Drawing realistic hands is incredibly difficult for most artists. This is a big part of the reason cartoon characters have gloved and/or non-human hands.
Even modern AI is all thumbs.
But this dude is fucking carving them with chainsaws.
It was 🤎 shaped and it was carved just like this, only it was much closer to the ground. It was also done in a way that it looked like the heart was being gently held.
Did the tree get weirdly wider at the hand section or was it carved from a seperate tree and placed on the stump? The hand is much wider than the narrower trunk.
If you look at it the arm is cut smaller than the trunk. So it looks a lot smaller than it actually was. And probably there was a branch where the thumb is, because even with the 30 cm more it ain't enough for that thumb.
I've noticed that people in Britain love carving. Many woods and forests have all kinds of carved trees. Some are very simple and some are absolute masterpieces like this one.