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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Art Day: let the games begin!

Art games are fun!

What are art games? Those are the games that your non-artist friends and family don't want to play with you ... kidding, sort of. Here's an art game that you can play by yourself if nobody will play with you. Or you can play with non-artist friends and family if they're game.

Step one: Think of something to draw (start out with something you are good at drawing, for instance, I would probably pick cows).

Step two: Get out a paper and pencil (make sure it's a big piece of paper).

Step three: Put on a blindfold (you can just close your eyes if you want, but no peeking).
Note: non-artists have the option of looking while they draw - it levels the playing field.

Step four: Draw!

Step five: Repeat, with different subjects, or the same subject (as many times as you want).
Note: If you are making multiple drawings on the same page, you can look after each one and reposition your pencil to a blank part of the page before starting again.

You'll be surprised what happens when you try this, or maybe you won't. I'm always surprised how good it looks, considering that I wasn't looking at what I was doing. Plus it makes me feel better about my real drawings, which look like masterpieces compared to the blindfolded ones.

(BTW, I got this idea from playing Cranium, which is a good game because there's a category that everyone likes, and one that everyone hates. Also, the clay smells really weird, not like real clay at all.)

What are your favorite art games?

Update: I didn't think about adding a picture last night when I posted this (it was late). This morning I couldn't find one to post (I don't usually keep these unless I really like them), so I made a new one (which I actually do like). I also updated step 5 with a note.


Drawing play by play (for those who like that kind of thing): First I made the cow w/o looking, then looked and realized I forgot two of the legs, so I closed my eyes again, which is why they are way off. After seeing that, I moved my pencil over and closed my eyes to draw the elephant (I remembered to draw all 4 legs right away, which is why they look better). The last step was to move my pencil down to write "cow and elephant" and sign it. It's a lot easier to write while not looking than it is to draw without looking! The © symbol was added in Photoshop.

5 comments:

  1. Cranium is fun!
    This game sounds cute and would be fun with the family!

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  2. Hope you get to play with your family! BTW, I added a note to step 5 that you can look between images if you're drawing more than one thing. That way you can move your pencil to an open spot of paper.

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  3. Dang, that's pretty good! This would be a fun game for an illustrator to play with school kids...

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  4. Thanks Angela! That would be a fun game to play with a group of kids. Now all I have to do is get a book published and I can try it ;)

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  5. I'll have to try that!
    My kids made up a game they called 'Toons. We'd take turns naming an animal, and then everyone draws a cartoon of it as quickly as possible. Usually the results cracked us up.

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