What are a couple of simple tricks to make a simple wood carving look more polished and professional?
Okay the first obvious point to make here is that the thing that will make any piece of art - including a wood carving - look more professional is the quality of the art!  That means the skill and the artistic quality that goes into it, specifically.  But there are a couple things you can do to dress it up a bit - think about your school days and sliding that english paper into a fresh new folder with a carefully penned title on the front. So back to wood carving.  What can you do?  Let's say you've carved yourself a nice salmon complete with fens and gill lines.  Well here are three ways to dress it up.  First and most obvious  - paint it.  You can go for detail paint or you can use more of a water color approach that will give the wood a colored wash.  The sky is really the limit here.  Second, you mount it on a stand so it floats about the ground.  Drill a small whole in the bottom of the fish, do the same in a wood block you've sanded up and you have s stand.  Third and a bit more out there - consider if there are simple additions you can add.  I made an angler fish and used a drive flower with stem as the attached antenna.  Look around and think about what you can add to your project.  Last and most basic, put a coat of varnish on it to seal it up - and if you choose give it a bit of shine.  All these ideas will give a little bit of extra finish and pop to your project.