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Artist Used LSD And Drew Herself For 9 Hours To Show How It Affects Brain
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Artist Used LSD And Drew Herself For 9 Hours To Show How It Affects Brain

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Countless artists have experimented with the effect that drugs have on their work. User whatafinethrowaway, inspired by the “Nine Drawings” series which was the result of an experiment by the US government in the 1950s, asked her friend to draw self-portraits while on a psychotropic drug LSD. The friend took 200µg of LSD and drew 11 self-portraits over nine-plus hours of her acid trip.

“She spent between 15 minutes and 45 minutes on each of the cool drawings,” writes whatafinethrowaway on Reddit. “It didn’t seem hard for her to focus, I was actually quite impressed by that. She just loved what she was doing. I don’t know if the change of styles of the pencil drawings was on purpose or not.”

While Bored Panda does not condone the use of psychotropic or any other drugs illegal in your country, the surreal hallucinations and accompanying comments are certainly interesting!

More info: whatafinethrowaway (h/t: aplus, cowboybooks)

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15 min after taking LSD

Before any noticeable effect.

45 min

« Are you feeling anything?
– Nope.
– Those are some bright colors!
– Yeah. That’s probably gonna get worse. »

1 h 45 min

 

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2 h 15 min

« That was a good idea, buying coloured pencils. »

3 h 30 min

« I didn’t draw the eyes. Do you want me to draw the eyes? I don’t feel like drawing the eyes. »

4 h 45 min

« Here you go. I’m violet. »
Later: « Usually, I draw the eyes at the very end, because I don’t want the picture to look at me while I’m drawing it. Here, I didn’t want the picture to look at me at all. »

6 h

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« I lost the black pencil. I only had the coloured ones. »

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6 h 45 min

8 h

After 45 minutes in the dark, listening to some Pink Floyd, she started to draw again.

8 h 45 min

She didn’t seem quite satisfied with the last one, so she directly started this one: « During the previous one, I tried to draw what was inside my head, but in the middle of it, things were happening outside my head instead. »

9 h 30 min after taking LSD

While the effects were disappearing.
« Do you want to draw the last one? Like, a normal one?
– I’ll try. »

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AyushJha
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

aah! this explains alot! so all the anime characters are drown when the artists are on LSD! cool :D

Louliez
Community Member
8 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Anime looks nothing like that, it's an art form you a*s.

Load More Replies...
YvonneBernal
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you had read the WHOLE article you would already know the answer to your question.

Load More Replies...
JadeLynn
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can barely text while on this stuff... that is impressive

JesseCashin
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Pre-flight check list rule 1: Give someone you trust your phone, nothing good ever comes of having expensive easily breakable objects while on spirit quest

Load More Replies...
CheriLawley
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Awesome! To the author: how would you describe your influence on this artist during her high? Has the artist used LSD before? Did you find you had to direct her to either stay focused, calm down, remind her she's drawing a self-portrait? Etcetc. You mentioned the artist's focus - would you say she "tried harder" on the elaborate portraits such as at 6 hr 45 minutes, or would you say that this was all 'very natural' to the artist (i.e. came easily, no thinking required). To the comment section: I appreciate the education on who has done this before, and when. But the pretentious addition of "so it's definitely not new" is unnecessary. Do we live in a world of, "if it's been done before, don't do it again?" If so, everyone, stop having sex, stop eating, and definitely stop breathing....

AutumnMidhir
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Beautiful stuff. I've only drawn tripping once - usually I have to be outside. I can't stand being inside when I'm on acid.

Martin
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So take LSD and you become an X-men.... that explains a lot.

Juan José Astudillo
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

you may become or dissolve into nothingness, "the dark" the dark place is really, a place where you may find your inner light. Perhaps

Load More Replies...
JessicaBedard
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Cool and yes a lot of famous animated movies and characters were made under the influence......come on...alice in wonderland....

CindyOlesonSwartz
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

interesting experiment, don't believe it is worth destroying your brain cells for.

