Help with German Shepherd pattern

[MrFTAMan]

Thank you so much, Ike! It will work. I will post the finished project soon.
Again, thank you!

[Alan Malmstrom]

That photo would be a hard one to turn into a really super nice pattern for carving because the dog has a lot of color in its fur. Since height maps determine dark as high and light as low it would be hard to get any information from the photo to be used in the creation of the height map. If I were to try and turn that into a pattern I would make the smooth facial features into a rounded object and then add fur manually by drawing it before kind of like plastering it onto the form. Hair cannot be carved with a 1/16 bit but it would add some texture to the carve. Manually etching of fur using a wire brush or chisel might help to create the look of fine fur before staining and finishing.

Profile photos work much better for carving as compaired to straight-on portraits becouse the eye can see and interprate the profile lines, thus making the final product more recongnizable. For instance a photo of a dog running can be carved into wood and the eye recongnizes the dog in motion and it has a more pronounced effect.

Alan

[Ike]

Thank you so much, Ike! It will work. I will post the finished project soon.
Again, thank you!

Glad I could help, you can always paint in the detail. I was just trying to smooth it out. In the future if you need a pattern made I will be happy to try to help!

Ike