I was a little skeptical at first, paying $30 for a drawing game (I'm spoiled by Steam)
But turns out it's definitely worth it! I'ts taken me about 2 weeks of casual play just to burn through the main part of the game (seen here) but you can go through the main mode about 3-5 times with different Pokemon, then there's side projects and free DLC projects. Each lesson focuses on a different technique, and each Pikachu is a final exam. They walk you through step by step and explain.
Level 1 (bottom set) is the basics, they give you an outline to trace at the start and work from there.
Level 2 (middle set) you get into more complex shapes and tools, only the construction shapes are provided to create your sketch/lines from.
Level 3 (top set) These are even more complex, focusing on different styles of art, You start out with nothing but a reference picture to create your sketches from.
All backgrounds are pre-made except the charizards fore-flames, and the final pikachu's lighting.
A few gripes and complaints. There's only set levels of zoom. The brush "opacity" isn't opacity, it acts like a "fill" setting with a maximum opacity with only 4 levels. THERE'S ONLY 2 LAYERS! and you can't choose them either, top layer is for pen tool and the bottom is for everything else.A lot of times they make you use a dark pencil to sketch out your lines on a dark background, so they're REALLY hard to see, especially on the final final exam. Finally, there's no pen smoothing, but there is a very, VERY light line smoother for the pen tool, almost un-noticeable to where large/round objects are impossible to perfect.
I kind of want the regular Art Academy now to switch back and forth.
I think by far charizard was my favorite one to draw, not only I like charizard, but i really impressed myself!