All I Want For Christmas Is Loads Of Awesome

Santa Grinch

'Tis the season for everyone to spend too much money, stress over the little things, and hope that they can please all of their friends and family with assorted trinkets.  All the while, being asked, "well what do you, or your kids want for Christmas this year?" and each time, if you are anything like me, the first thing that pops into your mind is something that will likely be way overpriced.  But before you blurt that out, you change over to, "Well, there is this, under $20.00 item, that I'd be interested in."

Ya, It's kind of like that.  Why was Christmas as a child, so much fun, and as an adult it's so damned blah?

Any who, being that I like to draw, there are a number of things that I'm interested in getting this year for Christmas, that won't blow the budget.  In fact, many of them are down right cheap.  Let me tell you about them.

Sharpener

I have a pencil sharpener.  It's an electric battery powered sharpener, that doesn't take up much room,  but I have heard rumored that the kind I have occasional breaks, so I'd really like to have a backup, since I draw every day.  Also, the electric one I have works great, but inside is basically a rotating single hole sharpener, like the ones kids use in grade school, so I suspect that the blade will eventually dull.

I've discovered a hand crank sharpener that's very small, has replaceable blades, and it adjusts during sharpening, to get a better point, as well as reduce the risk of snapping off.  This is especially important to me for my colored pencils, since they seem to break more frequently.  I am talking about the Kum AS2 or AS2KM, Two Hole Automatic Long Point Pencil Sharpener.  It costs like $7.00, so no biggy here.

Drawing Tablet and Scanner

I have a drawing tablet.  It's a DigiPro WP5540.  I've had it for over a year, and it's still working, but it is a fairly cumbersome drawing tablet.  The pen is thick and heavy, due the the battery in it, and the pad is loose, and doesn't have a very good feel to it.  I'd really like to upgrade to a Wacom tablet.

The Wacom I've been looking at is, Wacom Intuos Pen Small Tablet.  Wacom recently discontinued its Bamboo line, which was its former play pen line, and has replaced it with this $70.00 version.  It's very similar to the old Bamboo, and comes with Autodesk Sketchbook Express and Art Rage 3 Studio.  I'd kind of like to get it.  And if no one buys it for me, I will likely buy it for myself, eventually.

Books

The next one is a book I've had on my list to get for some time.  Whenever I tell anyone I'm learning to draw, everyone says, "You have to get, THIS BOOK!"  The book is, Drawing on the right side of the brain by Betty Edwards.  The price tag is like $15.00, so again, this one is not much.

This next one is a two-fer, and I find it very hard to believe anyone will buy it for me, but here goes.  I don't get to draw nearly as much as I'd like to, but I had a revelation one night when I learned that many people draw on their tablets.  So, I was thinking, if I could find one that wasn't too pricey, but could still do all of the things that I needed, maybe,  just maybe, some kind soul would have pity, and buy it for me.  Then I'd need to buy the right stylus for the drawing part.

Pencils

The tablet I found is the 7-inch Dragon Touch Tablet, and it runs about $80.00.  It's a capacitive touch screen, so it requires a certain type of stylus to get the best results out of it.

The stylus I chose is the Adonit Jot Classic Fine Point Stylus for Touch Screen Tablets.  This is an amazing stylus specifically designed for drawing on capacitive touch screens.  It's designed to draw accurately at any angle, and give artists the freedom to draw like they would on paper.  It costs around $20.00, so it's in the ballpark.

Paper

So, there you have it--the list.  Is that too much to ask for?  Now, I'm not asking for the world.  I'm not even saying I expect to receive all of these things.  In fact, I'd expect pigs to fly out of my butt a whole lot sooner.  However, this is a comprehensive list of all the things that I'd actually like for Christmas this year.

YEAH ME!!!

If you have an artist in your family who you still need to buy a gift for this holiday season, take a look at this article on Squidoo, What To Buy the Artist In Your Family For Christmas.  It'll give you some ideas to help you get started.

Anyway, I hope everyone's shopping is going great, enjoy.