Exquisite corpse game
Try this drawing game at home!
Exquisite corpse is not nearly as creepy as it sounds. It’s a drawing game where each player draws a different part of a creature’s body. The creature can look as scary or silly as you like!
What you need
- Drawing paper
- Pens
- 3-4 players
How to play
- Fold the paper into three or four sections, depending on the number of players.
- For three sections: draw the head, body and legs.
- For four sections: draw the head, body, legs and feet.
- Optional: Draw the neck, waist and ankle lines between the sections.
- The first player draws the head, and then folds the paper over to hide what they drew. Leaving a bit of the neck sticking out for the next player to see.
- Without peeking, the second player draws the body, and then folds the paper over.
- The third player draws the legs and if there is a fourth player, they draw the feet.
- The final player unfolds the drawing to reveal the crazy randomness beneath!
This drawing game originated with artists in the 1920’s. At this time, art was becoming more surreal, and less likely to reflect real-life. Artists liked the collaborative nature of the game, and its random nature created really absurd drawings.
You can see examples of the game in the Museum of Modern Art online collection.
The scribble game
My siblings and I loved drawing growing up, but we often struggled with deciding what to draw. The scribble game is perfect for this, and it’s so easy to play.
What you need
- Drawing paper
- Two different coloured pens
- 2 players
How to play
Player one draws a random scribble on the page. This could just be a line or curve, or much more complicated. Player two takes the paper and tries to turn the scribble into a drawing that makes sense. Next, they draw a scribble and pass the paper back to player one. So easy right?
If you have more than two players you can give each of the other players the same scribble. Wait and see how different their drawings are!
Comics with consequences
This is a story-telling game, but instead of writing the story, you will be drawing comic panels. The story becomes very random, as each new player doesn’t get to see the beginning of the comic.
What you need
- Drawing paper
- Pens
- 2 – 7 players
How to play
First, create a mini-book, follow the video below to learn how to fold one.
Leave the first page blank, you will come up with a title later. The first player draws four squares on the second page, and one square on the third page. Next, they fill in the five squares with a random comic story. The story does not need to finish, that’s for the next player to do.
Before they hand the comic over, the first player folds away the first page so that only one square is visible. The next player adds four squares to the comic, three on this page, and one on the next. Keep passing the comic around like this until it is finished. The more players you have, the more random the story will be! Once you have all read the comic through, come up with an appropriate title together.
We’d love to read your comics! Post them to social and tag us #motatfun
Check out even more activities on MOTAT FUN:
Road Code: Transport Themed Coding Challenge
Operation Decode
Even MORE School Holiday Activities!
