Custom Cedar Chest!

Here is the first of many posts to come, featuring the cedar chest project I'm starting. I've been commissioned to turn this solid chest into a lively "Dia de los Muertos" piece, complete with skull portraits, skeletal dogs, a winged sacred heart, roses, and coffin butterflies (you'll just have to wait and see what those look like). I'm excited and a little intimidated at the same time, because aside from murals, it will be the largest piece I've done. I'm working on phase one today, which involves repairing the wood damage (from a chew happy puppy), sanding, and prepping the entire piece to be painted with a base coat. I've globbed a large amount of wood filler on the damaged areas, where I hope to re-shape the missing corners...we shall see. I will post pics, once I've begun phase two!