The long way round, Humpback Whale
Character Studies, Limited Edition Lino Print
£45.00
The long way round, Humpback Whale
Limited Edition Lino Print
A humpback covers thousands of miles between feeding and breeding grounds, and does it in a near perfect straight line.
One crossed over a thousand miles of open ocean, through currents that should have pushed her all over the place and her course changed by less than half a degree. The long way round it seems, is not wandering at all. It is the most direct route available to something that has to go that far.
Theres a bit of a problem when drawing something so massive however, its just too much creature.
When you want to capture the full spectacle of it but also those tiny details like the barnacles on its skin that make it so recognisable. What ends up happening is all sense of scale and awe gets lost and it feels like a diagram rather than a moment with personality. So, a bit like the whales own migration, being the longest of any mammal, I also took the long way round I guess, to end up with a composition that actually is what I think we all imagine when contemplating seeing a humpback whale.
