Gartic Phone — Exquisite Corpse Mode

Grab your ticket and come with us on a time-travel journey through France.

Around 1920, a game called Exquisite Corpse became popular in the artistic community. The dynamic was simple: each artist contributed by drawing or writing on a sheet of paper, but once they were finished, they folded the paper to hide their part. This way, you couldn’t see what others made.

The game was, in fact, named during one of those game nights when the players came across the sentence “Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau.” Translated freely as “The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine,” they decided then to name the game as Exquisite Corpse.

Well, the artist from the surrealist movement used that game as a creative exercise. The idea was to combine drawings randomly to create a final composition. For example, the first draws from the head to the neck, folds the paper, and passes it to the next player, who draws the torso without knowing what the character’s head looks like. Right after, a third player draws the legs without seeing the rest of the body. You can say it’s a mix of our modes, Missing Piece and Co-op.

The results were creepy and bizarre creatures. They were, without a doubt, artistic creations, but with a comic touch since the drawings were made isolated. It was almost like Frankenstein, in which a creature is born from stitched parts.

With that in mind, inspired by the surrealist wave and dadaistic tendencies, we created the EXQUISITE CORPSE MODE.

HOW IT WORKS

In three rounds, you and your friends will invent a bizarre creature together. Start by drawing a head — not necessarily human; use your creativity! The important thing is to make sure your drawing reaches the bottom of the canvas because the next player will receive just what’s drawn below the dashed line.

For example, I drew this head:

One of the other players will receive only the bottom part of my drawing:

And from that, will continue drawing the character’s torso:

Note: Notice that in the left corner are displayed the colors used previously, so the next player can use a similar color palette and ensure continuity in the drawing

At last, the third player receives the bottom part of the torso and finishes the drawing:

At the album exhibition, you’ll see the final creation, with the three parts connected:

The fun part is connecting drawings that don’t necessarily make sense together and exploring the bizarre creatures' universe!

EXAMPLES

The original game is based on the structure of a human body, but don’t limit yourself to that! You can use animals, monsters, or anything with layers. What matters is to keep in mind that the final product will have a top, middle, and bottom part.

OBSERVATIONS

The mode is designed to be played in 3 turns. However, if you wish to increase the number of turns and combine more drawings, simply click on the gear icon in the upper left corner and choose the desired number of turns.

For example, here are a few examples of creations using 5 turns instead of 3:

Another cool thing about this mode is that if you don’t have friends to play with, you can still play alone and create your own giant monster, a big cake, a big mountain, or anything else you like.

The more you explore the drawing’s possibilities, the funnier the result!

Check out a sneak peak of our team playing the new mode here

We hope you enjoy our latest bizarre creation! Join us to draw the most surrealist creatures possible. Leave your opinions in the comments, and in case you have suggestions or doubts, get in touch with us at team@gartic.com