Mad for Mad Libs

My Fabulous Mad Libs Collection

First Mad Lib

       Where it all started was at my nine-year-old birthday party. One of my older sisters had surprised 

me with this Mad Lib as a birthday present. I had never heard of Mad Libs before, but that day it 

started out with one page, then two pages, three pages, and eventually the whole day was spent 

playing Mad Libs. 

        The game is totally different in a good way because it is just a combination of 

sentences that don't make sense, but are somehow hilarious because they don't make sense. In case 

you don't know what Mad Libs are, I'll explain it how my sister and I play it. One person has the  

Mad Libs booklet, so they can call out noun, verb, adjective, etc and write it down, the other  

person/people choose a whatever word, depending on what the person with the Mad Libs calls out. 

Nobody knows how the story will turn out and that's what makes it entertaining. You can play it by 

yourself, but in my opinion it's not as fun, which is why I don't like the modern online version. I need 

to play with some else in order for it to be funny.

Example

       It's mostly my older sister (the same one that started my collection) and I who play it. We play it 

when we go on field trips to pass the time and when the lights go out at my house, which is a normal 

thing during monsoon season and during the winter. My sister told me she got the first Mad Lib for 

me because of the blackouts, since I had severe nyctophobia when I was younger. This Mad Lib is an 

example of a time when the lights went out two winters ago. My sister and I had just finished binge 

watching the latest season of Supernatural that came out on DVD, as we do every year, which 

explains why this one has words like "demons" and "crosses" in the blanks. I promise we don't 

usually fill them out with those words. The words that I mostly use for adjectives are: fluffy and 

bushy. The words that I mostly use for nouns are: kittens, corgis, or pillows Sometimes, it will ask  

for a part of the body, I usually choose leg, funny bone, or pinky toe. Don't ask me why I choose 

these words, I think it's because the stories usually cause with me to end up rolling on the floor if I 

use these words. My sister hates it when I continuously use these words and starts hitting me with  

the Mad Lib to encourage me to use other words. 

Favorite Baby #1

Favorite Baby #2

       Of course, I favor a couple Mad Libs over the rest, what parent doesn't? The Doctor Who one I 

got for Christmas my senior year of high school from the same sister, who knew I profusely regretted 

not buying the one at the Fort Lewis College bookstore in Durango, Colorado. My sister understands 

my regret because we are both obsessed with Doctor Who, so we both try to collect all these Doctor 

Who gadgets and accessories. The cat one is also my favorite because on top it says "Meow Libs",  

ha ha, get it? "Meow Libs", instead of "Mad Libs". Also, I love cats and kittens, especially Siamese 

(as you can see is the cover of this Mad Lib). I bought this one myself at a store called Attic Salt in 

the Chandler Mall. It was almost seven dollars, more expensive than the Doctor Who one, but it was 

worth it because it adds to my collection. 

      ***

       

       I will admit that the main reason why I continue to collect Mad Libs isn't because they're totally 

awesome, but because it has allowed my sister and I to create this close bond that we don't have with 

our other siblings. Plus, our housing location is pretty isolated, we don't have a neighbor for another 

mile and most of our friends live in town twenty-five miles away. We basically just have each other 

and our parents, but our parents don't really play with us. 

       

So I Hoard Art Supplies

A collection of art a junk.

A sleeve I cut from one of my mom's old shirts to use for brush cleaning.

Tubes of dried up acrylic paint.

A set of watercolors that my favorite art teacher gave to me; I never clean out the right side just in case I want to use the colors I've already mixed again.

A watercolor value scale.

A destroyed set of PrismaColor colored pencils; I used them for four years in a row. Even though I have a new set, I've kept these ones.

A box-set of soft pastels that I dropped all over the ground before putting them on display.

It was actually my mom who gave me this idea for this exhibit. She had found one of my box-easel sets and asked if she could put it on display in the living room. “It looks neat!” She said and set it on top of a dresser. She fiddled with the clasps, trying to decide if she wanted to display it open or closed. That’s when a rag covered in paint fell out. “Is this a piece of one of my old shirts?”

