You Will Make: One Drawing and one VERY short story
You Will Need: SQUARE Paper, Pencil, Crayons, Markers, Imagination!
This exercise is a variation of a surrealist collaborative drawing game called an exquisite corpse. The method is simple, draw something on a piece of paper and then fold it so that it’s obscured, except for connecting lines, and hand it to someone else who connects their drawing to yours.
It is a wonderful practice to shift one’s perspective on a problem, and there are many different versions of it including some that use words instead of images.
This version is inspired by the crocuses and tulips sprouting in the pots on my doorstep, and I call it exquisite flowers. It is the most fun if you play with someone else, but strict rules never apply to games.
Directions:
- Fold your paper. In half is ideal, but not strictly necessary. The important bit is that when you turn the paper over, the first drawing is hidden.
- Draw the outline of half of a flower!
- Think about what real flowers look like: Is your flower symmetrical?
- Does it reflect, rotate, or radiate?
- CARRY THE LINES SLIGHTLY OVER THE FOLD
- If you are alone, do a stack of a few outlines, making sure the drawing side is down and not visible.
- Trade papers with a friend (or pick up one from your stack)
- DO NOT LOOK at the drawing side.
- Draw the other half.
- Open it up and see what you got.
- Once you have a couple done, pick the one you like best and answer these questions to write a story:
- Where and/or how did you find the flower?
- What does it do? Or what makes it special?
- What is its name?
- Then add some details
- Use the story to decide how to color the flower.
If you want to participate in our Instagram game, take a picture of your Exquisite Flower and upload your photo and your (very short) story to Instagram with the tag #ExquisiteFlower21 and tag #CollaborativeDrawing. If you want to add your drawing to our feed, we will re-gram them in batches and create some slideshows to feature your work!
