Person draws with two hands at once?

[TDK]

So this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EJj1Qqqebh8) has been making the rounds, featuring a person supposedly drawing two portraits at once, one with either hand, and I call absolute bullshit. When drawing, I focus so hard on the spot I'm drawing that something falling on the paper a few inches away can go unnoticed. This is why artists need to occasionally hold a drawing at arm's length so they can view the whole thing without tunnel vision. And these are detailed portraits with shading. Even without tunnel vision, you can't focus on two spots at once enough to see the shading properly enough to draw it. Try reading two pieces of text at once on two different parts of a page.

So I call shenanigans.

I've also been looking at the hands and the left hand looks significantly less feminine than the right, to me (look at the arms, in some parts).

But maybe I'm biased. What do you guys think?

[Kyanbu The Legend]

I think that if this is real then I desprately must learn how to do this. I might give it a try later. I got a bunch of stuff I wanted to draw and this could be a very useful technique for me.

[EVILNess]

That really looks like two different people's hands to me, but I can see this being real. I've seen similar things in real life done by ambidextrous people.

[stefan]

they alternate between working on one portrait and then the other. its really obvious in the beginning; when one hand is moving, the other is not, and vice versa. note that towards the end, when the portraits get really detailed, they abandon the concept entirely and start using both hands on one portrait while not touching the other at all.

you just don't notice because this is probably several hours of work time-lapsed and compressed into a few minutes.

I've also been looking at the hands and the left hand looks significantly less feminine than the right, to me (look at the arms, in some parts).

the artist is a guy.

[Bells]

i think there is a trick, but i don't think it's... actually fake. I mean, the guy has several videos on his account, and only a couple are 2 hands drawing... it's too clever of a ruse to be true.... i say it's probably in the time lapse, that's where the trick lies... if you saw it in normal speed, maybe he alternates speed and focus from one side to the other, and when the video gets speed up, it creates the illusion of being seamless...

[synkr0nized]

Doesn't Demetri Martin draw with two hands in his bits? I know those are hardly as detailed, but I'm just trying to cite an example that this kind of thing has been done before (I suspect there are other videos out there, though I've not gone to look) -- i.e. it doesn't require some kind of "trick". Even if the person isn't focusing on both hands in real-time, it's still impressive that either hand seems to be capable of the same level of detail work in the drawing.

[3stan]

I'm inclined to believe it's real. I've seen someone writing forwards with one hand and backwards with the other at the same time, and this does seem slightly easier (though obviously still very very impressive).

[TDK]

That is not EVEN the same thing. You don't even need to look at the paper to write. It is a practiced, memorized shape for each letter. Hell, I could probably do that.

And Demetri Martin does draw with both hands, yes, but they are larger pictures and largely symmetrical (IIRC) and with markers. He's not so much drawing as just dragging the marker or chalk or whatever down the page. Not to say it isn't impressive, but not the same.

I'm pretty convinced by what Bells said, as, after rewatching the video, it does check out.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I can draw with my penis.

[rpgdemon]

I'm inclined to believe it's real. I've seen someone writing forwards with one hand and backwards with the other at the same time, and this does seem slightly easier (though obviously still very very impressive).

Are you serious? "Drawing seems easier than writing?"

Like, what?

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

they alternate between working on one portrait and then the other. its really obvious in the beginning; when one hand is moving, the other is not, and vice versa. note that towards the end, when the portraits get really detailed, they abandon the concept entirely and start using both hands on one portrait while not touching the other at all.

you just don't notice because this is probably several hours of work time-lapsed and compressed into a few minutes.

Yeah, this. Though the hands don't seem to quite stop so much as one will work on a less attention needing issue or work slowly while the other does something more detailed. It's pretty well timed so that you're always looking toward one at a point where within a second it will start doing something.


Also: When drawing, I focus so hard on the spot I'm drawing that something falling on the paper a few inches away can go unnoticed. This is why artists need to occasionally hold a drawing at arm's length so they can view the whole thing without tunnel vision. And these are detailed portraits with shading. Even without tunnel vision, you can't focus on two spots at once enough to see the shading properly enough to draw it. Try reading two pieces of text at once on two different parts of a page.

