Here are some things I know how to draw: Stick figures, the sun, clouds, flowers, boxy houses, boxy cars and actual boxes. Trust me, these skills are very impressive to a three-year-old cousin who's still working on the motor skills required to hold a pencil. Not so much when it comes to a Pictionary team of competitive, adult friends who have 45 seconds to use those clues to guess Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson version). Enough evenings like that and a person might bolt for the nearest exit at the mere mention of Pictionary.

So I was surprised to find myself giggling at my desk this morning as I sketched "Sleep with the fishes johnny," a prompt from a complete stranger on the site Teledraw. Like Pictionary—or Telephone, from which it borrows part of its name—the game starts with a phrase provided by one player that is then drawn by another. But here's the twist: instead of an angry mob relying on my ability to accurately sketch a Godfather quote, my doodle was turned over to a third player who described what he saw ("man on flotation device while goldfish wait to devour him") that then became the clue for another player to interpret. And so on. Once you've submitted your work, you can trace the chain back to its source or forward until people are stumped by it.


While there are plenty of talented visual artists on the site, the real joy is in illustrating a funny idea or imagining an idea for a funny illustration. Where Pictionary is competitive, Teledraw is collaborative. Instead of revealing a weakness to my friends, that once frustrating Sense and Sensibility moment became a chance to show off a rarely used talent a new community could draw on (literally). And now I can add Goldfish crackers to the list of things I know how to draw.

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