I've always been able to get it to work well for me. I use it in a lot of my mixed-media projects (artist trading cards, stamping images and then coloring with watercolor, etc.) and it always holds up, but he's right that it can only take so many layers before it begins to pill. It's not a "good" paper, but most people will be able to make it work and a beginner won't feel like they're throwing away their money by learning on an expensive paper.