Great Gifts for Kids: Art Sets

My nearly 5 year old son loves drawing. He spends hours drawing animals, dinosaurs, knights, pirates and anything else that captures his imagination. We go through a lot of art supplies! I'm always very appreciative when he gets an art set as a birthday or Christmas gift, I know they'll be put to good use. 

It's also important to encourage artistic kids as they get older. Many kids stop drawing and painting which is a shame as it's so enjoyable and it's a useful skill to have as they get older. There are lots of jobs for graphic designers who can create their own products or work for companies. You never know, art may turn into a career, or at least a life-long hobby. 

I've featured a selection of great art gifts here, starting with those for toddlers, preschoolers and little kids and working up to the tweens and teens. 

The Melissa & Doug Wooden Easel is very well designed. It has a chalkboard on one side and a dry-erase board on the other, plus a locking paper roll holder to hold paper for painting and drawing. 

The easel is double-sided so two children can use it at the same time. It folds flat for storage - very practical. And has good-sized storage trays. 

This easel gets excellent reviews. My son has just started school and the painting easel is absolutely his favorite activity. I wish I'd got him this easel when he was little. 

There's also a matching accessory set to give your artist everything they need to get started. 

I remember having a big set of Crayola crayons in lots of colors as a child and loving it. This Crayola tower set gets good reviews. The tower raises up so children can get at all the colors and drops back down for storage. 

You get 150 different crayons inclulding glitter and metallic colors as well as a huge range of standard crayons. 

This set makes a great gift for younger children who enjoy drawing. The storage tower will keep the crayons neat and tidy. Much better than having them get broken in a box. 

Amazon usually has this set for a good price making this an inexpensive but impressive art gift for younger kids. 

I think this is a lovely idea. The Illustory set contains supplies for a child to design their own book with pictures and words.

Once the child has created their artwork and accompanying story or descriptions, the pages are sent off to be turned into a real book!

Making their own book makes a child feel very special and creates a keepsake that will be enjoyed and talked about for years to come.

Illustory is recommended for kids from around age 6 or 7. Once they are able to write simple sentences. Younger kids who love drawing could also use the set with their parents adding the words. 

This is defintely a gift I'd appreciate receiving for my boys. 

A wooden art box makes an impressive gift for a child who enjoys drawing and painting. This 82 piece set looks very professional and will make kids feel like a proper artist.

The hinged wooden box includes:

• 24 colored pencils
• 24 oil pastels
• 24 large watercolors
• 3 mixing palette trays
• 2 drawing pencils
• 2 camel hair brushes
• 1 kneaded eraser
• 1 pencil sharpener

This is a good set for kids who are interested in art and ready to try something different from crayons. They get to experiment with lots of different art materials. 

You can watch the video to the right to see how the Draw like a Pro projector works. 

As well as the drawing station with projector and the image slides, you also get marker pens, paper and a flip book to make.

This set gets very good reviews for its quality, ability to keep kids entertained for hours and improve drawing skills. 

The uDraw is a graphic art tablet for the Wii console. The uDraw comes with uDraw Studio - an art package for creating digital art. 

Kids use a pen on the tablet to select drawing tools and draw. Their creations can be saved and printed off. 

The Wii uDraw makes a worthwhile gift for kids who enjoy art and might even consider a career that involves art. Creating art with the uDraw will develop the skills used by a graphic designer - someone who creates digitial art as a career. 

Fashion Design Portfolio is an art set that's mostly for girls, but of course there will be future fashion designer boys who would enjoy it too. 

The set includes plastic stencil sets that help older kids to create their own fashion designs. The stencils give them lots of ideas and help get the basics of their designs right so they can concentrate on adding their personal design flair. 

This set gets excellent reviews and is very popular with tween girls and younger teens. A set of good quality coloring pencils goes well with this gift. 

This Faber Castell Modern Masterpieces set teaches kids to draw in the style of famous artists: Picasso, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Warhol.

The kit includes

• 6 GRIP watercolor eco pencils, black permanent marker
• four pre-printed canvas boards
• four mounting boards, four hanging tabs, double-sided tape
• pencil sharpener
• paint brush, watercolor paper, and color-mixing guide
• full color illustrated instructions.

This kids gets excellent reviews and makes a good gift for a child that has shown an interest in art and is ready to learn about different artists and their styles.