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Alligators don't really have a lot of positions to work with when designing a layout. They lack flexibility in there body structure so that the variety of realistic positions they can be placed into are rather limited.
For example, have you ever seen an alligator sitting like a dog, or standing on there rear legs like a horse can? No, they are horizontal at all times. Or at least they are when they are on land where they can be seen. Even when standing on all four legs, they are only a few inches off the ground. The tail because of it's massive muscle structure is not as flexible as in most animals and therefore lacks the freedom of expression that can be found in, lets say, a cat's tail.
 If you observe
alligators, crocodiles and there ilk in a zoo, or even in photos, you will quickly notice that the preferred position for the alligator to place his tail, is in a lazy curve shape, trailing out
behind his body as show in Fig. 1A. You will also notice that the tail comprises almost half the length of the entire animal. This can present something of a dilemma when
artistically representing the creature in sculpture. The problem is not in the execution but rather in the layout dealing with the tail's cumbersome nature. In fact laying out
the figure as it appears in Fig. 1B is far simpler to do than making the figure more compact as shown in my drawing in Fig.1C. But the alligator design layout in Fig. 1B is
problematic primarily because of length, half of the animal is tail. Because of this, any large representation, becomes
unwieldily to handle and requires special consideration to install. If it is made close to life size it will approach lengths
of ten to twelve feet. At that length it could present an obstacle for persons to have to walk around or even become a tripping hazard.
 For this reason I prefer to design rangy pieces of this nature in a more compact fashion. In this case
by devising a design that brings the tail back to the body allows for more convenient placement of the sculpture while maintaining a realistic albeit more interesting positioning. In addition the sculpture is
much more easily moved and transported. But doing this involves the tail with the development of the body and therefore serves to complicate the visual logistical placement of all appendages. For instance in Fig. 1C,
the white square in which the alligator is placed, can be considered to represent the actual wood from which the alligator is carved. From this you can see that the figure of the alligator has been displaced to accommodate the
tail as it returns back to the body. The width of the material, or the diameter of the log needs to be increased for this
positioning. But the reward is great, for the reasons already stated above. The result yields a ten foot long alligator in an actual length of 6 ft.
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This layout enables a larger representative alligator for the space allotted. Procuring the necessary wood for any
project is the obvious first step. For this sculpture design I have selected and cut a log section measuring 6 ft. 3 in. long with a diameter of 30 inches at the small end.
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