Starting the Beaver

I decided to start on one of the more complicated animals today. The beaver is very stylized on Totems. They are characterized by their two long front teeth and they are always holding a stick. The children had depicted this in paint but I had to think how to carve it.

I found this picture of a Totem Beaver, and decided to base my work on it.



I blew the picture up to the size needed and then copied the basic shapes freehand onto the surface. This surface will definitely cause problems if I try to put in very much fine detail, so providing the basic shapes are there, the detail may have to be painted.

I started on the eyes and nose because they are the parts that 'fix' other details.
This is as far as I got today:



Approx 1.5 hours