New craft to learn

A friend of mine at work is a wood carver.  He makes little caricatures. I want to learn to do it.  He says you don't have to have any natural talent to do it, but it can be learned (not sure I believe that).  So.....he is going to loan me a book, a knife, and give me a piece of his bass wood to try my hand at it.  Can't wait! They are so neat! He has made some that look kind of like this: