Mermaid Piece part 4

Last weekend my brother and his wife held a party in honor of their new daughter, who will eventually be receiving this mermaid sculpture.  I used the occasion to show them the progress to that point and ask a few questions.  One thing that was settled was the use of color- it was decided that we'd just leave the wood natural, relying on shapes and textures to describe everything.

The last week has been mostly occupied with a new job, but I'm off for the weekend and decided to get back into the Studio, this time bringing more tools than last time.  That included stopping at a store to by a new saw.  since I couldn't find my old keyhole saw and I needed something with a long narrow blade to cut out some of the awkward tight spaces in the design.  As demonstrated last time, I could have done the task gradually with a utility knife, but this seemed like it would be a lot faster.

And it was.  In less than an hour I had removed the chunk of wood above the arms and to the left of the starfish, completing my mermaid silhouette.  The rest of this process will be done with sandpaper and my woodcut gouges.