Series: Messy May #5
Prompt: 05 COURAGE
Host: Mou @mou.saha.studio
Guidance: What does COURAGE mean to you? Create an art journal spread with your take on courage.
I wasn’t taken with Mou’s response to the prompt word: inspired by the etymology of courage, she chose to paint a realistic heart and add a lot of courage is… definitions. That approach really didn’t appeal to me. So I sat and had a think.
I’ve never had to run into a burning building or anything even vaguely like that; my personal experience of courage is when it is needed to not go with the flow, to not just keep quiet and keep my head down, to point out when something isn’t right, to be different and stand out. And that idea led me to this.
I masked off the edges of the sketchpad and began the contemplative process of laying down the background layers of brush marks in various shades of blue and grey. Once that was done and dry, I added a single orange square. I debated about whether to add the word courage to the square; however, I found it and it fitted perfectly, and so I added it and I’m happy that it works.
(I know it’s only the “sketchpad page with masked edges”, but I look at this and I’m reminded of the Square-a-thon challenge I completed back in 2019.)
Crafty Rat 