More Fun
Set rules about what each of you must draw, such as only draw foods! Make them all faces! Turn them into shoes!
Game 15 ROLL-THE-DICE SHAPE FIGURES
By limiting your drawing options to basic shapes, this game forces you to think beyond your go-to method for drawing body parts. Each player draws each of the ten body parts in the order listed below. The shape used to draw each part is determined by the roll of a die.
1 To begin, players roll the die to determine which shape they will use to draw the first body part, which happens to be a head. Then players consult the chart to see what shape they should use. For example, if a three is rolled, that player will use a squiggly line to draw the head. Work your way through all ten body parts, rolling the die each time before beginning to draw.
2 Each of you can draw separate people or collaborate on one person, taking turns with rolls of the die.
Draw in this order:
1. Head
2. Nose
3. Eyes
4. Mouth
5. Torso
6. Arms
7. Legs
8. Hands
9. Feet
10. Hair
Dice roll:
1. Square
2. Circle
3. Squiggly line
4. Triangle
5. Straight Line
6. Spiral
Tip
You don’t have to draw just one of any shape per body part. For example, if you roll a triangle, you can draw lots of them to make up the hair.
Game 16 FRAME COLLABORATIONS
These are no ordinary frames!
1 You and a friend will draw a page of frames for each other.
2 Draw whatever sort of frame you like and add in one surprise element that your friend has to incorporate into his or her drawing.
“Did somebody say, ‘Good looking?’”
More Fun
Make the frames big—one per page—cut them out and decorate them, color them in, and hang them all over your house.
Game 17 FINISH A FIGURE WITH A FRIEND
Play this hilarious drawing game with a friend, taking turns drawing a face or figure.
1 Fold your page in half, either horizontally or vertically.
2 Draw one half of the face or figure—the left or right half if the paper is folded vertically or the top or bottom if it is folded horizontally. Continue drawing a quarter inch onto your partner’s side of the page so they know where to begin. Have your friend finish the drawing on the other half of the page.
More Fun
Try folding the page in different ways: quarters or thirds. Experiment!
Game 18 ROBOT STARTERS
There’s never a bad time to draw robots, and really, never a bad way. Gather between two and five friends and see what crazy contraptions you come up with!
1 Give each person a piece of paper and set a timer for 1 minute. Have players draw one part of a robot on their page.
2 When the time is up, have players pass their pages to the person on their left (or just swap if there are two of you)and continue drawing for 1 minute.
3 You can continue the game until the drawings seem complete. Even if there is a complete robot figure, you can continue to add exciting details and spare parts as you watch your robot grow more complex!
“Sometimes I feel almost human.”
More Fun
Bring your robot drawings to life by making 3D robots from whatever is in your recycle bin.
Game 19 BLIND CONTOUR PORTRAITS
It’s really hard to get through this game without dissolving into giggle fits. Play this game with one other friend.
1 Each player begins with a piece of paper and marker or pencil and sits across from the other.
2 Draw the other player’s portrait without lifting the pen off of the paper AND without looking at the paper.
Tip
Don’t try to make it perfect—draw fluidly and fairly quickly and follow the lines of the face with your eyes as you are drawing them on the paper.
Game 20 WEIRDO ANIMALS
It would be fun to see some of these animal hybrids running around in real life. You and a friend can do this game together, or make your own while you sit side-by-side, sneaking peeks at each other’s.
1 Roll a die to determine what the front half of the animal you draw will be:
1. Elephant
2. Monkey
3. Bird
4. Fish
5. Giraffe
6. Turtle
2 Draw the front half.
3 Roll again to determine the back half:
1. Snake
2. Cat
3. Ant
4. Ladybug
5. Pig
6. Lizard
4 Draw the back half.
More Fun
When you tire of these combinations, you can switch the “front” and “back” columns.
Game 21 EXPLORE YOUR SCRIBBLES
Scribbling is super fun in and of itself, but wait until you stare at a scribble for a while—it’s like trying to find shapes in clouds!
1 Scribble all over your page with your pencil.
2 Hand it to your friend, who will hand you their scribble page.
3 Look for different shapes in the scribbles and outline them in marker. Feel free to erase some of the scribbles that fall inside the marker lines if desired.
More Fun
Vary the types of scribbles you do—try big, loopy scribbles one time and jagged, pointy scribbles the next.
