It's About Time: progress post one

So far on my "It's About Time" project, I have created my design and I am starting to carve it. The first picture is of my drawing of it on the wood and some of the cuts I made to just get a feel for using the tools. Right now I am just carving general shapes. One of my bigger challenges so far has been to not cut too deep on the edges because when I do, the wood splinters and a much bigger piece than I wanted ends up coming off. I'm getting better at carving more carefully in those areas but I mess up sometimes. Luckily its in an area that I'm planning on carving even deeper. Whenever I make a cut that looks good and is nice and smooth, it is very satisfying although after a while it's also very tiring. I'm finally getting to some areas where I can start to work on carving out a sharp edge to make depth which is exciting but I still have to cut much deeper in some areas.