Carving the Whittle Pup

Slimming down

The dog's a little bit too fat, so we need to slim him down a bit. This won't be the final slimming, but doing a little slimming now will help with the next few steps.

Using your knife, you want to flatten the sides of the figure so that they're even with the depth lines. It's okay if you go a little bit deeper than the depth lines, but don't go too far. And take your time. Remember, thin slicing cuts. If you try to take too much off at once, you'll end up taking off a huge chunk.

When you're done flattening the sides, take a moment to refresh the lines with your pencil. Extend the center line from the nose to the feet, and redraw the side lines that you just carved away.

Now is a good time to strop your knife. Remember, you want to keep that blade sharp. Regular stropping will help prevent you from damaging the edge and forcing you to go back to the stone for sharpening.