The Narwhal part 6

I needed to see Nichole today to settle some things with the classes I'll be teaching there this summer (and we did have that meeting, so I'll be sharing that information soon), but I figure a visit to the Studio should also include some time working on art, so I brought with me some woodcut tools and ideas.  The project for today was continuing work on the Narwhal project.

Last time I had decided to fill part of the empty space above my subject with the underside of an iceberg.  This is partly logical, as these creatures mostly live in arctic waters, and one of the leading natural killers of narwhals is getting trapped underneath masses of ice.  All well and good, but I had no idea what the bottom of an iceberg actually looks like. I do know that the part we see (the so called "tip of the iceberg") is just a small part of the whole thing.  So I turned to the internet and found an assortment of photos. Most of what I found showed objects that were more tall than broad, perhaps because many icebergs are formed by shearing off glaciers.  And they seem to look like rock formations.  I brought all this knowledge with me.

This narwhal won't be trapped underneath that ice- there's room for him to reach the air on either side.  Again, color will have an effect on the final pieces.  But for now I carved it to look like a rocky upside down mountain, with fissures that emphasize the verticality, or would really do so if the final piece was taller.  What is left is to finish cutting out the light parts in the water, than the details of the anchor and chain.  Then I can ink this thing up and see what I got.