EDIT: If you want to know how to commission one of these pet portrait carvings for yourself, just fill out the form on the Contact Me page and we can chat about process and timeline. These are popular!

Say hello to Tamarack and Sarabee, my latest pet dog sculpture. A beloved spruce tree in an Anchorage resident’s front yard fell this last winter. The resident wanted to commemorate the tree with something special and ended up contacting me about using the thickest part of the tree to make two wood carvings of the household canines and I was happy to oblige!

This is a short video showing the start to finish process. The carvings were made from 4 or 5 photos of each dog. Its fun to watch them come to life :)

Here's a short video showing the coloration process using a blowtorch and sanding tools. I burn the wood for the darker shades and then cut the char away for the lighter areas.

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Click or tap on these thumbnails to see more photos of details and pose. I do put a premium on likeness and overall impression and invest the attention and time needed to achieve this result. It’s worth it for your precious fur babies! ;)

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What do you think? Is there a certain breed of dog you’d love to have carved in wood? Let me know or leave a comment below. Thanks :)

After finishing up these facial details I quit for the day. The following morning I re-did all of them….

It can be hard to honestly say that it simply isn't right, especially after I've already spent time on finishing details. True resemblance demands the scrutiny though and when I returned to this one after a night's sleep I knew for sure this malemute had the snout of a bear and the eyes of a boxer (the human kind, AFTER a fight). It could easily pass as a generic dog, but didn't look enough like THE dog I was making. Fortunately there was still room in the piece to find the final form I wanted, I just had to get over taking so many steps (and hours) back in time.

The snout was too short- so I pushed the eyes back about 3/4". The eyelids were too puffy- so I mellowed those out and made the eyebrows bunchier and closer to the nose bridge. The nose end was too round and the upper lips were too far forward- trim away. Not enough smile- so I extended the cheeks back and opened the lower jaw a bit more. Once the changes started happening I could tell I'd made the right choices and it was super fun to watch the dog I was looking for show up! The process is always so rewarding.

An illustration of the amount of elongation I achieved with the snout.

The left eye shows the new shape I was going for vs. the original on the right.

Re-doing the right eye to match the left. I’ll admit this photo kind of gives me the creeps…..

Ta-DAAA! Much better. :)