Luxury Gifts Ideas for Artists: When Money's No Object

If you're a Van Gogh fan, this must surely be the ultimate. It contains all his letters, illustrated with photos of the paintings he refers to (whether by himself or someone else) and actual size photos of the sketches he included in various letters. Everything's cross-referenced and annotated too.

A camera lucida enables you to get accurate perspective because you're seeing the subject on the sheet of paper. Really! It's all done with mirrors, and doesn't take much practice to get used to aligning yourself, the mirror-viewer, and the subject. It's also great for a party game

Reviews: Camera Lucida from Ancient Magic Art Tools and The Camera Lucida Company

Kolinsky sable is the Ferrari of brushes, the ultimate hair for spring and paint-holding ability. Looked after carefully, a sable-hair brush will produce paintings for many years.

Manikins give a sense of three-dimensional form that's impossible to get from photos, and are great for observing where shadows fall in a particular pose. I've not yet met anyone who able to resist posing a manikin so if you're working from one and expecting studio visitors, put up a "Do Not Touch" notice! My personal menagerie includes a giraffe, chameleon, cat, and dog (though the anatomy of the last two is somewhat dubious).

Instead of having a real person modeling for you, dress up a life-size wooden manikin. You'll never have to worry about giving them a break, or they not holding the pose. Nor about them complaining the painting doesn't look like them!

Keep various bits and pieces organized and close to hand with an art caddy on wheels. There's plenty of space for jars, bottles, rags, brushes, and you can store your paint tubes in one of the drawers until you need to squeeze a bit more out. The top is ideal for resting a palette on, or could even be used as a palette.

If you want the ability to tidy away all your painting supplies, a combined taboret and easel workstation does the trick. Closed up, it looks like a small chest of drawers, but open it up and you've an easel and artist's workstation.

Fabriano Artistico is a watercolor paper worthy of a quality Kolinsky sable brush. It's made from 100 percent cotton, is acid free, and double-sized for a great painting surface. The "Traditional White" is a slightly warmer white than the "Bright White".

A metal watercolor set rather than a plastic one feels like it's a serious commitment to paint, rather than a temporary arrangement. It'll last a lifetime too, because the individual colors (or pans) can be replaced as they're used up.

The art market still has a sentimental attachment to paintings done with oils (traditional oil paint that is, not water-based oils). So perhaps it's time the artist in your life gave oil paint a try? This wooden starter set has everything you'd need to set yourself up in style, except a canvas.