing regarding color selection and given the excellent blending abilities of the Polycolor, you will have all you need with the 72 set.

In the UK this amazing set will cost approximately £49.85, for artists in the US you can expect to pay $61.93 and for artists in the EU you can expect to pay approximately €58.70

Art-n-Fly Colored Pencils

Until recently, Art-n-Fly only supplied a 48 count of their colored pencils, but now they offer the 72 palette, this in my opinion pushes the Art-n-Fly Colored Pencils even higher up the desirability list. If you are a colored pencil artist that prefers the slightly harder cored colored pencil, with a perhaps more oily texture but are constrained to a budget, the Art-n-Fly Colored Pencils are the set for you. I have completed an in-depth review of the Art-n-Fly Colored Pencils on my website The Art Gear Guide, if you have never heard of them and would like to know more. I personally think they are such an over looked pencil, and hope that more people give them a try, discover an excellent pencil at an incredible price point.

In the UK this amazing set will cost approximately £26.97, for artists in the US you can expect to pay $31.97 and for artists in the EU you can expect to pay approximately €29.97

Meeden 3 Draw Artist Supply Storage Box With Easel

I have tested, demonstrated and reviewed all of the products on this list, except this one, this is a product I myself would absolutely love my wife or loved ones to get this for me this Christmas. I’ve always worked on a table surface flat, which after a short while increases the pain I am already in, so I have long wanted to try an easel, but of course I am also very limited on space. This Meeden 3 Drawer Storage Box is perfect as it sits on your table or desk. I store all of my pencils in these gorgeous pencil drawers, they are perfect for storage, but when I work on a colored pencil piece, I select a large cross section of pencils from my collection and place them in jars beside me on the desk. However this item would allow you to keep the pencils you need for the art right beside you, safely stored in the drawers and aesthetically it looks beautiful. The Easel folds flat, clipping into place so as not to flap about when moving the box.

In the UK this amazing storage unit will cost approximately £54.95, for artists in the US you can expect to pay $54.95 and for artists in the EU you can expect to pay approximately €54.95

Brutfuner 520 Collection Of Colored Pencils

This is a huge collection of colored pencils, some might say way too many colored pencils and others would say, “Is there ever such a thing as too many colored pencils”?. Whatever your take on the count is, this is an extraordinary set of colored pencils and surprisingly the quality of the pencils is actually really pleasant to use. Again I have reviewed the full 520 Brutfuner Colored Pencils if you would like to know more about them. You don’t have to purchase the full 520 count, as you can see from the image, they come in separate sets of 260, both sets are complete palettes in their own right, in other words, when I first seen them, I thought the darker packaged set might contain the dark colors and the lighter package set contain the lighter colors, alas this is not the case.

In the UK this amazing set will cost approximately £94.26, for artists in the US you can expect to pay $157.00 and for artists in the EU you can expect to pay approximately €149.06

Arrtx 80 Set of Brush Tip Markers

If you have followed me for a while, you will know that my absolute favourite method of art is mixed media, I use markers for the under painting and then apply colored pencils for the detail. Using a mixed media pad allows excellent control of the Arrtx markers and allows for layering of the colored pencils on top. There are a lot of good brush tip markers on the market, but Arrtx have supplied a fantastic quality brush nib as well as an outstanding selection of colors all at a remarkable price point. This method of art is not everyones cup of tea, but it allows you to cover larger areas fast with the markers and then come back in with the colored pencils for detail. This form of mixed media can also allow you to achieve decent light over dark, using white colored pencils over dark marker once the ink has fully dried.

In the UK this amazing set will cost approximately £75.99, for artists in the US you can expect to pay $75.99 and for artists in the EU you can expect to pay approximately €67.99

Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor Colored Pencils

The Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor Colored Pencils are right up there with the Koh-I-Noor Polycolor. They are both simply outstanding high quality budget colored pencils but they are very different from each other. The Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor are more like what you would expect a so called oil based pencil to feel and play with. I say so called due to the research I have done into the oil and wax based theory regarding colored pencils. The Lyra Polycolor sports a highly pigmented core, in house lightfast tested and I have added this 72 set to the list, which is their largest set. Many colored pencil artists that have used the Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor liken them to the Faber Castell Polychromos Colored Pencils and I personally can see why artists would make such a comparison.

