[rickm]

Hi, I've been lurking around here for awhile. I love carving the little guys, but I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for some, pics or links. I dont want to search the whole internet to find ideas. If someone wants to share some pics etc I can go from there. I thought there was a compilation on this web site someplace???

[mikeg]

Jack Price has a great book on carving little guys called "Carving Compact Characters". It's a how-to book with some ideas in it. He also has a book called "50 Character Patterns" which is just what it sounds like, for little guys. His characters are generaly 1x1x2-3".

mikeg

[Robert Cahill]

I have Jack Prices book on Carving Small characters and in my opinion it is a great book. On the Tutorial link on this site Gene has put three or four great tutorials for us on little guys

[gene messer]

Rick .. I have been doing little guys for awhile and love them ..

Robert and Mike are dead on about Jack Prices book and instruction .. He is the grandfather of small characters ..
But may I recommend one thing .. Jack carves 2 inch characters and if you are not experienced with carving small guys yet .. 2 inch is a little tough at first ... awful small and close to the fingers for a beginner .. Iam not sure how much experience you have in carving small guys ...

But if your just starting .. may I recommend for first pieces .. 3 0r 4 inch guys at first .. untill you get the hang of it ..

You can really minaturize any larger carving pattern and do a small figure with a copy machine ..

But I normally do 3 inch figures now more then ever ..

Below is a series of 3 and 4 inch characters I did from the one pattern that I just altered the pattern for .. You can make a lot of little guys out of just one pattern ..

I hope this help's in some way ..

God Bless

Gene

[Claude]

RickM:
Another way is to search this forum for "little guys". Look for the "Search" link on the green bar above the posts - put in "little guys" and see what you get. You can practice using any of mine, and I suspect that if you are not planning on selling, most of the other carvers won't mind if you copy one of theirs for practice. Also, click on Gene's name in the just to the right of his avatar, then select "Show all posts by" and you'll see all the posts by Gene - go down through this and look for the ones Gene has started, and many of them have pictures of little guys.

If you find a carving on here you'd like to copy for practice, it's usually good manners to send a private message to the original carver and ask permission - most will likely grant permission.

Claude

[rickm]

sell? I am lucky to complete sommething without cutting my fingers off!!
No, strictly a carver for myself, and personal satisfaction. Most of what I do I would be ashamed to put up for a price.
I appreciate the feedback, more than you know, and will check out the advice.
Gene I love your Santa in your avatar. In fact most of the stuff I see here i love, but believe me I have along way to go before anything I do is taken seriously.

[brushpilecarvings]

Carving Small Caricatures by Jack Price is a GREAT book. The Jack Price 50 Caricatures Patterns CD is really good. I bought it a few weeks ago, and I'm impressed. One good aspect of it, is each pattern has color photos of the finished carving along with it. And the patterns are bigger (they need to be resized to get to the proper size that is listed), but for starting carvers, this is a big help. It will let you start big, and work your way down.

Gene's tutorials really help as well. His step-by-step instruction makes it VERY easy to follow.