Game 22 SHADOW DRAWING
This is one of my all-time favorite drawing games. First, hunt around your house for toys, mugs, utensils, and any other interestingly shaped objects you can find.
1 Have a friend shine a flashlight on a blank wall while you hold up an object between the light and the wall. Then tape a piece of paper to the wall, centered over the shadow of the object. Trace that object on to the paper.
2 Rotate the paper on the wall and trace another object, finding interesting ways to overlap the images.
3 Continue until you’ve traced 3 to 5 objects, depending on what looks good to you.
Tip
Use different colored markers to make your drawing look really cool. Also try tracing the profile of another friend along with some objects they like to create a unique portrait of them!
MIXED-MEDIA GAMES
Now that you’re a little warmed up with the basic drawing games and games with friends, let’s get all wild and add more art materials! It’s a mixed-media drawing party right in the pages of this book.
I really tried hard not to add in anything too weird (tar, polyurethane, or dog fur), for those of you who aren’t ready to become conceptual artists. In fact, I hope you might already have watercolors and colored permanent markers lying around.
Of course, a trip to the art store is always encouraged since there is no end to the fun things you will find there. Anyway . . .
If a game calls for a specific material you don’t have on hand, or if you completely hate that material with a passion, feel free to substitute with something else.
Just like in the Simple Drawing Games chapter, branch out and see what else you can come up with after you’ve tried these drawing games at least once. Slow down, take your time, and explore. Enjoy the process!
Game 23 YOUR EXPLODING INTIALS
Turn your initials into an abstract design using paper, markers, and glue.
1 Using a ruler, pencil, and scissors, measure, draw, and cut a 6 x 6 inch (15 x 15 cm) square from the page. Draw your initials in large block letters to fill the space. Color the entire design with solid colors or line designs.
2 Cut the square into four equal squares. Rearrange them until you have a design you like and glue them onto a piece of paper.
More Fun
Cut a 9 x 9 inch (23 x 23 cm) square from a piece of paper, draw your initials, and cut it into nine equal squares. Play around with the
se smaller pieces to create a new design.
Game 24 MAGIC COLOR DRAWING TRANSFER
You can use crayons or oil pastels for this transfer project. Oh, and grab a ballpoint pen or pencil for the drawing part.
1 Fold your page in half and then unfold it and lay it down flat.
2 Draw lines of color all down the right-hand side of the page with oil pastels or crayons. The lines can go in any direction (A). Press hard so a lot of color is deposited on the page. (I usually end up snapping all the poor crayons in half with my superhuman strength.)
3 Fold the colored half of the paper over to cover the blank half. Draw with a pen or pencil over the back of the colored page (B). Wherever you draw will transfer color onto the blank page!
Tip
If you don’t want to draw right on the back of the colored page, you can draw on another piece of paper held down on top of the page.
Game 25 GRAVITY DRAWING
You’ll need a bottle of black India ink with a dropper for this game.
1 Insert a dropper into the bottle of ink, squeeze until it’s full, and drip the ink in one place on your paper.
2 Tilt the page to move the ink around in any direction you like. Drip the ink in all different directions until your drawing is finished.
“Donut! Pizza! Candy! I must be getting hungry.”
More Fun
Try this with a friend. For an extra challenge, have your friend shout out something for you to draw right as you are dripping ink onto your page.
Game 26 CONTINUOUS LINE ANIMAL
Drawing without removing your utensil from the surface can create an unusual and interesting result. Give it a try!
1 Look up the face of a favorite animal on the Internet or in a book.
2 Draw the face on your page using one continuous line—don’t lift your marker/pencil up off the page (A).
3 When you finish drawing the animal, fill in the animal face with doodles, still without lifting your marker.
4 Color in the face (B).
Tip
It’s more fun if you keep a smooth, even rhythm going as you are drawing your animal face. Don’t start and stop; just let the marker glide around the page.
Game 27 FINGERPRINT DISCOVERIES
Make random groupings of fingerprints on the page and then figure out what they remind you of.
1 Take turns with friends creating fingerprints on the page using different fingers on an inkpad and pressing them onto the page into separate groupings. Play with using the side of your finger, the very tip, etc (A).
2 Gaze at the different groupings and see what you can draw from them (B and C).
Tip
If you don’t have an ink pad at home, you can color on your finger tip with a marker. Add more color each time you want to make a new fingerprint.
