World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion
We can’t find any information about the World Freehand Circle Drawing Championship online, but this man, a teacher at the Glebe Collegiate Institute in Canada,? claims to hold the title. We will try to invite him to the next meeting of the Kircher Society.
Giotto was said to have performed a similarly impressive feat for the Pope:
Pope Benedict sent one of his courtiers into Tuscany to see what sort of a man he was and what his works were like, for the Pope was planning to have some paintings made in S Peter’s. This courtier, on his way to see Giotto and to find out what other masters of painting and mosaic there were in Florence, spoke with many masters in Sienna, and then, having received some drawings from them, he came to Florence. And one morning going into the workshop of Giotto, who was at his labours, he showed him the mind of the Pope, and at last asked him to give him a little drawing to send to his Holiness. Giotto, who was a man of courteous manners, immediately took a sheet of paper, and with a pen dipped in red, fixing his arm firmly against his side to make a compass of it, with a turn of his hand he made a circle so perfect that it was a marvel to see it Having done it, he turned smiling to the courtier and said, “Here is the drawing.” But he, thinking he was being laughed at, asked, “Am I to have no other drawing than this?” “This is enough and too much,” replied Giotto, “send it with the others and see if it will be understood.” The messenger, seeing that he could get nothing else, departed ill pleased, not doubting that he had been made a fool of. However, sending the other drawings to the Pope with the names of those who had made them, he sent also Giotto’s, relating how he had made the circle without moving his arm and without compasses, which when the Pope and many of his courtiers understood, they saw that Giotto must surpass greatly all the other painters of his time. -Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects.
Inspired by Giotto, in 1974 the British artist Tom Phillips, previosuly mentioned in the Proceedings for his memento mori hair skulls, produced “Fifty Attempts to Draw a Freehand Circle.” Unfortunately we can’t locate an image online. Finally, Rodcorp (provider of the above quotation) notes that Lego demands that its Master Builder applicants be able to construct a perfect sphere out of square bricks. Also this story on drawing perfection from Italo Calvino’s Six Memos for the Next Millenium:
Among Chuang-tzu’s many skills, he was an expert draftsman. The king asked him to draw a crab. Chuang-tzu replied that he needed five years, a country house, and twelve servants. Five years later the drawing was still not begun. “I need another five years,” said Chuang-tzu. The king granted them. At the end of these ten years, Chuang-tzu took up his brush and, in an instant, with a single stroke, he drew a crab, the most perfect crab ever seen.
[Acknowledgments to Jonathan]
January 11th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Fake!!
Look closly after the “artist” walks toward the camera. He is holding a strip of tape that he has removed from the blackboard which was covering the perfect circle, drawn no doubt using a device.
January 11th, 2007 at 9:23 am
That is his keyfob ( so to speak) and if you look closely, he doesn’t have it in his hand. It’s hanging from his pocket.
I say not fake!
January 11th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Your right, clear in the beginning. Wow
January 11th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
“Look closly after the “artist” walks toward the camera. He is holding a strip of tape that he has removed from the blackboard which was covering the perfect circle, drawn no doubt using a device.”
Um … no. You can clearly see that he has a long cell phone strap or a keyfob poking out of his right pocket, clearly before he starts the circle drawing. Around 36 seconds you can EASILY see the strap, which you are thinking is tape.
January 12th, 2007 at 11:15 am
[...] For your sketching pleasure: The World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion. (via) [...]
January 12th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
[...] World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion dude draws a mean circle (tags: circle drawing video) [...]
January 12th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Why do you think it is fake. I have a teacher in high school, (Dr. Saad) who draws perfect circles better this thi guy. He doesnt do this gay swing like this guy, he walks up and just draws it like me or u would. we measured, and its completely perfect. - he can do any size. But this guy is too humble. Only shows us when one of us get s perfect on a test. Its freaking amazing. So the guy above isnt fake at all. He is actaully not even good.
January 12th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Andrew: he’s just making a show of it for the purposes of having that video on the ‘net.
January 12th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
He’s being an entertaining math teacher. My stoic high school math teacher (Fr. Kelly) drew them the same way. Students were always stirred up - cheeering and hypothesizing that he’d had a special hing installed in his elbow.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
[...] Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society – World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion [...]
January 13th, 2007 at 3:07 am
[...] >> It’s all in the wrist [...]
January 13th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Andrew, did a circle drawer beat you up when you were a kid?
He draws a fine circle, don’t get all uppity about it.
January 13th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
“I have a teacher in high school, (Dr. Saad) who draws perfect circles better this thi guy.”
More perfecter perfect circles! Ha!
January 14th, 2007 at 10:31 am
As an illustrator, I’m rediculously jealous. Though I do think smaller (coin sized) perfect circles would be a more daunting feat. Perhpas he can do those too?
Looking closely, there’s a slight kink where the starting/ending points meet. Stage fright?
