Just take a fingerplane:
(mostly just the second one from the left) and slowly plane away the wood until the top carve begins to take shape. The pics you see now, the top carve is still not completely finished. There is still a bit of clean up to do, and as I get closer and closer to what I think is the final carve, I will spray sand and sealer on it so that i can see any high spots or dips or chips in the carve.