December 5 - Duck

"I have my opinions, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them."

~ George Bernard Shaw

A duck is the only creature that is also a completely different word.

Bear with that in mind that I didn't fish around for exceptions.  People love to crane their necks to hawk their contradictions, but I refuse to be bugged.  

Duck is the only one.

---

This duck is one of the designs deviations of the Holy Snail technique from Patrick Van De Ven.  This might also benefit from that 'wrapping' of the basic form to give a bit of a lower body ... 

(view other ducks)

---

Other balloons by and inspired by Patrick Van De Ven:

October 24 - Daisy Duck

"It's not easy being fabulous."

~ Daisy Duck

Daisy wanted a witch doctor costume to match Donald.

The closest the store had "sexy doctor witch"

Best.  Halloween.  Ever.

---

I think I had this revelation when making OG Loopy's that the Duck family needs smaller top bills if you're going to add a bottom jaw.  Maybe the first time was just a velation.

This is using the designs from Dave Brenn's Patreon, I kind of love how the eyelashes turned out.

(view other Daisy Duck)

---

Other balloons by and inspired by Dave Brenn:

October 23 - Donald Duck

"The voice of anger is never melodic."

~ Toba Beta

11th grade English class taught me that an onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like what it is -- buzz(zz), hiss(sss), (ssss)sizz(zzzz)le.

What I've never learned is what "Donald Duck speech" is called.

I propose 'wakfwahing'.

---

This Donald Duck design is one from the Dave Brenn Loopy Heads 2 collection.

(view other Donald Duck)

---

Other balloons by and inspired by Dave Brenn:

July 9 - Jojo Mallard

"There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: one is roots, the other is wings."

~ Hodding Carter

The mother mallard watched her little yellow ducky paddling circles in the pond.

She knew his feathers would change one day, and that bright little yellow boy would give way to new colors.  Change is, after all, inevitable.  

But that was a long while off, and for today, she would just enjoy the time with her little bouncing ball of sunshine.

---

I was playing around with accessorizing the little ducky form from the Tobi Twist Jojo Cuties, and ended up making a couple mallard and then Daffy Duck.  

(view other ducks or jojos)

---

Other balloons by and inspired by Tobi Twist:

July 8 - Jojo Ducky

"it takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

~ e.e. cummings

The little ducky wondered why his feathers were so bright yellow, while his mother's were so different.

She said he was bright like the sun. She said it was because he was the happiest little ducky in the pond.

Would he stay this sunny forever? He didn't know - but as long as she was by his side, he supposed that was a good enough an answer for now.

--

These little ducky's were part of the Tobi Twist Jojo Cuties collection - I'm really appreciating the way he creates his eyes, not only is it quicker but slight inconsistencies between the pupils are not as ... offensive? as long as the angles are similar.


(view other ducks or jojos)

---

Other balloons by and inspired by Tobi Twist:

May 20 - Cones

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality!

~ Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

I am not sure if these were meant to be anything more than cute little snack cone creatures, but I certainly like how they are all smooshed together like they're about to sing Bohemian Rhapsody.  

Creative Balloon Handmade posted a bunch of these last week.  I think we've already established my poor impulse control around balloon groups and concepts.

Cute things are interesting in that it always sparks things in the opposite direction for me.  I'm not craving building a super cute panda next, I am thinking about snips and snails and puppy dog tails .. and ... monster baby heads?  Mutant sabertoothed zombie popsicles?  ..  Alien waffle cones!?

(view other ice cream)

---

Other balloons by and inspired by Creative Balloon Handmade:

March 11 - Iso Ducky

"In diversity, there is beauty and there is strength."

~ Maya Angelou

In some circumstances, he might have been cast away or called "ugly" - but the ducklings of Purple Pond were far too enlightened for that.

He was different, sure, but it just wasn't a thing. The other ducklings swam around him, under him, over him, all without a second thought.

When he grew up, he was uncompromisingly hideous.  Life got very difficult outside of Purple Pond.


(view other ducks)

---

Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

January 22 - Loopy Warner Broz

“Looney Tunes didn’t just entertain; they set the bar for animation as an art form.”

~ Steven Spielberg

Disney always sort of takes the limelight, but the characters with the biggest personalities are certainly from Warner Bros.

