Transcription
In this video, I'm reviewing the Simply Draw app by the widely famous company Simply. I'll start with a brief overview of what Simply Draw is and who it's for. And then I'll divide my review up into three parts. What I like, what I wish, and what I don't like.
The Simply Draw app was designed to help people follow a creative drawing path, whether that be focused on nature, animals, or characters. in the current version of the app. The app is highly recommended for kids around ages seven and up, providing step-by-step drawing tutorials in a super engaging and userfriendly interface. As someone who draws a lot, I was obviously intrigued by any app or company that claims to have stepbystep instructions on how to draw, especially if they are wanting to help young kids refine their drawing abilities and set them up for success in the future. So, I want to thank Simply Draw for giving me a premium account so that I could really test the quality of each course within each of these three tracks. So, let's get into it.
Starting with what I like. First off, this is a very intuitive app that is super easy to navigate. Very bright and engaging, and most importantly, simple. They didn't try to do too much or add too many buttons or menus or directions. It's very easy to get where you want with one or two taps. After going through all the current courses available to me in the app, because they are working on more right now, I wholeheartedly believe this is a great resource for kids. Seriously, they will be readily tuned into draw. The way the lessons are broken up into achieving a certain goal after you finish provides the perfect motivation for kids to see theirelves all the way through a complete course.
Now, being that the app is catered towards kids, that doesn't mean that teens and adults can't learn from it. I think Simply Draw is just as useful for anyone at the beginner level to start drawing. I found myself getting excited to learn the next lesson. But back to the kids thing, there is a consistent background music track that is in each lesson, but thankfully you can turn it off because that got tiring to me about two lessons in. So, I like that you can turn the music off.
At a certain part within the character lessons, you unlock the expression character builder, which is so cool. And you get to go and use it in the middle of a lesson, but you can go back and play with it from the library, which is super neat. I think Simply Draw should look at making that its own standalone app with more features because people would use that a ton. I have several other apps like this that are a little bit more robust like the Skellyy app and the Handy app and these are both extremely useful when drawing references. So, this is a really cool idea and I'm glad it's a part of their app.
Now, one important question you might be thinking is how skilled is this drawing instructor. Well, it's pretty clear to me that this art teacher is extremely skilled and well-versed in a variety of illustration styles, which is very difficult to master. Most artists can kind of draw every style, but they stick to one niche or style and they really master it, which is what I've chosen to do with cross-hatching and vintage illustration. But just going through these tutorials along with the instructor, I feel like I'm really learning how to branch into new illustration styles I probably wouldn't have gone into before. So, that is in itself a positive for the app.
Now, speaking of the instructor, I really like the emphasis on taking your time and slowing down to draw on these lessons. The instructor commonly mentions how we are always in a rush to get things done in this fast-paced world, and that's just not how drawing is. So, he continually encourages the user to take their time. I also like how he commonly mentions that it's okay if your drawing doesn't look like his because your drawing may be more robust in a different way, and even if you aren't quite on track, it's just practice. And the lessons do a great job of reminding you that, which I enjoyed. He'll commonly say things like, "Hey, I'm not here to tell you exactly what to do. I'm just here to give you ideas." which I think is great for a kids level approach. I also enjoyed the pacings of these lessons. I think they are evenly sectioned out into mini or micro lessons that aren't too short. They're not too long, and if you only have time to do one, you can easily jump back in where you left off.
All right, now let's get into what I wish was included in the app. While I appreciate the lack of emphasis on needing to be perfect in every drawing, because all drawings are different, I personally wish there was a quick lesson in the beginning that went over different kinds of art supplies. Now, let me be clear here. There is no magic pencil, no paper that is going to allow you to draw better. Pens and pencils are developed to be tools, and it's up to you to hone your skill to become better. But there is a massive difference in quality when it comes to pencil types and brands, especially when we're talking about shading and blending.
To start out the lessons, I used a super cheap mechanical pencil to go through the early lessons because I thought to myself, what are kids going to have access to? Either cheap mechanical pencils for school or maybe a basic number two pencil at home. And I'm going to be honest with you, it was hard to get proper gradients and shading with a cheap pencil. So, while I don't think it's the most important thing, I do think it would be helpful if the instructor would say, "Hey, here's what I'm using. I draw with X, Y, and Z." But you can feel free to use anything you want. For example, I think you really need a micro eraser for drawing. Not only for blending and shading, but because it's so much easier to go in and erase your guidelines without destroying your entire drawing. So, I personally have tried out tons of pencil brands of paper weights, and I have found a couple that I really enjoy, which I eventually ended up using later in the lessons because I just couldn't keep using the super thick, cheap lead. So, if you want any of those recommendations on drawing supplies, you can check out my Amazon storefront. It's linked down in the description. Don't go crazy. You really only need one nice drawing pencil that will last you a long time. I'm particularly fond of these rut ring steel pencils or anything by Tombbo like this is pretty great.
