HAIDA KILLER WHALE

I have recently completed another Haida design.  It is painted on a beautiful plank of locally grown Western maple. I have had the piece of wood for a year or more letting it speak to me and over and over again it said. "I am a whale"  This plank if free of knots and holes and the wood grain is subtle, so my design could be pretty straightforward. The wood measures about 35" x 15".

The Killer Whale is one of my family totems and so I thought it would be a special design for us.

 I started with many, many drawings, bits of design and fragments of anatomy and finally put the concept on a large sheet of craft paper. I had covered the piece of wood with the paper and traced it's outline, so I knew where my design had to fit.

I used carbon paper to trace my design onto the maple. Then I began painting with black acrylic paint.

I needed to thin the black paint so that it would glide across the wood and so I knew it would take two coats.

After I painted in the red design element this is what it looked like.  A killer whale can be identified by its blowhole, teeth, pectoral and dorsal fins and tail.

 The finished piece.  KILLER WHALE