August 6 - Frog

"Time's fun when you're having flies."

~ A Dad (presumably)

I would never profess to having my act together, only .. more together than it used to be.

I first made these frogs back in March of 2016.  This was well before I was doing any image editing, but would painstakingly caption images with puns and one-liners - because THAT'S entertainment! 

... yup.  

Looking back, it's fun to see the progress - not just in the balloons, but in everything.  

I wonder what it will look like when I finally get my act together?

(view other frogs)

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Other balloons by and/or inspired by Eric Weinstein:

February 7 - Patch

They call him Patch the Funny,
It's always been that way.
He learned to land a joke just right
Before he'd learned to play.

The laughter showed him where to stand,
Which words were fun to say.
It taught him who the room would love.
And gently led the way.

Now when the paint comes off at night,
It feels a little odd,
Like he's taking off his truer skin,
To dress like "Plain ol' Todd".

Todd's head is a design shown by the always amazing and ever enthusiastic Eric Weinstein @liveballoons as part of "The Face" collection.

(view other clowns)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Eric Weinstein:

November 12 - Alligator

"The beginning is the most important part of the work."

~ Plato

Like all great stories, this one started with a pig and an alligator.

Today I'm thankful for Eric Weinstein.

A design inspired by Eric Weinstein's "Live Balloon" collection was what started this journey all those years ago. Eric collection of creatures was also where I kind of finally understood the value of balloon concept vs. a balloon design.  Following a design vs. making things.

... and just think how close the blog came to being called The Grinning Gator's Latex Factory!
(view other alligator)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Eric Weinstein:

October 19 - Eric's Pumpkin

Linus: Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.

~ Linus It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Here is one from the Eric Weinstein collection Party Delights (link).

This pumpkin looks great with those big giant eyes, and Eric proves that with some practice it can be made in under three minutes.

We are getting our pumpkins this weekend, and for many years now we've been using the stencils you can get at the supermarket to make elaborate designs.  It was a novel thing 5-10 years ago, but now it's something pretty common and I think now I prefer the "classic" look.  However this time I'm inspired to make a painted pumpkin instead.

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Other Party Delights:

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Eric Weinstein:

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October 3 - Eric's Alligators

Sleepy alligator in the noonday sun
Sleeping by the river just like he usually done
Call for his whiskey
He can call for his tea
Call all he want to but he
Can't call me

~ Grateful Dead Alligator

Like I mentioned yesterday, I had need of reviewing a number of line work balloons and so I took a watch through Eric Weinstein's Party Delights (link).

Eric's tutorials are full of energy - he's like a motivational speaker at times with his enthusiasm.

These alligators are on his list, and very quick to make.  I did try playing around a little and was able to get a the longer snout of a crocodile by using a Betallic heart.

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Other Party Delights:

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Eric Weinstein:

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October 2 - Eric's Trolls

Trolls in the dark
The dawn took them all
Caught in the wood
By the wooden kings' men
But now I'm alone
'Cause I've made up my mind

~ Blind Guardian The Bard's Song: The Hobbit

I recently had need to build a bunch of line work type balloons, so I took another look at Eric Weinstein's Party Delights videos.

This time it's a Poppy troll wrist wearable, but again like with the Mario, you could easily turn this into a character. I haven't seen the movie, but I tried to make what I believe is the other main character, Branch. His hair is big but different and more straight vertical and pointier ears.

I'm enjoying that Eric includes a "real time" build with these designs, not just in that it proves they can be done quickly - but having a second look through building as well as seeing the inevitable pop & recovery is very helpful.

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Other Party Delights:

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Eric Weinstein:

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August 30 - Eric's Mario

"Video Games are bad for you? That's what they said about Rock 'N' Roll."

~ Shigeru Miyamoto

Eric Weinstein has released a good number of tutorials on both video and PDF, ranging from very detailed distortion techniques to quickly built linework items.

This is from a recent video series of his called "Party Delights" which contains some popular but quickly built designs.  Each of these has a bit of Eric's flair and he proves he can build each of them in under three minutes.

This Mario is designed to be wrist wearable, but could easily be made into a standing figure.

After building Mario, I thought to try for Luigi - but even with a thinner face and longer jaw I don't think I got the bean shape well enough, it looks like a green Mario to me, which is why I went for another attempt at one and built Fire Mario.

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Other balloon designs by Eric:

May 28 - Cupid

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

~ William Shakespeare

Another good use for geos, clouds.

This Cupid is one of the designs in Eric Weinstein's PDF Live Balloons Vol. 4 (link).  I've made this previously when I entered the Bling Bling Valentine contest last year.

This design speaks to something that Andrew Weaver brought to mind in a recent forum post, and that is "do you ever go back and binge watch old tutorials".  I enjoy and encourage it, there are things you probably miss if you are twisting while watching/reading.  When I first built this, I didn't notice he purposefully gave one arm a bend and kept the other straight to allow for bow usage.

Eric has actually been on fire recently with his new YouTube channel (link).  He has challenged himself to make 25 new designs in 25 days.  They are more of a quick linework style balloon, but Eric is an exceptional artist, and many of these designs are full of creativity - worthy of taking a look if you haven't yet.