All right, the next thing I wish is that I could turn off the sound effects. Every little press, every little button has this bubbly sound effect or a ding or something and they got really annoying after about one or two sessions. Again, the app is towards kids, but the instruction inside the app is really robust and anyone can learn from it. In the same manner, I wish there was more of a direct professional track, one that is less focused on kids and maybe what I'm saying is more of a tone of voice piece of feedback because I mentioned the instructor was skilled because they are. But I wish I could choose the track where he talks normally, less like a Blues Clue show, which hey, I love Blues Clues. Shout out Steve. But again, for young kids, this is great. I just wish you could choose kind of the age range. On that same note, I wish there were multiple instructors you could choose from, which I realized after saying that is kind of a lot to ask, but after about seven or eight lessons, I did get tired of the same guy. No offense to him. I think it's that same tone of voice reason, but in general, I felt myself wanting other artists perspectives on how they might tackle a lesson. It could be really cool to have an individual artist to specialize in each track, like one for character, one for animal, and one for nature.
Now, there is an AI component, which seems cool, where you can take a picture of your finished drawing and get feedback, but I wish it was more involved. I'm definitely not a worldclass artist, but I did pass every AI check-in point with 100% accuracy. So, I think there's a bit of a bell curve to essentially see if there are dark parts, medium parts, and light parts. So, it would be nice to see this AI be developed into actually picking up on the shapes within your illustration to see how on track you are. When I would take a picture, usually the trace that it showed me was nowhere close to the full image of my drawing.
And now it's time for some brutally honest points about what I don't like. Now, I am extremely appreciative to Simply Draw for giving me the premium version of the app so that I could go through as many lessons as I wanted to and able to get a good feel for it. You get a certain amount of lessons for free, which you can try right now. And at some point, you are asked to pay, which is a very common thing for a subscription. But if you are paying, I think you should be able to skip to whatever lesson you want. If you try to click on a lesson that's further down the line, it just says keep going to unlock this item, which for me was frustrating. Maybe I want to go ahead and learn about proportions, which might have made my little koala bear drawing better. You can sort of cheat the system by fast forwarding with your finger every video, but that would take forever. And yes, I do know it's by design that you need to finish one lesson in order to move to a more advanced system, but maybe that could be another thing you could switch on or off. Like for kids, you can keep it on. for teens and adults. You can jump all over the place.
Now, I also don't like that I'm forced to use this app either on my iPhone or my iPad. For this adventure, I used my iPad because I wanted to see the instructor and reference really big so that I could draw next to it. But why can't I just have a portal online where I can log in and I can see all my lessons because ideally I would use my iPad to draw with. This way, I can save a ton of paper and I can draw guidelines and individual layers and turn them on and off and I don't have to erase everything. I'm not saying I don't enjoy the process of drawing on paper, and I recognize that everybody doesn't have an iPad or Procreate, but for those who do, and those who are on the go, generally it's a lot easier to throw the iPad in the bag.
And lastly, I don't like that every time I go up and select a different track, the trailer video plays for that section every single time. So, it would be nice to just click and pop over to that section without having to start the trailer. And it's not like you have to sit there and watch it, but I think it's a bit redundant and unnecessary.
Now, just a quick note on pricing. I mentioned that at a certain point in the app, you will be asked to pay to continue your subscription. I'm in the US, so you can expect to pay about $90 a year. Uh, but they do have localized pricing, which is nice. So, keep that in mind. It's going to change depending on where you're located. And for me, this is totally an acceptable price for what you're getting in the app. There's no shortage of production quality. It's very robust. I would say it's a very good investment.
Now, I was asked to briefly compare Simply Draw to some other drawing apps and courses. And generally I have found much more nuanced tutorials and classes on Skillshare, Udemy and Domestica. But I do see the value in this one app having everything in place, especially for beginners and kids. I will say that with an app like Skillshare, you're paying for more than just drawing apps. You're going to get other teachers. You're going to get other drawing styles, but you don't necessarily know if the course is specific to age, a stage in life, beginners, advanced artists. Whereas with Simply Draw, you know exactly what you're getting into and you can take a lot of comfort in that before you're ready to graduate to something more robust like a domestica course or a Skillshare subscription.
So, in closing, I think you should try Simply Draw. Or if you've been looking for an app for your kids to learn drawing, definitely try this app. I can't wait for them to unlock more character courses because that is the course I'm most interested in cuz I'm the worst at it. But, as you can see from a couple of my drawings here, they're not half bad. and it's just the product of following the tutorials step by step, which you can also do right now by heading over to the Apple Store and downloading Simply Draw for yourself. Now, don't forget to subscribe to this channel so you don't miss more reviews like this one. And let me know in the comments what you think of Simply Draw. Maybe you have some other suggestions that they'll add in the future, like maybe having it on the Google Play Store or the Android app. I think that would probably be a great next step. Now, thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to like the video as well and I will see you in the next video. [Music]