January 1 - Granny Friction

The door was always open, walking through was the hard part.

Momentum is a powerful force—it’s always easier to keep something moving than to start from scratch.   I never thought 9th-grade science would stick with me, but the principle rings true in so many aspects of life. 

The past few years have been overwhelming, and somewhere along the way, I lost my mojo for creating and sharing art.   Time has passed, my hands feel rubbery, I've probably forgotten more than I ever knew to begin with --- but the story isn't over yet.

This was just a doodle that seemed appropriate.  It seems that whenever I do a generic balloon doodle, it ends up being a face ... 

May 8 - Jooe Style

“A mask tells us more than a face.”

~ Oscar Wilde

Giuseppe "Jooe Style" Scalici is a talented balloon artist from Luxembourg who won the Q Corner 12-minute contest by making a face similar to this, and then offered to show everyone how to do it.

The face itself is derivative of the first Phileas Flash faces (he mentioned), but uses a different central structure that gives an unusual and nice shape to work with.

He also taught the lesson in three languages (four if you count the universal language of balloons) - impressive!

This was a fun form to work with, since this was what he demonstrated, I wanted to keep playing around with the concept instead of getting lost making bodies.

(view other faces)

February 6 - Major Super Ultra Mega Smile Man

~ Captain Super Ultra Mega Smile Man

I've been wanting to try using pinch line teeth/gums for a while in a face.  This is what I built while watching the Super Bowl using just the balloons I had in my "extras" bag.

The teeth attach to the lips in two different ways, and I think it's worth the pain of additional attachment points to really lock them in.

I really wanted to show the gums, so I went for a super wide mouthed look, but it would work equally well with just the hint of a gum line under those teeth.  I think this might be what I build the next time I go to the dentist's office ...

August 14 - Eyes

“If someone says something about your art that makes you feel bad, disregard it and joyfully make more art.”

~ Gayle Wray

This was some playing I was doing with Dennis Bauyon's dragonfly eye.

I knew it would work well as flesh and as an open eye, but I had seen some images posted recently (TwisTEE maybe?) where they used a similar technique with the same color balloon and it looks like closed eyes.

I colored both of them, but got the face a little lopsided in the other so I redrew it upside down for extra practice before this one.  I had a marker go rogue when making the right (left) eye - but it gave sort of goth mascara look so I added a skull headband.

This vacation reel shot is me packed and ready to leave.  I had an early flight which meant I had to be checked out and at the airport by 4am.  The final day, the awards ceremony and I left early to sleep. 🍺🍻PARTY!

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Other balloon designs from Bling Bling Jam 2017:

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Other balloon designs from Dennis:

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August 5 - Dennis Fabulous Faces

When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange

The Doors People Are Strange

Dennis Bauyon was first to blow my mind with what you could make with balloons.  Long before I discovered Facebook balloon groups or knew anything other than some youtube searches, I somehow stumbled across Steve Klein's webinar with Dennis.

He taught how to make an elf and a hippo.  I don't remember how to build them, but I do remember that feeling inspired that I was able to follow along and ended up with something I could brag about.

I wonder if I can find a picture of them ...

These faces are from his class entitled "Fabulous Faces", and make for a nice melon sized head.  The red ball guy was who we made in class, then I played around with it a bit in the jam room to add hair and play with the base structure a bit.

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Other balloon designs from Bling Bling Jam 2017:

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Other balloon designs from Dennis:

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December 29 - Celebrity Faces

Terrain seems a bit unstable. No readout yet if the air is breathable. And there seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere...

~ Buzz Lightyear Toy Story

These three faces are the remaining few from Eric Weinstein's Live Balloons Volume 8 PDF: Faces (link).

I've said it previously on this blog many times but one of the things I love more than any individual design is a balloon concept. When I first looked at this PDF, I really just saw it as a number of different types of faces to build - but now I see it as a complete concept. Each of these faces is a specific celebrity, and all use a similar structure with slight adjustments made to realize the individual characteristics -- Elvis has big chubby cheeks, Buzz Lightyear has a longer chin, Betty Boop is probably the most different because the "cheek" structure actually makes up much of her head shape.

This PDF was a good exercise in exploring more complex multiple balloon distorted faces, and it's one of those things that you really just need a lot of trial and error to get right. I only made one attempt at these three and there are slight changes I feel I could have done better.

I guess my one complaint(?) to using these techniques would be that in getting such a shapely head, you are not given many connection points and much of the features end up being glued on. Yes it would be possible to add a few more raisins, but I did have a few balloons pop late into a build - and it is not salvageable at that point, so it would probably be wise to tie them all off before adding any features.

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Recent posts with Eric's designs:


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December 28 - Baseball Face

What you got back home, little sister, to play your fuzzy warbles on? I bet you got, say, pitiful, portable picnic players. Come with uncle and hear all proper! Hear angels' trumpets and devils' trombones. You are invited!

~ A Clockwork Orange

Though Baseball Face sounds like a Dick Tracy villain, it's actually the next in Eric Weinstein's Live Balloons Volume 8 PDF: Faces. Technically it's not the next in order within the PDF, but this is the next progressively difficult and detailed face design and the others are celebrity faces.

One of the things I like best about this technique is the dimples it gives the chin.

I wasn't really able to get a baseball hat shape on the initial build, it looked more like a derby, so my second build I embraced it and tried to make a Droog (hence the quote).  But balloon distortion requires careful control over the amount of air you put into the stuffed balloons and I overfilled the jaw on second build so he's got a bit of a mumps face.

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Recent posts with Eric's designs:


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December 27 - Redneck Face

Just'a good ol' boys
Never meanin' no harm.
Beats all you never saw
Been in trouble with the law
Since the day they was born

~ Theme From The Dukes Of Hazzard
   (Good Ol' Boys)

This is the second design in Eric Weinstein's Live Balloons Volume 8 PDF: Faces (link) - a Redneck.

The amount of debris that accumulates around my workspace when working with distortion is amazing. So many bits and pieces of balloons, so many things (intentionally) popped and reversed, so many bags of larger balloons go into making smaller pieces when you are stuffing and distoring these faces.

All of it is worth it though, this PDF is a great education on the art of distortion. Eric's earlier PDFs were an excellent introduction, but there was really only one part of each of them that used the technique (like the beak for the birds). This is the school of hard knocks because almost every bit of these is double stuffed, if just to keep colors consistent throughout the design.  This design, though similar to Jack - provides a more shaped face and does a few things different if not better.

I made a mistake in my initial build making the eyes out of smaller balloons.  Despite the instructions being clear and there being plenty of pictures, it's easy to lose your place when following through pages of instructions (Balloon PDFs have been accurately described as similar to reading a stereo manual.). This one used a different technique for the eyes as well and they didn't distract me so much this time.

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Recent posts with Eric's designs:


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December 26 - Jack's Face

Don't look at me like
I am a monster
Frown out your one face
But with the other
Stare like a junkie
Into the TV
Stare like a zombie

~ Tool Vicarious

It's been a little while since I've worked my way through these Eric Weinstein PDFs, and I'll admit that this one on facial distortion had me a little intimidated for a while there.

This is the first face in his Live Balloons Volume 8 PDF: Faces available on his website (link).

Eric hasn't made a PDF in a while, preferring nowdays to make videos - but his PDFs are full of fantastic information.   These are complicated techniques to learn from without seeing someone demonstrate, but Eric does provide a lot of picture demonstrations and having worked through his earlier distortion techniques from his other PDFs I found following along very easily.

This is the first type of face I've done like this - and though the instructions supply a way to create balloon eyeballs, I think it creates too much depth.  In my second attempt I went ahead and drew them, but if I were to make another - I think they would look great with button eyes.

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Recent posts with Eric's designs:


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July 12 - Phileas' Face Too

“Every face is born with a thousand masks to go with it.”

~ Marty Rubin

I bought both DVDs, The Face of Things to Come and The Face of Things to Come Too at the same time, both of them have a great unique balloon-cartoon style to them, but this one has a rounder shape to it.  With a more rounded face, I feel like this one is more suitable for a female - so it is what I used when building my Queen of Hearts.  (Her fingertips were left long in the photo because I wasn't sure how to pose her yet..)

OFF with their heads!!

This is also the face I used for a while as my profile picture, I've attached that as well.  It's interesting to look back at "older" pictures, I remember at the time I was just pleased with myself at being able to get it built.  But now that I look at it again, it is so sloppy!

Once again I tried to build it purple, ear positioning is so low it looks more like an ogre.  Also, the balloon colors frustrate me, I used Q260 lilac to try and match the quick-link color, but they look so different ... and Qualatex doesn't make lilac hearts, so big bright lilac nose fail as well.

Both of these face styles have a simple base structure from which you could accessorize to become a myriad of characters.

Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody ...	My my my ogre face, My my ogre face.
Fool of Air	Sloppy Joe profile

To air is human, to squeal porcine...

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Other posts with Phileas' designs:


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July 11 - Phileas' Face

I've got two eyes, So I can see
I've got two ears to listen to what you say to me
I've got a mouth, So I can speak
I've got a cheek right here
And here I've got another cheek

I've got a nose, So I can smell
I've got a chin
But what a chin does I just can't tell

I've got eyes, ears, nose, mouth, cheeks, and chin
Each in its place
And they're all part of one fine face

~ Ernie (and Elmo) One Fine Face (link)

Phileas Flash (or Rupert Appleyard) is a tough person to describe briefly, but since this is the first time I've used one of his designs here I'll try anyways ....   He has an aggressively funny personality, the guy you could count on to crack a fart joke at the exact right time.  Watching his video tutorials is like trying to hold a conversation with the Mad Hatter the way he sidetracks himself, but that all works to great effect as it gives you time to keep up with him.

Phileas has made some of the most impressive balloon sculptures I've ever seen, not the technical precision and realistic details of some creations, but moreso modern art masterpieces.  Some of my favorites include Weeping Angels, a Game of Thrones scene, the motorized mad-scientist assistant to Groo (Despicable Me) and a rendering of a DaVinci painting.  He travels the world to share his techniques, and recently championed a fund raising project "Frequent Flyers" for an organization that provides support to children victimized by war.  He's a good man.

I got The Face of Things To Come DVD (and it's sequel) shortly after watching Phileas on a webinar.  The base structure assembles quickly, and I like how poseable it is (for being a face).  I enjoy DVDs like this where you are given the basic idea and left to go and play, though ideally I would have preferred a few more built examples.

I have a mix of colors in the dark skinned face, mocha 160 and 350 but caramel 260.  In normal circumstances that would drive me to distraction - but I really like it here, looks like 5 o'clock shadow scruff around his chin.

... and I'm not sure what I was thinking when setting up the purple face.  It's freaking me out.

This certainly blew up in my face...	My my my porker face, my my porker face.
I'm would not quit while I was ahead ...