While trawling the carving groups I ran across several people talking about and carving their own versions of this little guy. I was immediately drawn to the caricature and knew I would have to try one myself.
I looked up the You-Tuber Ddalo (the originator of the design) and watched their video to get the basic proportions. In a moment of madness, I grabbed an end-grain scrap block of basswood that happened to be the size I needed. Was some of the hardest carving I have done in a long time!! Just proves the point about that you DON’T want to do most of your carving across the grain!! I actually managed to nick the edge of one of my favorite knives and had to for the first time put the blade to a stone to repair the edge.
I love this design, there is so much you can do with it to alter expressions etc.! I will definitely be carving more of these, though with “properly” oriented grain. Just not worth fighting the grain, it roughens the cuts and nearly doubles the time and effort needed.