Practice!

Another one of my Standards came in today quite fluffly, so I used it as a chance to try out some of the techniques I want to use for Rocky.  The pictures are a little bad, the sunlight is streaming in the windows and making a lot of glare, but here's some shots.

When she first arrived:

Very fluffy and definitely looking a little chubby (which she is anyway, but that's part of the challenge!)


After the rough in:

I used a number of blades and combs to blend this through.  The belly and groin were shaved completely with a #10.  I used a #1-#2 comb around the rest of the underline and up around the hip curve.  Other combs were used to blend the ribcage down from the widest part of the back, giving an appearance of flatter sides.  Shorter combs were used to blend around the hip curve, giving a more drastic appearance to the difference between the belly and the rear thigh.  I flattened out the area from the top point of the hip bone on the back to the tail.  Short combs were used to remove most of the hair from the back of the rear thigh from hip bone to hock bone.  The bulk of the thigh area was flattened down with medium combs.

I'll finish off with some scissor work, but already she has a much more pleasing outline than when she arrived, so I think this is the path I'm going to take with Rocky as well.

After a bath and final scissoring.  Pictures are at a terrible angle due to the sun glare.

Definitely had much better luck with the rear-end angles.  She was scrunched up funny so you can't see the topline very well.  The underline is very pleasing.  Viewed from front and back she also looked nice and lean after flattening out the hips, ribs, and shoulders.  Overall a good session.