Drawing workshop - Exquisite Corpses

The picture above is a small selection from the pictures we drew last week during our drawing workshop. We were basically playing a game of 'consequences' (do people call it something else outside of the UK?) ... otherwise known as "exquisite corpses". Fold the paper up, draw a head, pass it on so the head doesn't show, next person draws the body; next the legs and next the feet. To start us of we were also given themes - 'confectionery' for the head, 'geographical' for the torso, 'delicatessen' for the legs, and 'botanical' for the feet.

Once we got going, we could do any sort of head, and then had to give a prompt to the next person along doing the body, etc etc... There were some quite bizzare monsters that were born in the studios that day! Here are some of my favourites:

I did the head on this one

Here I did the geographical body

Again did the head, and then prompted the next person to do 'circus'

Sorry for the bad photo quality - theres a not a lot of natural light in that room. More pictures here on our UWE illustration 07-10 facebook account (I think you have to have a facebook account to see them).

Anyways, afterwards, we talked about why had done the exercise, and the things that came up included; learning to work collaboratively (that not a lot of illustrators do, but is worth doing); letting go of control over your work; generating ideas when you're having 'drawing-block'; and just loosening up our creative muscles.

The homework for the week was to use two or more of the characters to create new work or a narrative (oh yes, character development was one of the other intended outcomes of the exercise). Most people have been doing three drawings/paintings. I took a bit of a sidewards route (partly because mutant monster characters are not really my thing, and I was having problems engaging with the project and thinking up narratives for the characters to be in) ... and its taken me longer than I'd imagined it would ... so its still work in progress... In the meantime, have a sneak peek:


Will post more pictures once I've finished the little things ...