0tothe9th
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just drawing oneself for ?9 hours might have a similar effect (just kidding)

TheodoreTsipiras
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sorry, this is a hoax, no one has the attention span long enough to draw sketches. She would've been out the room bout two hours in on a quest to see how she could make a trip around the block as long as possible. That, or the LSD wasn't strong enough

DebbraWalter
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My younger brother took LSD in the sixties and painted what he was sure to be a masterpiece. It was all one color - blah...he didn't take LSD again.

Bgray450
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

First, amazing. Second, where do you get real LSD these days???

Matei-Alexandru Buciuta
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

wtf, she doesn't even know how to draw, why nowdays everyobdy call themselves "artist"?!

AmeliaBjørn
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

'I'll try.' - aww honey! <3 you already knew it never ever gonna be the same! thank you!

AleksandraAleksandra
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

well this article made me realize.. it's not that I don't know how to draw, it's just I do it like I'm 8h into LSD trip.

RyanYap
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What it looks like to me is that LSD starts to turn her into a psychedelic goddess

JamesGroome
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As an Artist the last time I did it was 16-17 years ago... I still have ideas in my head and sketches of 3 projects from that time period where I am working out the technical details in order to paint the transforming images

HaynyDiaz
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Does it really last that long? O.O I wanna try too, to see how my brain turns out to be, because it looks fantastic but I don't feel like taking LSD ever again

MomikaMoniken
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

http://www.becomingjj.com/art-drugs-about-bryan-lewis-saunders-and-stanis%C5%82aw-ignacy-witkiewicz-witkacy

D.M.Mitchell
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I read an article in Mondo 2000, years ago in which some of the early pioneers in computers (in the S.F. Bay Area) said that they didn't think they could have done what they did without having taken LSD. I can't run that article down now, but I do remember reading it. Here is a quote by R.U. Sirius (of Mondo 2000). "The convergence, or rather the undercurrent of psychedelic consciousness in the computer scene in the 80s and 90s was not an isolated phenomenon, I have interviewed many luminaries — like Philip Glass and John Allen of Biosphere 2 — who admitted that LSD or other highs had given them the inspiration for breakthrough work." (http://www.acceler8or.com/2012/03/new-edge-mondo-a-personal-perspective-part-2-mondo-2000-history-project-entry-8/)

AminNagpure
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

if she can draw such paintings on high, what that proves ? take lsd before paintings

HudarsonoHu
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some are quite beautifull though, especially those faceless beauty. I think her paintings alternate between ugly and beauty

KarenStauffer
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fascinating. Wish I had thought of art while tripping back when I did such things.

BurnellYow!
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not "how it affects the brain," but how it affected her brain. Certainly not scientific, and not really very interesting. Might be more so if you got someone who actually drew well to begin with.

RebekahHolt
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/artist-draws-nine-portraits-on-lsd-during-1950s-research-experiment.html

LetíciaTeles
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nice! But it would be even nicer if the girl posted her after impressions on the drawings

BonniPBrown
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

...I've always wondered what went on in the mind of people on LSD.

pony33
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some of my music sounds like it on acid but I don't dabble into drugs, maybe I'm flash backing...

JagodaP
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It is not a new idea, to draw on drugs. Polish artist Witkacy did it in the last century. He even sign portraits of his clinets with shoutcuts meaning cups of coffee, number of cigarettes and stronger things too which he use while drawing ;)

guess
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The conflict ion... I dunno... I don't think I'd want to be in the same world this girl was in while her drawings are beautiful I'd probably be really freaked out to experience them... The ones without pupils or irises are particularly disturbing... but I do like 8:45... the conflict ion...

MarylouSakosky
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am surprised they admitted it let alone do it .Wondered how all seem to start ..just ask them''Here ,take this ..now draw''.Hmm Our world won't have a future , nor a chance ,if this is the answer to our culture

MałgorzataNowak
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Polish painter Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz commonly known as Witkacy did this in the early 1920s. And it was more spectacular. Many of his paintings were annotated with mnemonics listing the drugs taken while painting a particular painting, even if this happened to be only a cup of coffee. So this is nothing new and nothing special ;)

RebeccaHorner
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Anyone who has attended University for a Fine Arts degree will tell you this is much more fun using oil paint...

