Luck begins with the courage to show up

Luck was the prompt
and it prompted my thinking
it made me consider

not just how to write it
not just how to draw it
but the meaning of this very word
the pencils were revealing.

I believe that there's much
to the whole world of luck
part magical
part elusive
and really not well understood.

But I can nail down my part
and that is to show up
to reach down inside myself
and find the courage,
to 'pluck up'.

So I searched for my courage
as I looked for the paper,
the pencils and
other things I might need,
like inspiration from my other.

And I sat and I drew
treating it like one big old experiment
to see what would get
drawn out of the paper.

I've taken photos of each of
my steps along the way
each time I assess my creation
then, bravely, attempted another layer.

So here it is, my new friends,
the best I could do
with my dear love of words
and my drawing hands
who don't really
have much of a clue ;)

Round 1: With an HB pencil and a starting idea of big letters and sharp edges, I drew. Then I had a last minute idea about shadowing and then ended this round with a big underline.

Round 2: Then, I wanted some colour, something "lucky", and so I reached for a gold coloured pencil that turned out to be "bronze". That'll do. I drew over all my pencil lines, giving myself permission to let go of more of that left-brain analytical thinking and step into more of my right-brain creative self.

Round 3: Brad (new.things) had shown me some example of graffiti art online, as we both sat side-by-side drawing, and I noticed that the art we were seeing popped out of the page/off the wall. I pondered how to do that more with the little almost nothing I knew about drawing. I looked at Brad's box of metallic pencils and considered which colours might match well with bronze. The "red" stood out as an option, and so, without letting my left brain take over and analyse, I grab it and starting playing. I wasn't sure if I liked it more or less than the last one, but I'd been deliberately taking photos after each round in case I liked a previous version better and wanted to submit it instead. This 'giving myself options' made me feel safer to try another layer and then another.

Round 4: I thought I'd try more red and see what happened. I opted for light shading to fill in the white space at the back. I was pretty scared to try something that felt like it would be a big change, but I reminded myself that I had saved each past round; it would be okay.

And I liked it! It felt good to stop there rather than over crowd it, so this is the final product. If you're reading and judging this piece of art, judge this one bottom.

And if you've just read through my story and want to feel encouraged to try something new then I hope I've inspired you. There's a good chance, even if you're afraid, that doing something creative and new probably won't kill you ;)

In case you missed it, this is my entry into the Graffiti Lettering Contest (#10). If you'd like to participate, there are a few days left at time of posting this and you'll find the rules towards the bottom of this post.