The whiskers have been added and the whole carving (with the eyes masked) was sprayed with an acrylic matte finish for protection.
Painting Changes 04-19-09
The white has been toned down a lot with more brown and more beige tones .
Some Changes .. 04-16-09
I recarved some of the mouth area and retextured it; repainted to tone down some of the white and the pink on the nose. When I add the whiskers, there will be a little bit more painting to do and that will tone down the white a bit more.
More Painting…04-14-09
Several more thin washes have reduced the red tones. Highlight details have been added.
More Painting
A little more painting is done here. Except for detail, I’m using several thin washes to build up the color.
Texturing is completed
It has taken a good amount of time, but finally the texturing is completed. I used 3 different size V-tools and the skew tip on the wood burner followed by a good rubbing with Scotch-Brite synthetic steel wool and a brush to remove any particles left behind. Next step will be painting.
Since the filler used to set the eyes in doesn’t burn well, I thought I would upload a closeup showing that the area is, in fact, textured. I used a 1mm V-tool.
Update 03-04-09 We have EYES!
The eyes have been set in with wood putty and I am in the process of modeling and shaping the filler.
Lots more texturing! Getting there!
The eyes have not really been set in here…they are just loosely placed in the sockets. I thought it looked a lot less eerie than it did without any eyes 
