drawing in a grid

my paradise: to me paradise is an abstract concept, not a physical place with sunshine, tropical fish, hot guys, perpetual summer etc etc. so i chose two persian words and distorted them, and then combined them together to form an abstract composition that represents my paradise. i first looked at a couple of traditional calligraphy.

some examples:





initial study for the words:



secondary study



for the rivers i applied the same method of distortion, this time more literal, so someone who can read persian may be able to make out one or two of the words. the words are the names of the four rivers in the "paradise".

they are:
سیردَریا
آمودریا
فُرات
نیل



for the animals and plants, i thought i might be a bit more literal, so i looked at how animals are represented on persian carpets:






and my interpretation: