Thursday, August 4, 2011

Griffin Teaches Me a Lesson

I was very excited to go to my first Boskone in February of 1977. I was even more excited when a friend of one of my new-found fan friends commissioned a nametag miniature from me. His name was "Griffin" and that's what he wanted on his nametag. I was commuting to the convention so I went home that night and in a rush, created this piece for Griffin. I brought it back the next day and presented it to him. He said that the design was not what he was hoping for and that I had tossed it off too quickly. Could I take more time and make him a nametag miniature that would really be impressive?
This was the first attempt, the one Griffin rejected:



And a few weeks later, this is what I sent to Griffin as a final. This second Griffin was derived not from heraldic drawings as the first one was, but from a fantastic engraving by Albrecht Durer. I copied from the best. Mr. Client was very pleased. This is how I learned my lesson early, not to rush things on a job when I didn't have to, and not to present art that was too simple and quickly done.



Both miniatures are the usual size, ink and watercolor on Fabriano paper, February and March 1977.

1 comment:

emikk said...

Haste makes waste, er, at least not as good of product!