May 112011
 

After not carving much for a while for various reasons, I decided to enjoy the nice sunny afternoon with a piece of basswood.  I took a 1″ X 1″ X 3″ piece of basswood and my carving knife outside and sat on the porch swing that my wife made a few years ago.

I used the corner of the block to start laying out a face and carved the nose first.  Next came the eyes and then the mouth mound.  I originally planned on doing an animated mouth, but as the project progressed, the face seemed to lend itself to a long hanging mustache and beard.

After I got the face to look like I wanted, I then took a small 1mm v-tool and carved the detail of the mustache and beard, along with some eyebrows and small crows feet on the corner of the eyes.

Here is what I carved while enjoying about an hour of sunshine and fresh air.  Let me know what you think of this little guy.

Old man carved in basswood