The Ultimate Artistic Gift Guide for Young Creators – 9 to 12-year-old art gifts
If your tween’s eyes light up at the sight of color palettes, and their hands itch to sketch, paint, or mold, you’re nurturing a blossoming artist! But, as they drift between childhood and the teenage realm, finding gifts that resonate with their artistic flair can be a tad tricky.
We’ve curated a treasure trove of arty gifts that will inspire their masterpieces and elevate their creative journey. Prepare to unwrap the world of imagination and craft and watch their talents soar!
You may also be interested in
Best Art Gifts for Tweens
Whether your creative tween has just started showing an interest in art or has been fine-tuning their art skills for year, these are some of the best art gift ideas for preteens.
Disclosures: We are participants in the Amazon Associates Program and other affiliate programs that earn us a commission if a qualifying purchase is made.
Watercolor Painting Set
Hand Lettering Set
If your tween would be interested in learning more about or trying hand lettering, this set would be the perfect starter kit for them. It’s easy to follow and understand, so they can really learn without getting frustrated.
It includes several writing tools and a kneaded eraser, ideal for fixing those minor mistakes. It’s the perfect tween stocking stuffer for the budding artist.
Doodle and Color Art Set
With over 142 pieces included in this art set, this is one of the best gifts for tween artists as it comes with everything they need to start coloring and getting creative.
Coming in a beautiful presentation box, it is ideal for gifting. Your artist set includes crayons, oil pastels, and watercolors.
Brush Markers
A great gift for older kids, really honing in on their hand-eye coordination and penmanship, these markers come with a double-ended design so that your artist can draw fine details, calligraphic strokes, and more.
The flexible brush tips are sturdy and don’t fray easily, and the fine tip markers are great for coloring books, so this will be a good investment for your creative tween who loves adding to her craft supplies!
Spiral Bound Sketch Pads
One of the most basic but essential gifts for tween artists is including a few different-sized sketch pads as a stocking stuffer.
Sketch pads are easy for them to carry around in their backpack and provide the best drawing surface for their ideas. Ask anyone who loves to sketch, and they’ll tell you that you can never have too many sketch pads!
Sketch Pencils
Ideal for sketching and shading, these pencils are great for both beginners and advanced artists. These graphite pencils come in a set of 12 so they will have plenty of practice and the perfect pencil for every type of shading.
If you are investing in good quality drawing gifts for 12-year-olds, don’t forget a good quality pencil sharpener to keep their tools in top shape.
Lartique “The Box of Art” Painting Kit
A superb starter set, 24 blank canvases, and everything your young artist needs to get started.
Get your tween painting with a variety of different techniques. There’s a set of acrylic paints included but your tools will also work with oil paint, watercolors, gouache, pastel, spray paint, tempera, and more.
Sketch Prompts Books
A great gift for young artists seeking some new inspiration. Each week, your creative tween can follow the weekly art prompts included in this book.
The exercises are varied and will help them with doodling and becoming more expressive. The best thing about this prompted sketchbook is that it’s full of inspiration and ideas to help them learn and perfect their techniques throughout the year.
Fineliner Ink Pens
These precision ink pens will be perfect if you seek drawing gifts for tweens. Now that they have much more advanced fine motor skills, they are great for sketching, drawing, and even bullet journaling.
These ink pens come in various nib sizes to practice their control and precision. High-quality and odorless, the pens will work on many different papers and surfaces without smearing or bleeding.
Acrylic Paint Set
This set of acrylic art colors will help encourage your tween to paint. It includes 30 colors of nontoxic paint with rich pigments, plus you get a bonus of 3 brushes with the set. This is a great stocking stuffer starter set for the budding tween artist.
Sketch Drawing Tools
This is the perfect gift set for a more advanced young artist who really loves to sketch.
These tools include everything from blending stumps to sharpening tools and kneaded erases, which will allow them to hone their artistic skills and create stunning works of art you’ll want hanging in the house!
Clay Sculpting Tool Kit
Do you have a tween artist who prefers to work with clay? This is the ideal tween art gift for a potter, allowing them to advance their pottery hobby to the next level.
This clay sculpting kit includes an all-important artist’s apron and 42 pieces they will need for carving, shaping, modeling, cutting, scraping, brushing, and smoothing.
How to Draw Cute Stuff
Let’s be honest. What tween girl doesn’t enjoy cute things? Seeking out art gifts for 10-year-olds, this 128-page learn-to-draw book includes detailed step-by-step instructions and animation techniques that would ideally target those who are still little kids at heart but would love to be teen artists one day.
Coloring Book
Wings of Fire is a brilliant tween coloring book for both boys and girls who love working on their intricate coloring skills.
This is an age-appropriate approach to coloring from the Wings of Fire book series. It’s ideal for colored pencils or experimenting with brush-tip markers and other coloring tools for fabulous results.
Large Size Art Portfolio Bag
Your budding artist will soon need a case for their growing collection of artworks. Keep their work protected and easily stowed, ideal for getting to and from school or art classes.
We also love the wide range of colors these cases come in for boys, girls, or unisex; it’s the type of thoughtful art gift that will last them well into their teenage years.
Polymer Clay Kit
Clay is the type of art gift that appeals to kids of all ages! Modeling clay, in particular, would make a super gift for an 11-year-old artist who likes to work with different mediums.
This set includes not just your clay but modeling tools, molds, and key chains for making a variety of different oven-baked clay creations, which in themselves can make awesome gifts!
Cricut Explore Air 2
Are you ready to introduce your tween to the delights of working with a Cricut? This incredibly advanced home-cutting machine can benefit so many fun crafts and home styling projects.
From the age of 9 onwards, a tween can competently use a Cricut with supervision. Let them explore their artistic flare and open up a whole new world of design with an advanced artist tool that will last them for many years to come.
Look out for bundles that include some of the basic supplies they need to get started so they can jump straight into it as soon as they unwrap this exceptionally special art present.
Found This Tween Gift Guide Helpful?
For several years, we have been curating a fabulous collection of tween-appropriate gift guides with the help of our very own tweens and their willing friends.
You can dive in here to our full collection of tween gift guides by age, including:
We also have more specialized ideas that might appeal to your fussy tween:
Your arty tween may also love these DIY Valentine’s Day projects, Easter Crafts, and more challenging Christmas crafts, perfect for pre-teen skill levels.
