LUCY Mini Drawing Tool with Photo Enlarger & Bag

Easy to assemble. Requires some time to position everything perfectly, so you'll want to trace it all in one fell swoop to avoid having to recreate the positioning should you have to stow it away. You'll have to crane your neck a bit, but it definitely beats having to lean over a table for an hour drawing a freehand outline. I'm also pleased at how compact it is as it arrives in a small box with a cloth bag that can be used for storage.

It was easy to assemble but positioning the object I wanted to draw, on the table such that it appeared on the paper, so I could draw it was nearly impossible. I had the pad of paper positioned along the edge of the table, near me and I could see it through the view finder but what was superimposed was beyond the other edge of the table. The table was a normal sized kitchen table for 4 people. Noatter how I adjusted the view finder and goose neck I could not get the plastic glass positioned "on the paper". I question if the mirror wasounted in the housing correctly. After 3 hours of watching the video(s) and trying to get something that worked I decided to return it! As a person with 2 degrees in manufacturing and mechanical engineering it should NOT be this difficult.

It just arrived and I was able to assemble the main part of the LUCY, plus brightness filter but didn't know what to do with the photo enlarger. The instructions are VERY basic. Nevertheless I was able to setup a quick test of the unit with a picture I want to draw and was able to get it sketched to paper quickly. I will have to futz around and watch videos to figure out how to get the image larger on the paper (the photo enlarger is not an option for transferring a large image or object to paper). I really like the unit and am keen to give it a go "for real" with some portrait images. I do not understand the problems some people post here, or the difficulty they've had, as it works very nicely, and without problems, for me. I'm at my dining room table with just the overhead light, nothing special, and it projects a very clear image. The image brightening filter does exactly that to a good degree. I'm glad I bought this and will definitely be using it. Worth the money. Again, you WILL need to watch a few instructional videos on YouTube to get it all figured out and optimized.

This was not as helpful as I thought it would be. The image portrayed was too dark to trace. It did work as directed but I found an app on my phone that works much better

I bought this to be able to trace a picture from my laptop down to paper so that I can experiment with ink and water color. Its the perfect height for a laptop or monitor. You have to play with the lighting of either your laptop or your room to get the brightness just right on the paper in front of you. It takes some getting used to and I find you need to mark your boundaries on the paper so that if you move, you can re-align where your image needs to be. Much cheaper than buying a projector and it doesn't need power.

I like it. It is better to use a dark ink and a well lit surface to work on. In this case I used pencil first, then ink and it worked pretty well too. I haven't tried enlarging since I'm mostly used to my sketchbook. But it works well if you can get used to recalibrating your paper or the arm itself every few minutes. This will not make you an instant realistic photo drawer but it helps to get proportions right. I wouldn't be able to draw this bird if it wasn't for this. Give it a try, if you feel like using a tool to make your process more fun or just faster.P. S.I think proping your paper up 45° or so will make it better on a smaller paper. But don't quote me on that.

Once assembled, the drawing tool image wasn't clear enough for me to work with; with or without either of the two additional lenses that come with it. It can be used without them. In fact the lens made the image darker and I didn't understand how it was an asset. To me, if it has two lenses, they should do something different. One lens could magnify, and one could brighten. But that wasn't the case.Also, I would not have been able to use this device while sitting down because the arm wasn't flexible enough. My work stool adjusts up, and even at the highest point, it wasn't possible to bend the arm down to the desktop. Standing while you work, possibly for long periods of time, is not a plan.In terms of packaging, I had a devil of a time getting the protective self adhesive sheet off one of the lenses. I spent 15 minutes trying to peel that sheet off and almost damaged the lens in the process.I understand the concept behind this drawing tool, and I was excited to give it a try. But ultimately, it wasn't something I could work with and is definitely not worth $140 charged.

I first tried to figure this out without reading the instructions. Then I found the 10 or so youtube videos and they explain everything you need to know from sizing, to lighting to ghost image to ghost hand AND sitting vs standing. I mean everything to make this work is covered in the videos. I'm glad I bought it and will be using it a lot. I do my graphic designs in a app for my iPad then place it on the wall and using the Lucy I transfer to my medium-- scaled for the different sized canvases. After reading a lot of the single star reviews I could see they probably didn't watch the youtube videos on this brand by its manufacturer.