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Other designs by Eric:

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Other geo designs:

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April 30 - Mordecai

Mordecai: I dont need to brag, I dont mean to boast, but here's some hummus for these mini toasts!
Rigby: HUMMUS!
Mordecai: HUMMUUS!
Both: HUUUMMUUUS!!!
Benson: Why are you guys yelling "hummus"?

The Regular Show Party Pete episode

Cartoons evolved from when I was younger, much the same way as the Rolling Stones weren't permitted to sing "let's spend the night together" compared to modern lyrics, now cartoons are able to explore crazy plotlines.

The Regular Show is one of the great cartoons on the Cartoon Network.  Mordecai the blue jay and Rigby the raccoon are the two protagonists and lazy park employees who get into a heap of trouble every episode, oftentimes potentially destroying the universe.

Whereas Adventure Time plots might start off weird (rescue the gumdrop princess from the swamp of the tar witch), Regular Show typically starts in a fairly mundane way and goes off the rails from there.  I saw one recently (an older one) where Mordecai accidently sees Pops naked and spends the whole time trying to erase it from his memory, but the one that really stands out as bizarre is when Rigby gets another job at a snack shop where he eats so much his spine decides to abandon his body and he's left as an amorphous blob.

This Mordecai uses Eric Weinstein's sweet cheeks concept.  I tried two versions - but thought the first was a little chubby for his form.  It was the more poseable of the two though and probably works best, but I wanted something skinnier.

We are at the end of the month, I do love these sweet cheeks - but I am going to force myself to try and move on to the 9th and 10th balloon concepts in May.

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Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


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April 29 - Ostrich

Urus! Urus ni buzra! Arrâs talbabi fillumâ! Ugrûd tashniki kurdumâ! Lu! Lu! Lu! Urkhas tanakhi!

Fire!! Fire in the deep! Flames lick our skin! Fear rips our heart! No! No! No! The demon comes!

~ The Fellowship of the Ring The Balrog

One of my other great passions in life is singing choral music, and the North Carolina Master Chorale is one of the best that I've been lucky enough to participate in. We typically sing Requiems and other great works, but last year we sang the score the the Fellowship of the Ring while the movie played, chanting "Ur-HAS Ta-na-KI!" as the heroes ran through Moria, trumpeting the ringwraiths as they chase wounded Frodo being carried by Arwen, providing the haunting backdrop to the elves as they lament the loss of Gandalf. So ... epic ...

Anyways, one of my fellowship and someone I frequently perform standing next to is photographer and conceptual artist Michael J Bambuch (website).  He has numerous projects and art series, one of which involves photographing people lit with car headlights while pursuing their passions - and upon seeing my enthusiasm for some recent Purple Pig posts, he invited me to participate.

All of the photographs are credited to Michael J. Bambuch, originals can be found on his website (direct link to car portrait project).

The ostrich is part of the Sweet Cheeks line by Eric Weinstein.

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Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


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April 28 - Peacock

Guinnevere had green eyes
Like yours, mi'lady like yours
When she'd walk down
Through the garden
In the morning after it rained
Peacocks wandered aimlessly
underneath an orange tree
Why can't she see me?

Crosby, Stills & Nash - Guinnevere

This peacock uses the Eric Weinstein sweet cheeks method. The tutorials include a turkey, but I thought that would be a great candidate for a ... certain other day, so I decided to make this instead (though I didn't actually watch the turkey tutorial).

A peacock is actually one of three distinctions made in the Peafowl family. Peacocks are male, Peahens are female and the young are often referred to as Peachicks. As with most birds, the male peacock has more colorful plumage to display as it tries to attract a mate or fight off a rival.

I first made the smaller bill peacock, but I gave it away quickly and didn't get many pictures.  So I built a new one with a bigger beak and added the color spots to the tail.

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Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


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April 27 - Sneetches

But McBean was quite wrong. I'm quite happy to say
The Sneetches got really quite smart on that day,
The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars
And whether they had one, or not, upon thars.

~ Dr. Seuss The Sneetches

These Sneetches were made with Eric Weinstein's Sweet Cheeks method.

I made a few attempts at the head before settling on what is here, I almost gave up but had to remind myself that a balloon concept is never going to be a perfect representation of a design, and is really a vehicle to get you past that initial road block to creation - a simple version of something that requires you to reduce a design to a minimal state and build up from there. What is a Sneetch? A humanoid-ish chubby bodied bird, with a whisp of hair and perhaps a star on it's tummy.

Dr. Seuss designs are a fun thing to experiment with, they are very stylized and a great candidate for distortions. My first attempt with the longer torso did just that. I simplified things with the second and made a chubby body similar to the 'Little Guy' concept.

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Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


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April 26 - Sweet Cheeks Pig

Th-Th-The, Th-Th-The, Th-Th... That's all, folks!

~ Porky Pig

As I've done with the other balloon concepts, here is a pig using Eric Weinstein's Sweet Cheeks method.

I actually made one of these in the montage of purple pigs back at Bling Bling Jam last year, but that was while Eric was still working on #2 and before I had much practice with using the technique, so it's a bit rough (link).

I first made the one holding the flower, but he needed a mouth and some work on the nose, so I made the one holding the dog - but left him to sit for a couple days before taking a picture, which is why he's a little wilty (you can see it in the eyes).

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Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


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