🖍️ Drawing Chain
Every player starts a drawing, then passes it on, and the next person keeps going without knowing what the first artist had in mind. No one can be bad at it, and the finished pictures are always a surprise. It works beautifully in a classroom, an after-school club or around the kitchen table.
What you need
Equipment: A sheet of paper and a pen or crayons for each player, a timer. Seat everyone around a table or in a circle so papers can be passed easily to the right. Give each player a sheet of paper and something to draw with.
How to play Drawing Chain
- Give a broad starting theme, such as a monster, a landscape or a party, or let everyone start freely.
- Start a 30-second timer. Everyone begins drawing on their own sheet.
- When time is up, call out "Pass!" and everyone hands their paper to the person on their right.
- Start another 30 seconds. Each player carries on with the drawing they received, without asking what it was meant to be.
- No erasing and no scribbling over what is already there. You can only add.
- Repeat 5 or 6 times, until the papers have traveled around the group.
- Return every drawing to the person who started it, so they can see what happened to it.
- Each player shows their picture and tells everyone what they meant to draw at the start.
Scoring and wrapping up
Scoring: Nobody loses. The group votes for the funniest, the most surprising and the most beautiful picture, and each winning artist gets 2 points.
To finish: Hang all the drawings in a row on the wall to make a group art gallery.
By age
- Ages 6-7: use 45-second rounds and fewer passes, about 4, and draw with chunky crayons.
- Ages 8-12: add a secret word at the bottom of each sheet that only the first artist knows, and see if the final picture still matches it.
Variations
- Big group: split into tables of 5 or 6 so each paper finishes its lap in time.
- Capy twist: on every third pass, Capy calls out an extra item that everyone must add to the picture they are holding, such as a parrot, a rainbow or a pair of sunglasses.
- Fold and pass: fold the paper after each turn so only a thin strip shows, like the classic Exquisite Corpse game.
Tips for the adult in charge
- Keep the rounds short. Thirty seconds is enough to add something and too short to overthink it.
- Encourage players to build on what is there ("Give it a hat!") rather than starting something new in the corner.
🖨️ Printable drawing chain starter themes
Cut out the cards and pull one from a hat at the start of each round.
- A monster
- An underwater world
- A birthday party
- A spaceship
- A haunted house
- A robot
- A busy city street
- A jungle
- A dragon
- A dream bedroom
- A pirate ship
- A crazy invention
- A zoo
- A superhero
- A treehouse
- A farm
- A castle
- A beach day
- A magic forest
- An alien family
Questions and answers
What is the drawing chain game?
It is a group drawing game where each player draws for a short time and then passes their paper on, so every picture ends up made by several people.
How is it different from Exquisite Corpse?
In Exquisite Corpse each part is folded out of sight. In Drawing Chain you can see the whole picture and keep building on it, which suits younger children.
How long does a drawing chain take?
About 10 to 15 minutes for a group of 6 to 10, including the gallery at the end.