I Carved a Dinosaur Skull out of a Single Giant Log

Hey guys, welcome back for another carving video. So we are starting a project today that I have been waiting to start for months now. Like months now. I am so excited. I can't even explain it. I've been so ready for this one. Anyway, before I even tell you what we're doing, look at this canvas. This giant log came to me, I think two years ago. It's a 96-year-old eastern white pine. It's 42 inches in diameter. Really blessed to get my hands on this one. But it's going to be a perfect canvas for our prehistoric carving that we're starting today. And you know what? I'm going to leave it at that. But this entire thing is going to be a creature's head. It's going to be a big head. Let's get started. So hopefully by this point you can tell that this is indeed a dinosaur. Specifically a Triceratops. I've always loved dinosaurs. I've always been a big dinosaur nerd. I was a little girl that had back-to-back dinosaur themed birthday parties. So when a client reached out with this Triceratops order, I was over the moon. Oh my goodness. I could not wait to get to this project. So yeah, I was sitting on this huge log for a long time, just waiting for the right order to come along. And this was the order. This log wanted to be a Triceratops. If you look closely, you can actually see the two big horns on his forehead are two branches that came out of the log. I was able to carve this entire skull out of this giant log, which is just crazy. No add-ons. So this Triceratops skull is going to be mounted on the client's wall. So this is a very large head mount. How crazy? That's why I made that weird flat cut in the back. It will all make sense later, but stick around because this project turned out really awesome. I am so happy with how this piece turned out. So I hope you enjoy watching the process. Let's get back to it. So we are back working on our skull, but I got something really cool up at the... It's a little museum replica. So this is going to be really helpful for the teeth, that little beak thing, just getting that nasal cavity and all that fun skull-y stuff, you know, in the right spot. So we have our skull here. Boop. So I've been out here this morning doing some little final touches on the skull. Just made some indents here in the nasal cavity and popped in what I'm going to call those ear holes. I don't know what they actually are. That's probably what they're for, maybe. But it's all hollowed out and everything. It was really hard to hollow out in there. But now we're going to be starting the daunting task of cleaning this thing up, sanding it and everything. Yeah, we got a lot of sanding to do. Let's go. So today is a big day. We are going to start the torching and coloration process on this big Triceratops skull. So interesting fun fact, which I actually didn't know until I was talking with this client, who helps dig up fossils for a living. How cool is that? But natural dinosaur fossils are actually like a really, really rich, deep brown. So we're going to try our best to mimic that with a combination of torching, some flap sanding, and some darker stains. So whenever you see those, like, white bones, dinosaur bones, they're almost always casts, like they're casts of the real bones, or they're bleached. So we're going to try to mimic a real natural dinosaur fossil. So it's going to be really, really pretty. I'm between cedar tone and dark oak for our colors. I'm thinking about starting with cedar tone, and then if that's not dark enough, we'll switch over to the dark oak. But most of the coloration is going to come from the torching. So let me set you up on the tripod. We're going to use the big blowtorch and try not to catch anything on fire. Let's go. Also, just one last glimpse of this thing in its beautiful raw wood state. This has seriously been such an amazing canvas. Look at that wood grain. I think the torch is going to really make it pop. It's going to be like a rainbow on that frill. So cool. Let's go. So I bought myself an electric paint spray to speed up sealing the carvings. So this is going to be my first time using it. I was just playing around, and it seems like it's going to be an amazing addition. So we are going to start oiling up our triceratops skull. This is a pretty dry log, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's four coats. So let's get the first coat on. That would have taken me at least an hour and a half. This is something I should have got years ago. Well, guys, that's it for today's video. I hope you enjoyed this one because I enjoyed this one. If any of you out there watching this want me to carve you a dragon or a dinosaur, you hit me up because I love doing stuff like this. But if you're watching this on the release date, Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy time with your friends and family, and I'll catch you in the next video. Bye.