An artist from France has just taken hand doodling to a whole new level, creating some incredible mind-warping optical illusions on his palm. Jordan Molina, also known as TutoDraw, specializes in creating painfully realistic and slightly gruesome images on his own skin using body paint, as can be seen in the video below.

Using 3D drawing techniques, as well as the odd prop – such as a pencil that appears to be visible through a hole in the artist’s palm – Molina creates works that fool the mind into believing what it is seeing.

The mental mechanisms behind this deception involve a process called top-down processing, whereby the brain fills in the gaps in what it is seeing, creating a visual image that it expects to see. For instance, when part of a pencil is visible sticking out to the side of Molina’s hand and another part appears through the hole in his palm, the brain connects the two and sees them as part of the same pencil.

Of course, it’s also down to sheer artistic skill, with Molina’s drawings being so realistic that we can’t help but confuse them for the real thing.

Check out the video below.