After a day outside plein-air painting, the artists of the Old Lyme group in Connecticut would gather in Florence Griswold’s parlor and play the “Wiggle Game.
Wiggle drawings were produced in a drawing game where one artist would draw a series of disconnected curving arcs at random, then hand off the half finished drawing to another artist who had to incorporate those lines in a funny, irreverent, or satirical cartoon.
Such drawing games were common amusements in the evenings in art colonies and art schools at the turn of the 20th century. They are a good challenge for each artist’s visual imagination, and a welcome change from painting and drawing what you see in front of you.
More examples at the Florence Griswold Museum website.