January 14th, 2007 at 11:44 am
[...] :: Athanasius Kircher Society [...]
January 14th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
[...] World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion Han kan tegne en perfekt cirkel paa en tavle. Sejt nok. (tags: Weird video cool) [...]
January 15th, 2007 at 10:24 am
[...] Impressive. Click here to watch a video of him. [...]
January 15th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
LInkwhore!
January 15th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
He’s the devil, I tell’s you!!! Let’s get him!!!!
January 15th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Its an old trick that used to be required of math teachers (in the US at least). The key is to keep you elbow in the middle of the circle and not move it.
January 16th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
‘Tis magic I tells ye!
Arrrr!
January 17th, 2007 at 8:53 am
I had a geography teacher, Miss Cane, in Mayfair Middle School, Philadelphia, PA, back in 1971 who could do this. She could make any size circle on the board &, even though we saw this feat performed every day, we were always amazed! She did help inspire in me a life long love of geography!
January 19th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
[...] Starting completely off subject, The Athansius Kircher Society blog introduced this crazy video of a man with way too much time on his hands. Bet you can’t do that. [...]
January 28th, 2007 at 11:40 am
[...] (Athanasius Kircher Society) [...]
March 21st, 2007 at 10:13 pm
The actual competition is viewable at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1J5ANnq0T8
Story of competition at:
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=9993486f-c9bb-4657-865b-96779ac5cabe
Story of video at:
http://www.freehandcircles.com
P.S. Mr. Overwijk was my discrete math teacher. Great guy.
March 29th, 2007 at 10:41 am
My high school geometry teacher, the wonderful Ms. Rogers, used to do this all the time and without all the hooplah. She could draw circles around this guy…
March 29th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
[...] This is frickin’ awesome: Kircher Society [...]
April 8th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Wow I can say this is great.
His arms like a Compass!!!!
April 8th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I wonder if anyone out there can do this ambidextrously… or even two circles with two hands at the same time.
April 8th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
The key to making a perfect circle is to get a gigantic compass.This guy doesn’t have to do that because he can make a great circle,I dont know how he does that but he’s really good.
April 8th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
its all CG
April 9th, 2007 at 12:07 am
[...] <a href=”http://kirchersociety.org/blog/2007/01/11/world-freehand-circle-drawing-champion/”>Freehand Circle</a> [...]
April 9th, 2007 at 12:08 am
I’m more amazed at how much of a prick the kid with the camera is.
April 9th, 2007 at 1:11 am
How can anybody possibly think it’s a fake done with tape? First of all, it’d have to be waterproof and perfectly flush with the board, even when wet, not to mention have the same tactile qualities as the blackboard (in order to both hold chalk and allow it to be washed away again.)
Secondly, the man would have to be able to remove the tape without it whipping in a very obvious fashion about his head. It would take more effort to fake it than to just learn to draw the circle properly in the first place.
It’s not an impossible skill; it just takes practice. Any artist worth their mettle learns how to draw good circles.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:14 am
World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion?!?! Man… you must have gotten ALL the women with that
April 10th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
[...] World’s freehand circle drawing champion [...]
May 6th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
[...] World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion I know what you’re thinking, “This should should be making bank!” [...]
May 13th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
This is gay.. it doesn’t prove that the Earth is not a perfect sphere.
November 16th, 2007 at 5:06 am
Two new studies show why some people are more attractive for members of the opposite sex than others.
The University of Florida, Florida State University found that physically attractive people almost instantly attract the attention of the interlocutor, sobesednitsy with them, literally, it is difficult to make eye. This conclusion was reached by a series of psychological experiments, which were determined by the people who believe in sending the first seconds after the acquaintance. Here, a curious feature: single, unmarried experimental preferred to look at the guys, beauty opposite sex, and family, people most often by representatives of their sex.
The authors believe that this feature developed a behavior as a result of the evolution: a man trying to find a decent pair to acquire offspring. If this is resolved, he wondered potential rivals. Detailed information about this magazine will be published Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In turn, a joint study of the Rockefeller University, Rockefeller University and Duke University, Duke University in North Carolina revealed that women are perceived differently by men smell. During experiments studied the perception of women one of the ingredients of male pheromone-androstenona smell, which is contained in urine or sweat.
The results were startling: women are part of this repugnant odor, and the other part is very attractive, resembling the smell of vanilla, and the third group have not felt any smell. The authors argue that the reason is that the differences in the receptor responsible for the olfactory system, from different people are different.
It has long been proven that mammals (including human) odor is one way of attracting the attention of representatives of the opposite sex. A detailed article about the journal Nature will publish.
December 23rd, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Not quite a perfect circle, but near enough for Geometry! http://www.asidizisi.com
January 29th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I think it’s perfect , but not enough for geometry
http://www.asi-dizisi.com