carving bulldog toothpick holder

[Dragonkort]

ok, iv started carving on the first bull dog tooth pick holder, now bear in mind that I don't know what im doing here lol  Im just sort of playing it by ear and winging it. lol that's pretty much how I do everything lol just in case you hadn't noticed that  by now I  figured id just mention it. lol  so anyway I have several views of what iv been doing. not sure if this is how your suppose to do it but what iv been doing is lowering and trying to sort of round over the body.  the top picture shows the back of the dog rounded over and lower then the legs/feet.  I haven't really done much with the legs and feet other than just trying to shape them a little bit as I lower the body so they kind of sort of stick out and  stand out. Iv started cutting in-between the front legs as far as I could go with the scroll saw and one of my dermal cutting tools...I have to see if I can find one of the hand saws....even though weve been here 5 years there are still some boxes that were never unpacked! lol we just sort of look into them every now and then when we need something and we cant find it. lol this is the front view under the words here, you really cant see it to wel but iv tried to cut into the mouth a bit to make the teeth.  I had wanted to sharpen them into a point but so far there just little notches, im hoping to find a tool in my dermal kit small enough to try to bring the teeth to a point, now if I cant do that im hoping painting them will make them look like teeth. the next picture shows one side of  the dog, you can see iv tried to round over the mouth a bit and im still trying to round over the whole body to make it look like a bull dog. the rest of the pictures pretty much show the same thing. you might notice a bit of wood sticking up a bit between the head and body thats where the collar is, im trying to round it over and sort of flatten it a bit. i plan on taking the ends off of tooth picks and inserting them into the collor to make little spikes on the collor.. iv seen lots of pictures of bull dogs with this kind of collor... i even have a crocheted spiked collor on henery. Only thing is henerys hair is so long your cant really see it! lol  so ok that's what iv done with it so far, now all you expert woodworkers can give me tips hints and hopefuly instructions on what to do next... lol what i may have done right as well as what iv done wrong lol this is a learning process for me as this is the first time iv ever tried to carve something that didn't come from a compund cut first so most of the shapeing is already done for me and with out having some one around to redraw detail lines on the piece so i know what to do next. and remember to brutly honest!  i cant fix things or get better at something if i dont have anyone telling me how im doing... and thank you to everybody in advance!!!  

[amazingkevin]

Whoa! I,m impressed with your work here!!!

[Dragonkort]

lol well thank you kevin, but that dosnt help as far as getting information on what to do next! lol i know im going to have to try to find the pattern i printed out again so i can see what detail lines and things i need to do lol but of course i have no idea yet as to how to go about doing the detail work lol  i think im ready to start trying to do some detai work...but i could be wrong lol  im not sure if i should try to lower the body a little bit more so the legs / feet stand out more or not, bulldogs are not skinny animals and of course the more i lower the body the skinner this little fellow gets lol  guess ill find out what i'll try next when mcgiver comes on tv since on saterdays and sundays are the days i spend most of my time in the wood shop. lol i like watching tv so of course theres a lot of shows i like and spike dosnt allow woodworking in the living room ...well that makes him sound like a dictator dosnt it!!! lol not nice of me at all lol rather he would perfer i dont do woodworking in the livingroom!!! some of those tools can be pretty loud!lol even if i only use the power tools during comercals!! not to mention the sawdust that gets in the rugs and furturer lol

[amazingkevin]

Maybe Spike will lighten up some if you keep burning his chow!!! Worked for my friends wife. They order out for pizza alot .Hah I use all my tools on my desk dinner table and when finished eating I just use the air hose to clean it off,Lol send Spike down here , I,LL break him in and send him back lol with table manners,lol

[Dragonkort]

lol I do often remind him that I am NOT a barbeun!! I am a lady lol but he is pretty good with most things.....and im just starting to cook again but not as much as I used to..lol he introduced me to tv dinners !!! and foods you just have to pop into the microwave and heat up!! lol we have both changed a bit since he moved it....he can now cook some simple little things with  out my help and hes learned to become a cooks assistant!! and iv learned hey you don't always have to cook from scratch!! lol