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How to Draw for Pictionary

Pictionary is like the game of charades with a pencil and pad of paper, where players draw picture clues for their teammates to guess instead of acting them out. The classic version of Pictionary has been around since 1985, according to its producer Hasbro, and there's a junior edition for players ages 7 to 12. An exciting party game, Pictionary helps people get to know each other as they get creative with their drawings and shout out ridiculous guesses. To get the most out of Pictionary, follow the rule book and have a strategy to make your scribbles easy for teammates to decipher.

Instructions

- 1
  Roll the die when it comes to your team's turn. Advance the number of spaces indicated.
- 2
  Pick up a word card from the deck. The color of the space you landed on tells you which word on the card you need to draw in picture format for your teammates to guess. Possible categories include "Difficult," "Action," "Person" "Object" and "All Play." Difficult words can come from any category and are harder than the regular word set. "All Play" means that drawers from all groups sketch at the same time while all the rest of the players try to be the first to guess the word on behalf of their teams.
- 3
  Set a drawing pad in front of you and have your pencil ready. If you landed on an "All Play" square, make sure opponents from the other teams are ready too. Designate someone who isn't drawing to be in charge of the 60-second timer.
- 4
  Look at the word on the card for five seconds. If you're doing an "All Play" round, you and the drawing players from opposing teams should look at the card together at the same time. After five seconds, start the 60-second drawing timer.
- 5
  Use your five seconds to strategize which drawing approach you'll try first: piecemeal or holistic. For example, if you have to sketch the term "flower girl," a piecemeal approach may be easier. Draw a flower first, followed by a plus sign and a rough sketch of a girl. However, if you're drawing a birthday cake, taking the holistic approach of actually drawing a birthday cake (rather than symbols for each "birthday" and "cake" separately) may be the more effective strategy.
- 6
  Pencil in identifying details as quickly as possible. For example, if you need to draw "birthday cake," sketching the icing layers perfectly isn't important for helping your teammates guess as quickly as possible. It's more important to draw the candles on top, which uniquely differentiate the birthday cake from general types of cake.
- 7
  Listen carefully to your teammates' guesses and adjust your drawing strategy accordingly. If your first approach gets them on completely the wrong track, emphatically scratch out your drawing and start over to show the group that you're trying a new strategy.
- 8
  Keep your ears open to the other teams' guesses if you're doing an "All Play" round. Listening to their shouts and glancing at your opponents' sketches can give you inspiration to modify your own strategy so that your group guesses faster.
- 9
  Take another turn by rolling the die if your team guesses correctly. Another person on your team should take the responsibility of drawing. If your team doesn't guess correctly, the team to your left gets to roll the die, draw and guess. In an "All Play" situation, the team that guesses the word first gets the next turn.

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