This is not just a book, it’s an actual drawing class! There are video tutorials accessible by scanning QR codes in the book with your phone. Even the first lesson was helpful. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. The book has a lot to areas to draw the lessons and to practice!! The first lesson is a self portrait. It’ll be fun to compare the first drawing to the last. I’m excited to see how much this book improves my drawing abilities.

Now that I am retired, I am now able to focus on hobbies once in a while. One of them is learning to draw and this workbook is such an intelligent and efficient way to learn many drawing techniques that really require instruction to get it right. Each page features a QR code to scan that takes you to a YouTube video for that particular instruction. This is a great way to learn many techniques as you move along the workbook, at your pace. The paper is smooth for drawing with a regular #2 pencil. Once you have this workbook, all you need is a smart phone or iPad to scan the code and a pencil. The rest is all you! I am excited to dive into these lessons and will definately be purchasing more as gifts!

This is a good idea for a sketch book. It has some exercises with examples to go through. Taking the time to do it right will help you learn more about drawing and line. It has QR codes throughout the book for additional information. Personally I think it's pretty close to the famous Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in terms of material and the kinds of exercises. I'm not an expert, just an amateur. It would make a good gift for a budding artist, though I strongly prefer not to bring technology into art, even if it's reading material from a QR code. The paper quality is decent. If it's viewed as a learning tool, totally adequate. Chances are if you're at this phase in your art, you'll be happy to let the book go and not try to sell your practice anyways.

Okay, I'm so excited to tell you all about this..especially for people who love ART, love to draw, or who have always wanted to but mistakenly convinced themselves that they are incapable of mastering the skill--THIS IS FOR YOU!! Now I'm not a beginner artist BUT I'm Beginning Again after many years so I am very rusty on technique so not only is this really fantastic for an absolute beginner who really wants to learn to draw, its also amazing for artists like me who have maybe been away from this hobby for a decade and want a refresher so that we're not wasting our art supplies trying to wing it lol!!This is an actual Workbook with a table of contents that reads like a dream syllabus for the art student that never got to take the class they wanted (but now here you are--yay)--This workbook is meant to be used alongside the Authors published Online Companion Course by accessing the QR codes in the header of the chapters...so no it is NOT a Sketchbook IT IS A FULL ON ART COURSE (NOT JUST A CLASS) and a fantastic one at that, with a wonderful teacher who took a chance on herself and created her first outing with publishing her course in this way...now every debut project of this magnitude is going to have some room for improvement but honestly, so far, I only have one really small note, because this product has been nothing but joy & smiles, but for the sake of review I will mention this:It could be due to the price point, and wanting to make this incredible course affordable for everybody-- but in that process some corner has to be cut and that corner is the quality of the card stock of the workbook cover, which isn't quite strong enough to handle a rough delivery journey, as mine came with a slight crease/dent in it and I love keeping my art books and pads in pristine shape--but even so, it doesn't take away from the experience OR what you will come out of this course able to do & ultimately THAT is the point isn't it? The Spiral binding on this book was such a smart idea and makes this workbook so much easier to flip through and work with and the QR codes on each chapter make it very easy to get to the online class that goes with it...I can't say enough good things about this and the author/teacher Lauren is wonderful with a teaching style and tone that is a great match for my learning style, welcoming, warm, talented & efficient ( disclaimer: as a fellow author I'm really proud and think this is such a good idea that I'm like wow how can I do this for my own genre lo!?!)BOTTOM LINE: I would definitely buy this again, and will update with a second edition when it becomes available/ I will absolutely be recommending this edition to friends and fellow artists...If you are here and have actually read this far, congratulations just for managing that and do yourself a favor and just get it, I mean an entire art course on the fundamentals of drawing, shading, and seeing the world using artist eyes to translate your visions to the pad--just hit the Buy Now button and give yourself or someone you love something to look forward to!! Happy Drawing!!

I thought this might be a fun book for a family member that enjoys drawing, but after looking through it, it has a lot to be desired. I am a professional multiple medium artist (which includes painting in various mediums and drawing as well as other mediums) and I also teach various types of art, sciences and mathmatics. This book is definitely for very early beginners, but it leaves out so much important foundational knowledge that there's *plenty* of room for.For a book that's not a sketch book it has a LOT of blank pages and really doesn't teach that much. There are MUCH BETTER books out there if you're a beginner just starting to learn how to paint and/or draw or a beginner looking to improve their skills. For the price, you get a book that briefly skims over topics and has a LOT of blank pages that could have easily been filled with information.

I ordered this because it looks like a fun way to get some practice drawing. I was excited to open it, and the lessons within look nice. Unfortunately, the print quality is lacking, losing lots of details and erring towards too much black ink, erasing fine shadows in the process.I checked the QR codes within to make sure they worked, and I was surprised to see a reference to a 2024 edition within them when this book claims to be a 2025 first edition. Weird. I googled the title, and I realized this is a copy of a Lauren Horn's This is NOT a Sketchbook: It's an art class! with the year changed and her name hidden on the listing. I cannot imagine an author approving of her name being removed from a listing of her own book, so I'm left to conclude the seller didn't get Lauren Horn's approval for this listing. Hence, the star rating of one.It's not that the book is bad, it's that the author is likely not seeing a penny of the sales, and that's not okay.