I couldn’t resist adding a little sand texture to the smooth sand in front of the turtle. Just because I’m curious to see how things will eventually look. Behind his front flippers, I’ll eventually be adding in the turtle tracks as he/she books for the relative safety of the water, before the gulls spot him/her.
Also, I’ve begun carving the shell to make it look like it is round. Since this is low relief, it’s a little tricky to make things look right. There’s not much depth to work with, and it’s more than just carving away everything that doesn’t look like a turtle shell, so there’s a lot of taking off a little bit, then pulling my head out of the microscope and looking to see how it’s working. Then, lather, rinse, repeat until it looks like a turtle shell to the naked eye.
I’ve finished carving the shell
, using a combination of flat gravers and carbide burs. I finished up by using a smooth faced punch to move metal around and smooth everything over. Engravers call this “sculpting.”
Thanks for looking!