Holiday Gift Guide for 2D Artists

Holiday Gift Guide for 2D Artists

Regardless of the occasion, brainstorming the perfect gift is never an easy task. And when the holidays roll around, the all-important act of gift-giving becomes that much more stressful. If you’re shopping for a 2D artist you know, here are a few ideas that might just put a smile on their face.

For the 2D Artist - Beginner

820+ Daily Sketching Female Reference Pictures

This tutorial pack includes more than 800 high-resolution reference images for those who enjoy sketching. 

Containing a variety of poses such as sitting, cube, standing, static, and many more, there are endless options to choose from for anatomy studies, speed sketching, or gesture drawing.

ART School

If you’re looking for the ultimate unbeatable gift, your search ends here! Gifting someone ART School is close to the equivalent of giving them a university degree in digital art, but for a fraction of the price. 

ART School includes 10 ‘terms’ containing video tutorials and explanations as well as assignments that cover topics such as perspective, nude and clothed figure drawing, environmental design, prop design, color and light, film and game production, graphic design, and so much more. 

Although it comes with a hefty price tag, it will create the fundamental foundation needed for any CG art newbie to hit the ground running.

Too much? Consider purchasing Term 1 only instead.

ART School - TERM 1

Term 1 of ART School is a happy medium, allowing your giftee to get a taste of what ART School is all about. This way, they can decide for themselves whether or not they would like to purchase the rest. 

Term 1 will go over the basics of what the program will teach you, covering fundamental concepts like nude figure drawing, perspective, Photoshop, and visual communication across over 8 hours of content. 

Starter Brush Pack 2021

This kit contains 17 custom Photoshop brushes that will equip a beginner with the tools they need to get the ball rolling. It includes a diverse pack of brushes that newbies and professionals can use. As it comes at no cost, this brush set could be a great bonus to add to your gifts.

Dark Princess Tutorial

This 2D character tutorial runs through all of the essentials of character creation using a stylized sample, from sketching to solidifying the final piece. For anyone interested in CG character development, this is a great tutorial, to begin with. 

It covers the techniques needed to use various tools such as soft air and hard round brushes and allows you to acquire niche tips from industry experts.

Props design Tutorial + Brush pack

This pack gives new artists the opportunity to learn about the process of prop design from start to finish and includes a 48-minute narrated video that covers design principles, rendering techniques, and shortcuts, a 3x process video that runs through the entire pipeline, as well as a brush pack for Photoshop. 

Note: some Photoshop knowledge is needed to fully grasp the content of this tutorial.

Patreon TERM 07 / TIER 3: Chill Girl

This is another great set for anyone interested in character creation. It includes a tutorial and tools that allow you to create a stylized ‘chill girl’, containing a high-definition version of the illustration, layered Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint files, step-by-step guides, a full video of the process in Clip Studio Paint, as well as a few miscellaneous bonuses such as wallpapers and extra tips and sketches.

BW Render 2

This is a great introduction for any artist keen on learning rendering. This black-and-white rendering exercise and set contains a 2x speed process video, a timelapse video, a layered Photoshop file, process steps, as well as the brushes used to achieve the stylized render.

Painting portrait: Bundle

This bundle is a perfect starting point to portrait painting. It covers the basics of structure, line drawing, as well as the entire painting process. 

In addition to the 7 tutorial videos, it also contains Photoshop files, JPEG reference images, and brushes.

Paint Foliage With Confidence

Painting foliage may seem quite random but is actually quite helpful for environment creation and design. This short and sweet 1.5-hour tutorial unpacks a lot of common issues experienced when it comes to painting foliage, such as learning to utilize foliage to make your work stronger, how to deal with a large amount of foliage, how to make your foliage look vibrant, and more. 

Pencils Brushes + PSD templates

For anyone who loves both digital and traditional art equally, or doesn’t know which way they’re leaning just yet, this pack is perfect for them. This set of digital pencil brushes was made to appease the traditionalist, allowing you to work digitally but simultaneously achieve a realistic outcome. Each of the 25 brushes is unique, is calibrated to create an experience just like its real counterpart, and can be used in either Photoshop or Procreate. 

Color Inspiration

This is a great comprehensive bundle that introduces new artists to the world of color theory by providing 6 solid Procreate color palettes that include 180 colors. Beginners can then use the color palettes to create sketches or artworks to their liking and don’t need to stress about determining a color palette from scratch.

For the 2D Artist - Intermediate / Advanced

1500+ Turnaround Female Reference Pictures

This reference pack includes more than 1500 reference images that can be used for a variety of purposes. References are a great place to start, however advanced you are. That’s why this extensive reference kit, which includes full rotation images, is perfect for anyone, beginner and expert alike, interested in anatomy studies, gesture drawing, character creation, and more. 

ART School +Feedback

Want to know what’s even better than ART School? ART School with feedback! This takes the renowned digital course to a whole new level, adding a certain degree of traditional schooling into the mix. 

If your giftee isn’t one to commit to self-learning but has the burning desire to learn, this is the perfect gift. It has the same content as that of the regular version of ART School, but also includes access to weekly live streams in which you can receive helpful and critical feedback. You can continue to get feedback for up to an entire year, so this is truly the gift that keeps giving. 

Advanced Painter's PS Brushes

This brush set is an incredible resource for the seasoned digital painter, containing 33 custom Photoshop brushes that will only continue to grow. 

The brushes vary immensely, and can be applied in many ways, and include skin, folds, organic, dust, dry oil, square brushes, and more. Note, this brush kit is compatible with Photoshop CC+ or later.

Ghibli Inspired Brushes for Photoshop & Procreate

This brush kit of over 128 custom brushes for both Photoshop and Procreate is perfect for any artist who loves Ghibli. It includes an almost 2-hour video demo in Photoshop with a voiceover, as well as a 10-minute timelapse process video in Procreate. 

It also includes high-resolution images created with the brushes included in Procreate for reference.

Pencil Brushes for Sketching

This pencil brush kit is fantastic for both beginner and advanced CG artists. With over 70 Photoshop brushes, there is a world of possibilities to be achieved, and that expert artists in particular can really maximize. 

This kit is ideal for intuitive sketching and drawing, similar to drawing with a pencil on paper. These brushes come in different groups, such as line art, which mimics traditional and mechanical pencils, soft sketch, which replicates the soft and watered effect, and charcoal in varying degrees of hardness and size.  

Portfolio building Module 1

This module is excellent for someone interested in creating epic shots of buildings and landscapes. It covers the entire detailed pipeline of creating a building shot in both 2D and 3D through 6 sections: establishing the shot by designing modular design pieces, building the pieces in 3D, creating the island, composing the shot using blender to achieve lighting, and painting the scenes.

Polish till your Fingers fall off

This tutorial kit is best for those looking to polish their skills in order to create refined drawings each and every time. In over 100 minutes of video content, renowned artist Anthony Jones teaches you how to set your drawings up for success, to polish them, and also gives you a demo so that you can get insight into his workflow and the tricks he uses along the way.

Drawing & Coloring Techniques

This Marc Brunet tutorial offers fundamental drawing skills in order to achieve clean line drawings and coloring using various layers and blend modes. I

f your giftee already has ART School, this could be the perfect add-on, as it goes into more depth about techniques such as contrast, depth and saturation, and detailed line drawing of complex forms like mech pieces. It is broken down into 2-hours worth of content covering 7 distinct sections.

Have any suggestions for great gifts on Cubebrush? Tell us!