In the UK this amazing set will cost approximately £77.36, for artists in the US you can expect to pay $69.95 and for artists in the EU you can expect to pay approximately €81.95

Caran d’Ache Swisscolor Aquarelle 40 Set

I just had to add a set of watercolor pencils to this list, Caran d’Ache are just an all round amazing company that produces some of the finest art supplies in the world. The Caran d’Ache Swisscolor Aquarelle are one of their lower grade sets of pencils, aimed at students, however, a student grade product from Caran d’Ache can sometimes be higher quality than other artist grade supplies. Watercolor pencils in general are so incredibly versatile, they allow you the ability to use them dry, you can activate the strong pigments with water either on the paper or check out the Caran d’Ache Palette on my Stocking Filler Christmas List, this tool opens up any water soluble product you use and is incredible. I love the Caran d’Ache Swisscolor Aquarelle Pencils and I think you will too.

In the UK this amazing set will cost approximately £30.90, for artists in the US you can expect to pay $34.99 and for artists in the EU you can expect to pay approximately €27.78

Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils 150 Set

I need not say anything at all about the Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils, Prismacolor are a pencil that colored pencil artists have been using for decades. They are a well established colored pencil in the colored pencil world, they have had their own controversies such as core shattering, but in my experience, if they are well look after, this issue is reduced to an absolute minimum. The soft creamy, richly pigmented core of the Prismacolor pencil is instantly recognisable, no other pencil on the market that I have tested offers such a smooth lay down. The 150 set of the Prismacolor offers the most amazing palette, portrait artists are spoilt for choice in this palette as are fan art artists. Prismacolor Premier Pencils are perfect for crafters, adult colouring book artists, sketchers and fine art colored pencil artist.

In the UK this amazing set will cost approximately £122.98, for artists in the US you can expect to pay $91.65 and for artists in the EU you can expect to pay approximately €148.12

Faber Castell Classic Colour 60 Set

Faber Castell are without one of the top leading colored pencil companies on the market, they have been in business for decades and the history surrounding the German company is absolutely fascinating. This set from Faber Castell, the Classic Colour are perhaps one of the cheapest 60 sets of colored pencils that I have found, used, demonstrated and reviewed and have since never discovered a set of pencils quite like them in their category. The palette is complete and comprehensive however for such a cheap set of pencils, their pigment strength is exceptional. They do feel like a cheap pencil in the hand, lightweight and not much to them, however, when you touch the paper with them, where it matters, that’s when the questions start to muster. How can they make a set of pencils like the Classic Colour so inexpensive? Well ours is not to reason why, nor shall I, this set of pencils from the formidable Faber Castell are everything an artist wants.

In the UK this amazing set will cost approximately £12.95, for artists in the US you can expect to pay $27.80 and for artists in the EU you can expect to pay approximately €17.83

Marco Tribute Master Collection

I discovered this amazing set of pencils quite a few months ago and still to this day I am amazed by them when I get the opportunity to use them. As you can see they are packaged in this gorgeous presentation set, each set hold ten pencils, all in color families and all related to Master Artists of yesteryear. However, when I first purchased them to review, I thought they were a gimmick, that the packaging was to draw you in and the contents, i.e the pencils, would be of terrible quality and I would be stuck with useless pencils. Thankfully this couldn’t have been further from the truth, the quality of the pencil is amazing and the art work I completed with them as part of my review was actually really good. This is a wonderful set of colored pencils from Marco to give to a loved one on Christmas of have a loved one present them to you.

In the UK this amazing set will cost approximately £71.54, for artists in the US you can expect to pay $95.00 and for artists in the EU you can expect to pay approximately €99.78

Enthusiasts Christmas List Roundup

I wanted to provide a predominately colored pencil list as one of my Christmas list guides, but I wanted the pencils to be of exceptional quality and low cost. Of course, it is difficult to define low cost or budget, because everyones financial situation is complete different, my budget will be different from someone else and visa versa. The products in this list, are of varied low cost but as I mentioned, the quality and standard of the pencils are exceptional excluding all the required lightfast standard that colored pencil artists producing commissions need, hence the Christmas Artist list I have also created.

I wish each and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas and if you don’t celebrate Christmas I hope you have an equally wonderfuly safe and happy Holidays. The most wonderful thing about art is that we can all celebrate that we have faith in, yet art allows us to bridge all those different cultures, religious beliefs and whilst still maintaining our individual beliefs. We are all pulled together with a love for art and the love that art allows us to share with one an other. There is far too much hate, divide and war in this world, as a community, our love and passion for creating beauty with the mediums of our choice, connects us all with an unbreakable bond, showing the rest of the world that through art, love, peace, harmony, understanding and togetherness can and does exist.