Carving the Little Guys: Easy Techniques for Beginning Woodcarvers (Fox Chapel Publishing) Skill-Building Introduction to the Art of Caricature Carving: Wood, Tools, Sharpening, Finishing, & More

Good instructions nice and clear easy to follow for beginners

As a complete novice I found the instructions easy to follow when viewed alongside the pictures (which clarify things the text omits). The Little Guy on the left took me an afternoon, checking the instructions often. The Little Guy on the right took a couple of hours (no face to carve). Painting took a little while as I let it dry between colours. The section on honing knives is very informative and I was glad of proper gloves as I would have a few injuries without them! It was fun to see the character take shape. If I can do it, anyone can!!!

Good book for beginners but the end character face didn’t look right hardest part to do is the face but not a lot covered on that .can anyone tell me if the face in the finished piece is not finished and that the author has left it blank so people can just make there own faces the way they want

I'm just beginning to whittle and found this book most useful, it goes through all the techniques from carving to painting your finished piece. Completely satisfied and I am getting better because of it. Good starter guide!!

This was a great book for me as a beginner. It's a good incite and to learn the skills needed for a caracture. These skills can then be built upon.

A good guide but just as your getting the idea it STOPS!!!!!! The picture on the front is of all sorts but instruction end before you have a finished guy!!!!

Very good and quite easy

A brief introduction into whittling, the type of knives, wood, and how to hone your knife. The actual cutting methods are provided in photograph form, and uses many of these to create the little character you see on the front page being held in between two fingers. A very basic book which does no more than provide information you could find on most web sites. Having said that it is well presented and will act as a reference guide always.

... you like to learn the basics, then quickly branch out into doing your own thing, or experimenting. If you are looking for "insert Tab A into Slot B" instructions for every Little Guy pictured on the cover, you may not like this. As other reviewers noted, the book is thin - only 31 pages. But the majority of that is taken up with detailed instructions for how to carve one Little Guy, complete with large, detailed pictures. Then there are several pages of information on how to modify that basic form into anything you want (with more good, clear pictures). That's what I love best about it! I've never been very good at doing the simpler, beginner pieces when learning a new hobby. I always want to jump ahead to something of my own design. It's a curse, and has caused me a lot of grief in the past, as sometimes I'm not ready, skill-wise, to do that, and I end up frustrated. But this book is set up perfectly for that. You learn the basics on the detailed project, then you can take off on your own, modifying and experimenting, with tips from the book. Will I screw up a lot of Little Guys before I start getting them the way I want them? Probably. But that's okay! It's part of the process of learning any new skill. And just to reiterate, it's not a total free-for-all - the basic instructions are very detailed and more than sufficient to get you on your way. I am a brand new carver with no past experience and no particularly inherent skill at it, but my first Little Guy turned out pretty darned good - not as good as the book's example, but way better than I expected - following those first detailed instructions. A note about wood, in case anyone is doing what I did. I saw this book on another website sold as a kit, with 9 blocks of basswood to carve the Little Guys. I only came here initially to read reviews on the book (as the other site didn't have any). I thought maybe those blocks of wood were specially selected to be the exact size you needed to carve Little Guys, and it might save me the trouble of finding some place to buy wood. But it was pricey ($20 for the kit, so about $11 just for the wood). In the end I decided to buy the book from Amazon and wait and see what the requirements were for wood. I'm glad I did. That kit was pointless, as the author recommends starting with blocks that are 1" x 1" by 2" - and none of the blocks in the kit were that size anyway. I got a bag of different size basswood blocks from my local Michael's Craft Store for about $5 or $6 and they are perfect for carving these guys. (They ranged from 1 x 1 1/2 to 1 x 2, and I did trim them to 1x1 using a bandsaw, but you could trim them with any small saw, or just carve the extra bits away, or just make your Little Guy a slightly different size). The author recommends starting with basswood because it's easy to carve (true!) but also says you can use anything carveable, and recommends experimenting with found wood - I love that concept, and not being told I HAVE TO buy such and such particular, expensive piece of something in order to do this. In theory, except for a good knife, you could carve a village full of Little Guys (and Gals) without spending another dime. That's my kind of hobby. So, to sum up, if you're okay with learning some very detailed basic instructions, then moving on to experimenting, this book couldn't be better. I can't wait to try all the ideas I have, and since they're adorably small and inexpensive to make, I can experiment to my heart's content without breaking the bank. I'm really, really glad I got this book, and have a feeling it will amuse me and keep me busy for a long time. (Little Guys are addicting!)

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The book explains well but it has only one project. I thought all the figures on the cover page would be shown. For only one project the price is too much, only 29 pages!

Easy to read instructions for teaching woodcarving. Great information to vary characture features.

Genial. Aunque esta en inglés se entiende fácil porque trae muchas fotos. Recomendable