Songwriter of the Sea Print

Humpback whales can grow up to 60 ft in lengths and can be heard for miles for their songs. Once I was scuba diving in Hawaii and heard what I assume was noise from the boats above echoing below. It wasn't until I listened to the GoPro videos later did I hear the noise was actually a whale's beautiful song! It turns out it was migrating season and their songs, which can last up to 30 minutes or so, will be repeated over and over again over the course of hours or even days to identify themselves and communicate with others, even miles away. I was so inspired from learning this that I recreated one of these majestic creatures surrounded by a semi-abstract background with "echoes" of their songs represented by blue waves and bubbles I created. I used a mask against the shape of the whale to first create the vibrant swirling blue background with droppers, sprays and brushes with alcohol ink, then once dry removed the mask and added in details of the whale with the same ink techniques but on a micro-detailed scale. The synthetic paper I used prevents the inks from being absorbed, allowing the bold colors and vibrant details to show through.