Arteza 2023 Advent Calendars Compared: 12-Day vs 24-Day Fine Art

Introduction

Arteza has been making art advent calendars for a few years now, and the 2023 lineup comes in two sizes: a 12-day calendar at $50 and a 24-day Fine Art calendar at $80. Both are built around the same idea, one surprise art supply behind each door leading up to the holidays, and both feature illustrated box artwork from guest artists.

The big question with any advent calendar is value. Art supplies are expensive, and calendars rarely beat the price of buying items individually. But they do give you a curated mix, a bit of festive fun, and a low-commitment way to sample a brand’s range. Here is how the two Arteza calendars compare.

The 12-Day Calendar: What’s Inside

The $50 12-day calendar covers twelve doors with a genuinely varied mix. Across the doors you get a premium watercolor pad, a Scarlet Red watercolor paint, a flat and a round paintbrush, a yellow-green acrylic paint tube, a dual-nib marker with chisel and fine tips, two round canvas panels, modeling paste with a handled texture tool, acrylic gouache in Leaf Green, a very fine micro line pen, a metallic acrylic paint in Pearl Golden Hour, a chrome ink with a silver nib, and a Viridian Green acrylic paint to close things out.

That variety is the interesting part. Rather than repeating one medium, the calendar moves between watercolor, acrylic, acrylic gouache, metallic acrylic, ink, and texture paste, so you are testing several product families in one box. The doors even include small creative challenges, such as painting a family of cozy Christmas trees with the day’s paint.

It is not without drawbacks. There is no brochure or guide inside, and no art print or keepsake from the featured artist beyond the packaging itself. For $50 the haul is modest, and some buyers may wish the contents felt more cohesive as a single project rather than a spread of samples.

The 24-Day Fine Art Calendar: What’s Inside

The $80 Fine Art calendar doubles the doors and the supplies. Day one opens with a full-size 5x7 canvas, and the mix continues from there: water-based blendable twin markers, cold gray acrylic paint, two paintbrushes (a 6 flat and a 4 round, identical to the ones in the smaller calendar), a watercolor pad, both acrylic and oil Viridian Green with a palette knife, another round canvas panel, a fine liner pen, Aztec gold paint, a chrome ink marker with a broad nib, spiced apple watercolor, a white gel pen, Arteza gouache paint tubs, Pearl Electric Blue metallic acrylic, Vermillion red acrylic, a metallic jewel tip marker in gold, gold oil paint, an Ever Blend art marker in Mantis Green, Stone Blue watercolor, acrylic varnish, and more modeling paste.

A few touches stand out. Two paintbrushes per brush door instead of one is a genuine improvement over previous years, the gouache paint tubs are new to the format, and the acrylic varnish is a thoughtful inclusion that most art advent calendars skip entirely. The ribbon-tied packaging and illustrated cover are also some of the prettiest the format has seen.

The trade-offs are real, though. There are three round canvas panels across the two calendars, two separate gold paints (one acrylic, one oil) that feel redundant, and the same misprint issue appears on packaging crediting the wrong artist. Like its smaller sibling, it lacks a brochure or any printed art from the featured artist.

Which One Should You Buy?

If you only buy one, the 24-day Fine Art calendar is the better value. The $30 premium gets you double the supplies, a full-size canvas, varnish, gouache tubs, and a broader tour of Arteza’s catalog. It is still a luxury purchase, and it is the kind of thing that makes sense more for the fun of the daily reveal than for pure utility.

The 12-day calendar makes sense if $50 is your ceiling, if you want a lighter taste of the brand, or if you are gifting someone who is new to art supplies. It is worth noting that both calendars have appeared at retailers like Target and Joann’s, and Arteza has run significant sales on them during Black Friday and December, so waiting for a discount is a reasonable strategy.

Conclusion

Both 2023 Arteza calendars are charming and more varied than previous years, with markers, modeling paste, and gouache tubs joining the usual paints and brushes. The 24-day Fine Art edition is the stronger buy if budget allows, while the 12-day box is a decent entry point at a lower price. Just go in knowing that advent calendars trade raw value for the daily surprise, and a brochure or artist print would make both feel more complete.