First of all, we here at ViralNova do not condone drug use. But very rarely, like in this case, we can see some fascinating results thanks to controlled experimentation. Drug use is not something that usually results in great art (despite what you might think), but art can be a great way of charting the effect of a drugs on the mind and body.

Reddit user whatafinethrowaway demonstrated this by posting the drawings a friend made when she took LSD, and the results are pretty interesting.

The Reddit user’s friend took LSD for the first time, and drew herself at various intervals. This is her at 15 minutes, before the drug had taken effect.

We assume the swirl below the portrait was just a test of the pencils.

By 45 minutes, some effects began to manifest.

They also recorded their conversations, originally in French:

“Are you feeling anything?”

“Nope.”

“Those are some bright colors!”

“Yeah. That’s probably gonna get worse.”

At one hour and 45 minutes, the colors intensify.

At two hours and 15 minutes, things start to change shape.

“That was a good idea, buying colored pencils.”

After three hours, those classic psychedelic patterns began to appear.

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

This was drawn four hours and 45 minutes into the trip. By this point, the subject was drawing in a dim light.

“Here you go. I’m violet. 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.”

At six hours, things started getting really weird.

“I lost the black pencil. I only had the colored ones.”

At six hours and 45 minutes, this happened.

By the eight-hour mark, the subject began drawing again after listening to some Pink Floyd.

And at eight hours and 45 minutes, it seemed that the epic strangeness had returned.

“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.”

After nine hours, everything started returning to normal. Here’s what a comedown portrait looks like.

“Do you want to draw a last one? Like, a normal one?”

“I’ll try.”

We assume that whatafinethrowaway’s friend recovered from her trip, and now has these souvenirs of her journey into the psychedelic. Again, we don’t support drug use, but it’s hard to deny that the effects on perception and expression are pretty fascinating.

Don’t do drugs, kids.