Game: Exquisite Corpse

If you've never tried this well-known drawing game, I want to know what you do when you gather with friends. Just sit around and talk? That's absurd.

There are lots of different versions but here's the most basic way I know how to play.

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EXQUISITE CORPSE

Number of players: 3 or more is ideal, but 2 could suffice

Supplies: Sheets of blank paper, pens/pencils


How to play:

Each person starts with a blank sheet of paper. Each paper is folded into sections in whatever way you choose. I usually play by folding it into three sections (like a letter in an envelope), but it's up to you.

Each person starts drawing on one of the sections (I usually start at the top, but again it's up to you), and draws an incomplete drawing that ends at the crease of the next section. Be sure to make small trails of your lines onto the next section so the next person can see where to start.

After everyone is done with their first drawing, the papers are folded in such a way that the drawing is hidden, and all that shows are the little traces of lines coming from the last section.

Papers are passed another person. The next person begins drawing off of the lines left by the previous person, interpreting what they think could come from those lines. This drawing also makes trailing lines onto the next section, and the process is repeated until all the sections have been drawn on.

After all the sections are drawn, the paper is unfolded and the full collaborative drawing is revealed.
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The hope is that the results are mind-bending and maybe hilarious!

This game could also serve as a splendid jumping-off point for poems, stories, dances, sculptures, or paintings.

Legend has it that Exquisite Corpse was invented by a group of Surrealist and Dada artists in Paris sometime around the 1910's or 1920's. It started as a writing game, then was expanded to drawing. What I wouldn't give to travel back in time and witness the first absinthe-fueled bout of it!

Try it with your buddies, with or without the absinthe.