Block of Indiana limestone, about 300 pounds when I started. Client wanted a torso, waist up, no arms. Simple. I roughed it in with the saw and a point chisel and it sat in the shop three weeks while I did a rail job.

Went back at it Monday and the shoulder line is wrong. Not crooked, wrong. I took the ridge too far back on the left side and now the whole thing reads like it's turning away from you when it should be squared up. I know exactly where I went wrong too. I was matching the drawing instead of the stone and the stone didn't have that much there.

Two options. Take 3/4 of an inch off the right shoulder to match and lose the mass I wanted, or build up the left with a dutchman and hope the seam doesn't show when it's dry. I've done both before. The patch has held on pieces twenty years old, but you can always find it if you look, and this one's going to get raked light across it in the client's entry.

What I keep coming back to is that the "wrong" version might be the better piece. Turning away is more interesting than squared up. But I didn't carve it on purpose and I don't know if I can trust that.

Anyway. Cutting tomorrow either way. Stone's already paid for.