Top Must Have Gift Guide for the Unique Hobbyist

Sakura leads the way in Micron pens and are the go-to for pen and ink drawings and doodles around here. I personally like to roughly outline finished and dried watercolor pictures with micron outlines.

If you have an architectural or technical line style drawer in the house, this Sketching Masterclass is a wonderfule reference for 2D and 3D perspective drawing for that realistic look. This book is a staple in our house.

Artist’s Loft Dual Tip Watercolor Markers are wonderful for coloring and brush lettering. With the dual tips they are a versatile option for detail or fill in coloring.

Water Brushes are a must for mess free watercolor painting. They are easy to use and carry with you so you don’t have to bring a container of water and risk spilling. In our house, the fine tip gets the most use over the wide brush variety. These smaller curved shaped reservoirs fit the hands well and are the first to be reached for over the straight style. Especially well paired with the Windsor Newton Cotman travel paint set. As you can see, it gets a lot of wear and tear around here.

Sakura Gelly Roll pens continue to be a favorite in our house. The gel ink lets these colors cover over the paper with a slightly opaque finish. On black or dark colored paper, using the white gelly roll pen first under the color pen will make it really pop.

Canson paper has been our favorite everyday art paper as well as for use with thick markers or for brush lettering. This is a nice heavier mixed media paper. Canson also makes watercolor paper that is a great option for everyday practice. Just use painter’s tape around the edges and you’re good to go. This is student grade so is priced nicely so you don’t feel bad for practicing on it.

If your gift recipient would like to up their painting game, you might want to gift them 100% cotton paper like Arches. This is priced more expensively so it would not be for a beginner practicing.

Jane Davenport does such a lovely job at explaining and showing how to draw and add color to the challenging subject of the human body. We love her books, her style, and her personality.

This Inky Wonderlands book is a beautiful doodly book that makes you just want to pick up a Micron and get to it. I love to study how she breaks it down to be so attainable.

These Canon EOS cameras are a favorite for getting into photography and can be found in multiple new kits and older used ones on Craigslist. Ours is an older version but still does the job well and we are very pleased with it. Don’t forget the tripod– it’ll make life much easier as a budding photographer.

Out of all the large numbers of books we have looked through, the books for Dummies series has been extremely useful. One area as a parent that I appreciate is the section on lenses that are good alternatives to spending hundreds of dollars!

After much research, we purchased this 3D printer for its performance, ease of use, and fire safety. We really enjoyed it and recommend it, there is a version 2 now with a glass table but we haven’t tried it out yet. The heated table mat on this version has worked very well.

Once you have one, Thingaverse free pattern repository and Cura free slicer program will get you up and running.

If you have a 3D printer, there are so many fun PLA filament options to use from color changing, wood, to metallic burnt Titanium look, and food safe. PLA is the most user friendly and is for use in about every 3D printer because it doesn’t require a heated print bed. It’s biodegradable and less expensive which makes it a great option for learning and testing out printing without worrying about the waste.

Just be sure to check the filament diameter size to fit the printer. For example: the Endor 3 takes a 1.75mm size which is one of the most common sizes.

Raspberry Pi never goes out of style. With it’s cult following, there are tons of projects listed online and the parts are not spendy. We like it and have a good time exploring projects with it. For those who would rather have a project kit with guided project instructions, check out the suscription section below.

Just be sure that whatever kit you get comes with the power cable and micro SD card.

For Junior high through adulthood:

42electronics provides step by step electronics and robotics kits with easy to follow instructions and straightforward projects. The goal is to enable you to know the why and how to feel confident to move forward and create your own projects after you have finished. We are loving this and are using it as part of our tech/ robotics homeschool class for my highschooler.

For the school aged:

Letters from Afar is a wonderful monthly letter subscription for elementary up through high school (although I have to say that I enjoy them also!) We read these adventure geography letters aloud when they arrive. My son was surprised and excited to see “exotic” stamps stuck inside the envelopes as well.

For the ladies:

I ran into Janice Macleod’s books in the library and was immediately immersed in her world. The watercolor scenes and journal entries are superb. She offers her letters on Etsy individually or a monthly subscription mailed directly to your recipient. Be sure to check out her latest goings on at her blog.