Ambigrams! 2

Note: High resolution images of some of the following photos are available. These photos are marked with [HiRes] tags in their captions. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

I designed a few ambigrams when I first came to UK.

I no longer create ambigrams, but there happened to be one more ambigram I'm particularly fond of which was designed after the Ambigrams post in September 2009.

[HiRes] The first draft. The bottom half is the flipped image of the top.

This is the first draft of the ambigram. I was very satisfied with it, despite the fact that, being hand-drawn, the left and right halves aren't exactly mirror-match of each other.

I then drew another one, featured on the letter I sent home to mum.

Second draft. This appeared on the letter I sent home to mum in October. Notice the grid lines I drew to help achieve better match between the two halves.

This photo was taken before it was done. However, I never got to finish my work -- my marker pen inconveniently ran out of ink. In the end, mum had to get my unevenly shaded version of the ambigram, which is worse than the second draft.

Then I took the second draft and edited it in GIMP, the open-source photo-editing software.

[HiRes] Final version of the ambigram. Derived from the second draft. Slightly shorter and fatter, however, to make horizontal strokes thinner.

I assure you that this version is completely symmetrical -- I only redid the left half, which is then copied, flipped, and overlapped with the right. Only the words "FLIP" and the big red seal weren't mirrored.

Funnily enough, editing the ambigram with GIMP took much more time than designing the ambigram itself. And, Beyonce's Halo was playing when I was tinting the golden circlet.

Whether you like (or even able to see what word it is at all) the ambigram, I don't care. It is my favourite so far, and I've rarely spent this much time with any single piece of artwork other than Chinese calligraphy.

If you do like it, thanks very much! If you don't, well, at least you know you can expect few more (if at all) from me anymore.

PS. This image is currently my desktop background.