James Nolan Gandy has produced a masterpiece with some very clever engineering. His creation shows that even an artistically-challenged person can also produce fine art using his skills. As impressive his drawing machine is, the timelapse of one in action makes it appear to draw faster than it is actually moving. In this time-lapse, the camera’s shutter is perfectly in sync with the moments of the subject that is being captured.
There are footages of helicopters flying where it looks like the rotor is not spinning at all. This is just the same which is happening here. The arm of the robot doodler seems to be dramatically slowed in relation to the drawings it is creating on the page.
Gandy has shown a few of his robotic doodling on his Instagram account which is also very fascinating and hypnotic to see in action, even without any optical illusion. He used a combination of pulleys, gears, and an electric motor. His machines produce mathematically-perfect patterns which are very satisfying to look at.