exercise · all tools
Sketch Appreciation
After a minute or two of eye-gazing, one partner becomes an artist and the other their masterpiece: choosing an imagined medium, they 'sketch' the other's face, tracing features, wrinkles and freckles lightly with a fingertip, watching the expression change. Thirty seconds of silence, then five to seven minutes of sharebacks each way. First played late at night round a campfire at a Texas retreat; the manual says playing it with a beloved takes it to another level.
Prerequisites
- Partners who have chosen each other for this, or an established group — the manual's own framing is beloveds, a retreat, and a partner 'playshop'
- Touch to the face is the exercise; the manual says 'lean into the edge' of it, and that edge is the receiver's to set, in words, before any finger lands
- Nothing is spoken during the sketch, so no verbal exit exists; agree a gesture that means stop
Practical
- Time
- 15-30 min
- Group
- 2–∞ · pairs
- Settings
- in-person
- Mechanisms
- somatic-awareness, attention-training, dialogic-encounter
- Change scope
- state → skill · repeatable
Instructions
- Where
- authrev.org/ar-games-manual — Authentic Relating Games Manual, paid
- Availability
- In the source document — the instructions live inside the material linked, on its terms
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0 (Authentic Relating Games Manual)
Source link checked 31 Aug 2026 — unchanged since we recorded it on 29 Aug 2026
This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.
Origin
Brave Legend Pietri and Megan Rose Browning (Austin Love Juggernaut / Alchemy of We); first played at the 2016 All-Texas AR Retreat — Authentic Relating (Authentic Relating Games Manual, 2025 edition)
In this directory via Authentic Relating Games Manual
status: checked · added 2026-08-31