Every sculpture starts off the same way in which it is finished - "very sloooowly". You can see in this photo that the painstaking removal process has begun. I often relate this to an archeologist removing centuries of debris from their subject forms with the excitement of revelation!

One noteworthy topic here is stone size. Traditional stone sculpture (sans machines) is most difficult when the stone is smaller. The lack of "real estate" leaves the sculptor with very little room for error. Also this presents a challenge with perspective in that often there must be intentional optical illusions planned to adjust for depth and light contrast.