AyushJha
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

this explains a lot! so all anime characters are drawn when the artists are on LSD!!

piotrsitarek
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This looks like 6 year old kid drew that c**p. Imagine what she/he could do on lsd or cocaine within 5 min.

LupeDiaz
Community Member
9 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

What a waste of an article. We already know this. BTW most creative folks have some form of mental illness line bipolar disorder & self medicate with drugs or alcohol. Usually kills them sooner or later. Drugs can be addictive for some and devastate families included. Fortunately if you're rich, white & artistic you have an arsenal of drugs at your disposal. I'm serious. Why do artists have to put drugs on a pedestal like its a necessary evil or cool? I think artists can be inspired without drugs or other substances. If not you need to treat your depression or bipolar disorder.

HesWanson
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Your assumption of mental disorders and ignorance of psychedelic medication is judgemental and ignorant.

Load More Replies...
AyushJha
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

aah! this explains alot! so all the anime characters are drown when the artists are on LSD! cool :D

Louliez
Community Member
8 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Anime looks nothing like that, it's an art form you a*s.

Load More Replies...
YvonneBernal
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you had read the WHOLE article you would already know the answer to your question.

Load More Replies...
JadeLynn
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can barely text while on this stuff... that is impressive

JesseCashin
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Pre-flight check list rule 1: Give someone you trust your phone, nothing good ever comes of having expensive easily breakable objects while on spirit quest

Load More Replies...
CheriLawley
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Awesome! To the author: how would you describe your influence on this artist during her high? Has the artist used LSD before? Did you find you had to direct her to either stay focused, calm down, remind her she's drawing a self-portrait? Etcetc. You mentioned the artist's focus - would you say she "tried harder" on the elaborate portraits such as at 6 hr 45 minutes, or would you say that this was all 'very natural' to the artist (i.e. came easily, no thinking required). To the comment section: I appreciate the education on who has done this before, and when. But the pretentious addition of "so it's definitely not new" is unnecessary. Do we live in a world of, "if it's been done before, don't do it again?" If so, everyone, stop having sex, stop eating, and definitely stop breathing....

AutumnMidhir
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Beautiful stuff. I've only drawn tripping once - usually I have to be outside. I can't stand being inside when I'm on acid.

Martin
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So take LSD and you become an X-men.... that explains a lot.

Juan José Astudillo
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

you may become or dissolve into nothingness, "the dark" the dark place is really, a place where you may find your inner light. Perhaps

Load More Replies...
JessicaBedard
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Cool and yes a lot of famous animated movies and characters were made under the influence......come on...alice in wonderland....

CindyOlesonSwartz
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

interesting experiment, don't believe it is worth destroying your brain cells for.

0tothe9th
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just drawing oneself for ?9 hours might have a similar effect (just kidding)

TheodoreTsipiras
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sorry, this is a hoax, no one has the attention span long enough to draw sketches. She would've been out the room bout two hours in on a quest to see how she could make a trip around the block as long as possible. That, or the LSD wasn't strong enough

DebbraWalter
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My younger brother took LSD in the sixties and painted what he was sure to be a masterpiece. It was all one color - blah...he didn't take LSD again.

Bgray450
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

First, amazing. Second, where do you get real LSD these days???

Matei-Alexandru Buciuta
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

wtf, she doesn't even know how to draw, why nowdays everyobdy call themselves "artist"?!

AmeliaBjørn
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

'I'll try.' - aww honey! <3 you already knew it never ever gonna be the same! thank you!

AleksandraAleksandra
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

well this article made me realize.. it's not that I don't know how to draw, it's just I do it like I'm 8h into LSD trip.