Daffy doesn't have a rich uncle, like Donald "Fontleroy" -- he was raised on the hard streets of Toonville.  Where dodging falling anvils and dynamite-wielding rabbits is just another Saturday afternoon.

One thing I find interesting is that the cheeks of WB characters are a much taller, turning them sideways fills out their faces well for that. 

Other balloons by and inspired by David Brenn:

January 19 - Loopy Duckz

"Donald Duck is the most relatable of Disney’s characters because he’s flawed—he's funny because he’s real."

~ John Lasseter

When I was first experimenting with Donald, the top beak was way too fat.  This is probably fine for a normal duck, since proportionally was just a bit off for Donald.  

I also never realized Daisy wore such heavy eye makeup.  This is the first time I have drawn an eye in this way.  I like the way the purpley eye turned out a bit better but went a bit deep and made them angry.  Maybe that fat lip is just botox for her ...

Too dark of a blue for Donald's eyes, but that feels like I'm nitpicking as I'm pretty happy with the final result. 

I've always associated Donald Duck with being a sailor, but it's occurring to me as I see his name written in the wiki that it's just a fancy pants suit for parties with the McDucks -- his full name is Donald "(Little Lord) Fauntleroy" Duck...

(view other ducks)

---

Other balloons by and inspired by David Brenn:

February 22 - Dorb Birds

“The woods would be quiet if no bird sang but the one that sang best.”

~ Henry Van Dyke

This quote is apropos, this design was a bit of a failed attempt but I'm going to stop myself from stopping myself and talk about it anyways.

Buster shows a decent variety of these Dorbs animals (I still might build them) - but I really just wanted to play around a bit instead of copy a design, yet still .. keep it simple, stupid.

I built the swan with a very basic body rather than a trying support the head on a long neck in the traditional pose.  Though I didn't really like how that turned out, changing the color of the feet on both the duck and penguin look nice.

What I believe did not work, and the reason I was hesitant to post this without rebuilding - are those ears.  I have ideas on how I could use the concept and get a better rounded head, but I'll have to save those attempts for a future balloon...  I went completely off grid for

---

Other Dorb balloon designs:

Show All Buster

September 8 - Two Faced Donald

Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in senate.

~ Orson Welles

Here is my attempt at Donald Duck using David Brenion's Two Faced Table Decor balloon concept.  It's based on his ducky, but it needed a body.

I feel need to point out again how much I love the freedom building things using a balloon concept provides.  If I were to just build a Donald, I would stress myself out on trying to make it look as realistic as possible.  Using this concept, I can appreciate the big bubble head and focus on the key points that define him -- to me that's his hat and the colors of his outfit.

---

Other two-faced balloons:

Show All David Brenion Designs

September 4 - Two Faced Ducky

“Small men oft feel a need to prove their courage with unseemly boasts," he declared. "I doubt if he could kill a duck."
Tyrion shrugged. "Fetch the duck.”

~ George R.R. Martin A Dance with Dragons

This big ducky is from the David Brenion release Two Faced Table Top Decor and is available here.

One of the great things about all the Brenion videos is each one of their demonstrations means something. It's not another design for it's own sake - though it's the same general form, this one demonstrates a different way of constructing the body and eyes.

I didn't have much time to build today, so I just made the one.

---

Other two-faced balloons:

Show All David Brenion Designs

January 17 - Daffy Duck

Ho! Ha ha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!

~ Daffy Duck (wielding a staff)

The next installment in my attempt to use "Truscheit-style" is this Daffy Duck.

The first built is the below and on the right, I had a few things I fixed with the body but I mostly wanted another build so I could play with posing him shot like in the cartoon.  I should have spent a little effort in getting the eyes taller, his face doesn't quite have the oval shape I was looking for.

A while ago I was working with a classic cell animator helping with his computerized renderings and he was explaining to me how even though computers make some thing technically easier, things are lost and that you need to account for artistically.  His example images were with fairy hair - no matter which way she was looking, you could see the ponytail poking out perfectly behind her.  In the real world the ponytail would not be visible most of the time.

I mention this because it is lost as well in trying to dress a balloon for a photo.  It wasn't enough for the beak to blap on backwards and change the cheek color, I had to create a new beak that was almost twice as large to make it visible in the pose instead of a tiny orange mound.

... You're dithpicable...

---

Other posts with Truscheit-style:


Show all Truscheit-style designs