Almost forgot, but a while ago I finished up the Kamon (Japanese family/house crest) for Dan. It’s not the Heraldic crest he initially requested, but during my research into the subject I was intrigued by the minimalist style and thought it would be a good starting point for teaching myself this kind of illustration, which I’ve never done before.
I’m 60% happy with it. I like the otter and the general yin/yang effect between it and the cock, but I’m not happy. The design of the cock bothers me (stop giggling!) and one day I’ll refine it. Now, however, I have other things to move on to, not the least of which is the heraldic crest, which I realise is going to take quite a lot of effort to get right, and I don’t just want to palm off a shoddy product because I think I’m not good enough.
The other day my brother was discussing a design with a client who mentioned that it was far too good for what the thing was, and he replied that doing a bad job was not an excuse just because the people who would see it didn’t know any better, or he wasn’t getting paid much for it, or for whatever reason.
There is a lot to be said taking pride in one’s work (frankly there isn’t nearly enough), for getting things done to the best possible level you can achieve. I’d like to live my entire life that way.
Hence, the cock still bothers me.
I said stop giggling!