Game 28 CATALOG MODEL DRAWINGS
Catalogs would be much more fun to flip through if the models inside were like this!
1 Cut out outfits from a clothing catalog and glue them onto different pages.
2 Draw around the outfit to make a brand new model. I wanted to make a very fashionable dog, but I’m not sure what the other two creatures are.
“Some people think I look like a real dawg in that dress.”
Make It Silly
These models have something to say! Add speech bubbles with what they want to say to the world.
Game 29 EXQUISITE CORPSE BOOK
Exquisite Corpse is a game invented by the Surrealists in the 1920s. This game (plus the Totem Creatures and Finish a Figure with a Friend games) is based on this concept.
1 Fold your page into thirds and cut the two outer flaps into three smaller flaps each. See the image above—the two big dotted lines are the fold lines, and the four small dotted lines are the cut lines.
2 Draw a figure on the middle, uncut third of paper. You will draw the head and shoulders in the top area, the torso and arms in the middle area, and the hands and legs in the bottom area.
3 One at a time, draw another figure over each of the flaps when it is closed. Make sure you line up where the head part meets the middle part and where the middle part meets the legs. You want to be able to open one flap and mix and match the parts of the characters you have drawn in order to make new characters!
More Fun
You can add even more figures by cutting and taping on more flaps to the front of the existing flaps.
Game 30 KALEIDOSCOPE CIRCLES
This game produces a work of art that looks a bit like the view through a colorful kaleidoscope. Of course, your drawing will be much cooler than a dumb old kaleidoscope.
1 Using a can or other round object and a pencil, trace several circles all over the page. Feel free to use a couple objects of different sizes.
2 Color in all the areas where the circles overlap.
“I’m feeling positively, positive about the negative spaces I’ve created.”
More Fun
Draw tangle designs in the leftover white areas.
Game 31 WHAT’S IN AN INK BLOB?
Maybe you’ve done ink blob drawings before, but with this one, we’re going to take it a step further.
1 Fold a paper in half and drop ink drips on one side of the paper.
2 Fold the paper closed and press lightly, then open it and let it dry.
3 After the ink is totally dry, see what you can see in the ink blob shape and add to it with a marker or pen. I used a Sharpie and a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen.
“Sometimes blobs are masterpieces in the making.”
Game 32 FRUIT PRINT WHEELS
Believe it or not, fruit prints make the perfect drawing starter.
1 Use a brayer to roll some acrylic paint or printing ink onto a palette or other flat surface (a foil-covered pan works great).
2 Cut a lime, lemon, or orange in half and blot each half on a paper towel to remove excess moisture.
3 Press one half of the fruit into the paint all the way and then press it onto your page to make a print. Make two prints next to each other.
4 Turn your fruit prints into wheels by drawing some sort of vehicle around them.
Tip
Practice making prints on scrap paper a few times until you get the hang of how much paint you need on the fruit and how hard to press the fruit onto your paper.
Game 33 FINGERPRINT SELF-PORTRAIT
Prepare to get your cute little fingers all messy while you use them in place of a marker.
1 Sit in front of a mirror.
2 Press your finger onto a stamp pad and dot it onto the page to “draw” yourself. Overlap more dots for darker areas.
“Mom and Dad will be happy. I usually use this finger to poke my little brother.”
Tip
Start with the top of your head/hair and remember to place your eyes about halfway down your head.
Game 34 CRAYON RESIST LANDSCAPE DOODLES
Make a decorative landscape with this classic crayon resist technique.
1 Using a white crayon, cover your page in rounded hills working from the bottom of the paper to the top.
2 Fill in each of the hills with doodles and designs.
3 Using watercolor paint in different shades of green, brush over each of the hills.
“There are more bumps in that landscape than I had on my head when I learned how to ride a skateboard.”
More Fun
Try mixing up different shades of green with your green, blue, and yellow watercolors or just make a magical rainbow landscape.
AWESOME TANGLE GAMES
If you have not tried tangling, you are in for the treat of a lifetime. While they may look extremely hard to do, in reality, these designs are simple as pie.
They take little time to do, and they look totally rad when you’re finished with them! Tangling is massively soothing and meditative. You’ll find yourself in this happy state where all anxiety slips right away while you are drawing, and who doesn’t like that?
Tangle Art and Drawing Games for Kids Page 2