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On Jan. 9, HCMC artist Nguyen Van My, whose stage name is Viet My, posted a video of him drawing portraits of characters in the Marvel superhero movie, 'Spider-Man: No Way Home', on his personal TikTok account.
Since then, the video has attracted over 28.6 million views, 3.4 million likes and more than 65,000 comments.
Viet My draws five Marvel superheroes simultaneously. Video by the artist
This clip was also widely shared on many other international social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and others.
Many expressed their admiration while some doubted the video was authentic.
"If true, his talent is more amazing than Spiderman. Very admirable," Bill Dauterive commented on Reddit.
Some said that the video was most likely edited. One said "maybe he drew five pictures first, then covered them with something and erased with a pen to reveal the original drawing."
Controversy also broke out on My's Tiktok account with 7.1 million followers, with people asking the artist to post a slower video of the painting process and also the times when drawing mistakes had to be redone to prove the video was not a stunt.
"I confirm 100 percent that the drawings are real and there were no tricks involved. This is not the first time my work has raised suspicions," My said.
"Those who understand painting understand that drawing using different body parts is not too difficult. The artist will visualize all the necessary steps in his or her head in advance. One just needs to coordinate the hand and feet movements to bring the idea to life. Those who don't have deep knowledge of fine arts won't be able to do the same thing even if they can draw or write well with both hands."
My said that while the fast forward function makes the video more lively, it is understandable that some might find it misleading.
"Actually, I can't and didn’t draw all five portraits at once. I pay attention to one painting, focus on finishing the stroke on that one first, then quickly move to the next painting and repeat the same process," he explained.
For example, in 10 seconds, the artist will draw a little bit of each picture and rotate it until it's done, not all five at the same time.
My said it took him more than 10 hours to complete all five portraits and had to redo them three times before succeeding.
The biggest challenge was the left foot. Each time he made a mistake, he had to start from the beginning. He had to concentrate very hard in order not to mix the strokes between the five paintings, My said.
This is not the first time he has stirred up social media. An earlier clip of him making an artwork featuring four Avengers superheroes on one medium had also gone viral.
Viet My's artwork shows four Avengers superheroes from different angles. Video by the artist
