Welcome, Richard
I started into carving a couple years ago by taking some classes. It was mostly architectural stuff - fans, shells, acanthus leaf, ball & claw feet - and I learned a lot, but those were not the type of carvings I really wanted to do.
Fortunately for me, my carving instructor left after I had him and has been replaced by a guy who worked at Knott's Berry Farm for 15-20 years. He did all the carvings in the park plus put on demos constantly. He also worked at Disney World in FL for a couple years. So I'm "repeating" the classes and finally working more on what interests me. I'm now doing a bust of Chief Velarde, an Apache Chief. I've actually stopped the woodcarving to work instead on sculpting my piece in clay. Never done that before, but it'll be easier, more forgiving and cheaper than making [more] mistakes in a big chunk of basswood.
O.K., here's my pics. Your turn.
Mike