I wanted to make a sort of 18th century folk art, maritime painting of a narwhal.
Narwhals, the unicorns of the sea, are closely related to porpoises. Males have a tooth growing out of their upper lip that may allow for increased sensitivity to oceanic information. Imagine the teething process!
The scientific name is Monodon monoceros, "one-tooth one-horn". Narwhal comes from the Old Norse word nár, meaning "corpse", like the color of a drowned sailor (thanks Wikipedia).