“No,” I said. It was.

***

Seeing that paint covered rag got me thinking about every scrap test piece of paper or paint palette I had ever tested or mixed colors on. So I went on a treasure hunt to see how many I could find. Unfortunately, not a lot. I had thrown several of them away before my family and I had moved houses several years ago. But what I was able to find was so interesting to me. Every time I finish a drawing or a painting, I often forget about it—it’s like it never existed. But seeing all these little bits and pieces remind me of my thought process while creating. I got curious about what other artists think about their artwork, their processes, their habits as creators; I also just really wanted to see what they had lying around.

I asked my friends for any test pieces of paper they might have or any old palettes that I could add to this exhibit alongside my own. I felt hopeful that they would’ve kept theirs just like I had kept mine; after all, surely everyone enjoys looking at nondescript blobs of color as much as I do! Wrong. Here are some of the questions I asked them after my initial disappointment:

Do you prefer traditional or digital art?

Brennan: I actually like to draw my sketches on paper, and then do any line-work or coloring on my iPad.

Maxwell: Traditional. I've never done digital art before.

David: Before I became a freelance artist, I preferred traditional, but now I mostly do digital art. It just makes things easier.

Do you test color combinations or techniques on a scrap piece of paper before moving onto the final draft?

Brennan: Not really. If I'm coloring, I'm using my Copic markers. I only have a couple of colors so I usually already know what's going to look good together. Sometimes when I don't try things out beforehand it can turn out really bad and I'm super upset about it. I just pretend it never happened...

Maxwell: Sure I do. My art training was very formal, and I spent a majority of my time practicing before trying to apply it to a full-blown project.

David: Sometimes. It really depends on my mood. Either way, I've ended up with a lot of finished products that I hated.

When you paint, what does your palette look like? Is it organized? Messy? Do you use the same palette again even if it's disposable?

Brennan: I actually don't paint. It freaks me out.

Maxwell: It's pretty organized, yeah. I usually throw away all my palettes because I use wax paper. There's not really a need to keep any of them.

David: Are you kidding me? I used to have an entire box of pieces of cardboard I had used to mix my paints. I only threw them away after they became unusable.

Do you like seeing the process you've taken on the way to the finished product? Why or why not?

Brennan: Oh yeah, you know I'm always taking pictures throughout if I'm liking where things are going. Maybe that's just in case I mess up, I at least have a picture of when it looked good.

Maxwell: I've never really thought about it before. My focus is usually on the end result. Of course I'm thinking about how to get there, but I've never paid that much attention after the fact.

David: Sure. It's kind of a cool thing to see--creating something from nothing and all that.

Do you hoard art supplies?

Brennan: You know I do, dude.

Maxwell: I try to keep it organized!

David: Yes.

When do you throw things away?

Brennan: I guess when they're all used up. Like, if I can't use my marker because there's no more ink, why keep it? Well unless I want to buy another, then I need the old one to buy a new one. But I keep all of my filled up sketchbooks of course.

Maxwell: When I'm finished with them. Like the wax paper, if I'm finished with it and I don't need it again, I throw it away. Empty or dried up tubes of paint, I don't need those either.

David: When things get too crowded or if I don't need them anymore. I switched to digital art, but I kept all of my stuff for traditional art just in case, especially if they're still useful.

***

As for myself, I can answer all of these questions pretty easily. I prefer traditional art when it comes to drawing, but I like digital art for painting because it means no messes or clean-up! I think you know the answer, yes, I use test pieces of paper before applying anything to the final piece. When I paint, my palettes are usually very messy! I like to reuse the same palette over and over again just so I can remember how to mix a certain color. I love seeing the steps I’ve taken to a finished piece of artwork! Like my friend Brennan, I also take pictures of my sketches throughout because one, I’m proud, and two, it’s a good backup just in case. I hoard so many art supplies, and I have a very hard time throwing them away—even if they’re all used up.