All I want for Christmas is…

The holidays are around the corner and for many people that means wish lists. Christmas isn’t all about presents but let’s be honest…besides your birthday it’s the only other time in the year you can ask for things you want but won’t/can’t buy yourself.

My wish lists have gotten more practical as I’ve gotten older: I need slippers and sleep pants. A humidifier would be nice. These are practical items that serve a purpose. But even the pricier items on my list straddle the want/need line. Those items are essentials for an artist’s career:

• camera
• scanner
• printer

Camera:

Making work is all well and good but you need to be able to document it somehow. Having a camera is handy for photographing larger work. I’m currently using my iPhone as my camera. I have an old point-and-shoot but my iPhone is the clear winner of the two in picture quality. However, there is some distortion that I always have to fix in Photoshop. I’d like to upgrade to a DSLR. From my research the Nikon D3200 has what I need at a good price.

Scanner:

Having a good scanner is a must. I don’t currently have one. Well…I do have an All-in-One printer but 1. it doesn’t work with my MacBook Pro 2. it’s not a flatbed so scanning large images is impossible and 3. it’s super old. I’ve done a little research and the Canon LiDE210 looks good. Ideally I’d want something that can scan at least tabloid size but I can work with that.

Printer:

Finally, it’s important to have a good printer. A professional printshop is probably the best choice for making sellable art prints (unless you get a super expensive, fancy printer). But a good quality photo printer is nice to have for making promotional materials or making small batches of prints.

What do you have on your wishlist? I started a wishlist on Amazon if you want to see the rest of mine.