Self Help Painting

The finished products

For a few years now, a wonderful group of ladies and I have been meeting (semi) regularly for craft nights. Before arriving at the home of that evening's host, each girl meticulously gathers her materials and supplies with a clear plan for a fantastic project, ready for a night of focused crafting. Jealous? Yeah, don't be.... all lies. Here's the truth: SOME of us bring projects, HALF of us are late and ALL of us drink. Occasionally there's dinner, usually there are hors d'oeuvres and undoubtedly there is wine.
Lately, however, craft night has taken a bizarre and unexpected turn; we started crafting!
With our new found excitement for the arts, we decided to embark on a frightening new journey last night in the form of an organized group activity.  When I informed the gals that I had invented an art game, I was met with more than moderate skepticism. Despite their wild accusations about my "strict rules" and use of the word "chartreuse", I think they would agree that it was a fun and rewarding project.
Here were the guidelines:
*Personal Defense Disclaimer- I was quite flexible with the rules, thank-you-very-much! Does "Crayola Glitter" ring any bells?
The number of steps in the process is always one more than the number of participants. We had 5 girls, so our game had 6 steps.  Each person was given a blank mini canvas, an unlimited number of paint colors, brushes and painter's tape. Every 10 minutes or so, we would complete the next step then hand our canvas off to the person on the right. Eventually everyone would have contributed something to every painting.
The Steps:
1) Paint the entire canvas a solid color of your choice (pass to the right)
2) Using the painter's tape, block off a portion of the canvas and paint that entire section a solid color (pass to the right)
3) With only black paint, add an image(s) (pass to the right)
4) Add more detail using only white paint (pass to the right)
5) Now use color, as many or as few as you'd like to finish the project (pass to the right- the original artist should have their own canvas back)
6) Name your piece!

"Wouldn't You Like to Know" 

"Moon Over My Stage" 

"Victoria" 

"Starry Flight" 

"From Aime's Shelf" 

At the close of the night, we each had a different piece to take home. Interestingly enough, although we all began with various shades of blue, each painting looked vastly different. I think everyone surprised themselves too. One gal teased herself about her inability to paint, yet came up with a gorgeous "icy" effect on the painting of the tree which none else had considered. I believe everyone learned something from the experience, even if it was just "learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable" :)