RyanYap
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What it looks like to me is that LSD starts to turn her into a psychedelic goddess

JamesGroome
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As an Artist the last time I did it was 16-17 years ago... I still have ideas in my head and sketches of 3 projects from that time period where I am working out the technical details in order to paint the transforming images

HaynyDiaz
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Does it really last that long? O.O I wanna try too, to see how my brain turns out to be, because it looks fantastic but I don't feel like taking LSD ever again

MomikaMoniken
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

http://www.becomingjj.com/art-drugs-about-bryan-lewis-saunders-and-stanis%C5%82aw-ignacy-witkiewicz-witkacy

D.M.Mitchell
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I read an article in Mondo 2000, years ago in which some of the early pioneers in computers (in the S.F. Bay Area) said that they didn't think they could have done what they did without having taken LSD. I can't run that article down now, but I do remember reading it. Here is a quote by R.U. Sirius (of Mondo 2000). "The convergence, or rather the undercurrent of psychedelic consciousness in the computer scene in the 80s and 90s was not an isolated phenomenon, I have interviewed many luminaries — like Philip Glass and John Allen of Biosphere 2 — who admitted that LSD or other highs had given them the inspiration for breakthrough work." (http://www.acceler8or.com/2012/03/new-edge-mondo-a-personal-perspective-part-2-mondo-2000-history-project-entry-8/)

AminNagpure
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

if she can draw such paintings on high, what that proves ? take lsd before paintings

HudarsonoHu
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some are quite beautifull though, especially those faceless beauty. I think her paintings alternate between ugly and beauty

KarenStauffer
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fascinating. Wish I had thought of art while tripping back when I did such things.

BurnellYow!
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not "how it affects the brain," but how it affected her brain. Certainly not scientific, and not really very interesting. Might be more so if you got someone who actually drew well to begin with.

RebekahHolt
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/artist-draws-nine-portraits-on-lsd-during-1950s-research-experiment.html

LetíciaTeles
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nice! But it would be even nicer if the girl posted her after impressions on the drawings

BonniPBrown
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

...I've always wondered what went on in the mind of people on LSD.

pony33
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some of my music sounds like it on acid but I don't dabble into drugs, maybe I'm flash backing...

JagodaP
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It is not a new idea, to draw on drugs. Polish artist Witkacy did it in the last century. He even sign portraits of his clinets with shoutcuts meaning cups of coffee, number of cigarettes and stronger things too which he use while drawing ;)

guess
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The conflict ion... I dunno... I don't think I'd want to be in the same world this girl was in while her drawings are beautiful I'd probably be really freaked out to experience them... The ones without pupils or irises are particularly disturbing... but I do like 8:45... the conflict ion...

MarylouSakosky
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am surprised they admitted it let alone do it .Wondered how all seem to start ..just ask them''Here ,take this ..now draw''.Hmm Our world won't have a future , nor a chance ,if this is the answer to our culture

MałgorzataNowak
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Polish painter Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz commonly known as Witkacy did this in the early 1920s. And it was more spectacular. Many of his paintings were annotated with mnemonics listing the drugs taken while painting a particular painting, even if this happened to be only a cup of coffee. So this is nothing new and nothing special ;)

RebeccaHorner
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Anyone who has attended University for a Fine Arts degree will tell you this is much more fun using oil paint...

AyushJha
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

this explains a lot! so all anime characters are drawn when the artists are on LSD!!

piotrsitarek
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This looks like 6 year old kid drew that c**p. Imagine what she/he could do on lsd or cocaine within 5 min.

LupeDiaz
Community Member
9 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

What a waste of an article. We already know this. BTW most creative folks have some form of mental illness line bipolar disorder & self medicate with drugs or alcohol. Usually kills them sooner or later. Drugs can be addictive for some and devastate families included. Fortunately if you're rich, white & artistic you have an arsenal of drugs at your disposal. I'm serious. Why do artists have to put drugs on a pedestal like its a necessary evil or cool? I think artists can be inspired without drugs or other substances. If not you need to treat your depression or bipolar disorder.

HesWanson
Community Member
9 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Your assumption of mental disorders and ignorance of psychedelic medication is judgemental and ignorant.

Load More Replies...
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