52 books, week 15 - Le Cadavre Exquis

More about 52 books in 52 weeks

We used to play this game with the kids when they were young - usually when we were waiting for our meal to arrive in a restaurant. One person starts by drawing a head, then folds the paper over so the next person can only see a bit of the neck. That person draws the body and folds the paper over again. The last person draws the legs. When the paper is unfolded, everyone has a good laugh at the funny creature that was created.

At the Artzona art retreat, a bunch of us supposed grown ups played the same game. A few people decided to collage their body parts. I'd never thought of doing that, so I had to give it a try when I got home. I used a combination of drawings from children's picture books and images from National Geographic magazines. Some of the combinations are rather bizarre - but that's the whole point of the game.

I didn't really do a lot of planning for this book. I had a bunch of index cards lying around, so I used them for the backgrounds of each page. After I had created all the pages, I started looking for something to use for the cover. I happened to have a folder that was exactly the right height for the three index cards. I love it when things work out that way.