I can't do a thing, therefore nobody else can possibly do that thing?
Really?
I can't do an Ollie therefore EVERY SKATEBOARD TRICK VIDEO IS FAKE.

[Fifthfiend]

So this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EJj1Qqqebh8) has been making the rounds, featuring a person supposedly drawing two portraits at once, one with either hand, and I call absolute bullshit. When drawing, I focus so hard on the spot I'm drawing that something falling on the paper a few inches away can go unnoticed. This is why artists need to occasionally hold a drawing at arm's length so they can view the whole thing without tunnel vision. And these are detailed portraits with shading. Even without tunnel vision, you can't focus on two spots at once enough to see the shading properly enough to draw it. Try reading two pieces of text at once on two different parts of a page.

So I call shenanigans.

I've also been looking at the hands and the left hand looks significantly less feminine than the right, to me (look at the arms, in some parts).

But maybe I'm biased. What do you guys think?

Sorry you're not as awesome as this guy TDK

[POS Industries]

President James Garfield was famously able to write in Latin and Greek with each hand simultaneously.

TDK is, therefore, this thread's Charles Guiteau.

[pochercoaster]

There have also been cases of people who fell on the autism spectrum being able to recall ridiculous amounts of detail and reproduce them in a drawing without so much as a glance at the original subject. There are also cases of people who don't have "sidedness" in their body and are equally comfortable doing things with both their right and left side. That said it's not inconceivable that someone may have an especially spatially oriented brain that allows them to do things like this.

[TDK]

I can't do a thing, therefore nobody else can possibly do that thing?
Really?
I can't do an Ollie therefore EVERY SKATEBOARD TRICK VIDEO IS FAKE.

Or "Artists focus a lot when they Art, therefore, its unlikely an artist can art without focusing"

Which I don't know seems perfectly reasonable.

[Kerensky287]

I can draw with my penis.

Me too, but I live in Canada. The snow is my canvas.

[Magus]

Doesn't Demetri Martin draw with two hands in his bits? I know those are hardly as detailed, but I'm just trying to cite an example that this kind of thing has been done before (I suspect there are other videos out there, though I've not gone to look) -- i.e. it doesn't require some kind of "trick". Even if the person isn't focusing on both hands in real-time, it's still impressive that either hand seems to be capable of the same level of detail work in the drawing.

I've noticed his left hand's drawing is much worse, so I don't think he's actually ambidextrous.

And yeah, an ambidextrous person could focus on one drawing at a time and do two drawings. I guess what the "trick" is it appears that they are focusing on two drawings simultaneously when that is pretty much impossible. They would have to switch their attention back and forth. So it's still impressive, just not as impressive as some people might think.

Kind of like if you could walk on water for a minute or whatever, instead of all day. Still pretty darn impressive. It's just not AS impressive.

[pochercoaster]

Or "Artists focus a lot when they Art, therefore, its unlikely an artist can art without focusing"

Which I don't know seems perfectly reasonable.

If by focus you mean look at the spot you're drawing on the paper, you're doing it wrong. Artists who have developed their talents well spend more time looking at their subject or reference than their actual drawing, because the ability to draw is really just the ability to see. This is why art classes instruct you to draw blind and modified blind contours- they're often more accurate than a "regular" drawing. It's a standard way to detect artistic talent in young children, actually.

I haven't actually watched the video linked in the OP, though, so the guy may very well be bullshitting. I'm just saying that it's possible and not really hard to conceive of someone who can draw in such a way.

[CelesJessa]

Meh, I'd believe it. It's pretty much a party trick, I would think (nobody would actually try to draw like this if they actually wanted to do anything other than make people go WOAH THAT PERSON IS DRAWING WITH TWO HANDS). It looks a lot like what other people have been pointing out and you can tell when the artist's attention is on which hand. Even if both are moving at once, they aren't usually working nearly at the same capacity.

[Ryong]

Had a teacher at college who wrote two different texts at once and drew graphs also with both hands. He was a pretty terrible teacher, though.

[Magus]

Had a teacher at college who wrote two different texts at once and drew graphs also with both hands. He was a pretty terrible teacher, though.

Who needs lesson plans when you're the coolest guy at the professorial after party? (They drink fancy wine)