Roughing the Outside of the Belly

Today I roughed the outside of the belly. Took two hours. I started with my trusty wooden plane. I've heard that gouges are faster for roughing, but I have two problems with that. One is that my bench wanders too much for real heavy work. Rough gouging just doesn't work. The other is fear. I'm not afraid of much. Don't care for heights too much, but that's about it. But I don't want to have the gouge go in and tear out a big chunk while I'm hacking away with it in roughing mode. I've had a few close calls with flamed backs that just barely cleaned up. Some people I have worked with were always afraid of finish cuts. Take a cut, take another, take another, take another, maybe another and cross their fingers. I always put my trust in my machine, at least the ones I could trust, and broke it down into 2-3 cuts of the same depth and in most cases it worked. There were the few jobs where the boring bar was too flimsy, the steel too hard, or the part itself refused to cooperate, but for the most part it works. Since being laid off I've put my trust is God, not myself. I didn't stop looking for work, and always assumed the job I sent a resume in for was mine, but I didn't worry about it. It kept my sanity, maybe drove my wife crazy, but I have a job now just 8 miles from the house that is maybe not perfect, (what is?) but not bad. I'd like to be that sure of my gouging.
After I rough it down some with the plane I use a large, fairly flat gouge. It works good on the spruce, but is too flexible for the back. I need to buy something else for that. Any suggestions? I use a thickness marker like the one Stradivarius had to show the thick spots and I carve all the dots out of it. I rough it first to 8mm all around, then I change to 6mm and avoid marking in the area where the catenary curve starts on the inside. That area I don't mark and just blend in in the the marks up higher and the marks near the edge.
This is just roughing. I do this with the wood still a rectangle so it is easy to clamp. Now I'm ready to rough saw it. It is much easier to saw now when it is 6-8mm thick all around the edge. Then it will look more like a violin belly.