March 13 - Graham's Horse

"A horse doesn’t care how much you know until he knows how much you care."

~ Pat Parelli

When looking for a horse to add to my pocket full of sunshine ammo, I saw this one as well and liked the look of it.

This was shown by Graham Lee on his BalloonTube channel. Graham is an icon in the balloon industry and has been on this blog a number of times already - he has a great style so it's nice to see all that he's created in the past few years that I've missed.  

I built the two in the colors he demonstrated, but then thought I could try a donkey.  I would probably do the mane in a darker color to really sell it.

... and if you can build a pig with it, then well ... you and I would probably make good friends.

(view other horses)

---

Other balloons by and inspired by Graham Lee:

Febuary 27 - Rainbow Joe

"I carry a pocket full of sunshine and shoot rainbows out my hands."

~ Joe Tombarello

This phrase has been living rent-free in my head all week. Joe Tombarello marched into the jam room early one morning, trailing a bright orange scarf, and introduced himself in a way that makes you feel like you have known him forever. He's a warm cup of coffee handed to you when you didn't expect it -- but needed it.  At one point, he said the above quote in reference to being a bit of a magician when a child is upset.

... well. I want to carry a pocket full of sushine! I want to shoot rainbows!

I've built them before, but I don't have a horse in my meager toolkit of sunshine - let's fix that. This design from Juan Gonzales (link) takes only a couple minutes to build including inkwork and uses just three balloons and a scrap - but the eye design is my favorite part, I don't think I've ever made them this ... confidently?


(view other horses)

---

Other balloons by and inspired by Juan Gonzales:

November 3 - Pony

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when my fear is gone I will turn and face fear's path, and only I will remain.

~ The Litany Against Fear
Frank Herbert - Dune

I use the quote above because I'm a little bit nervous about the balloon concept for the first part of this month. For a long while I have been considering using Nao Osaka's style as a balloon concept, but it's going to be a lot of work and it's really kind of difficult.

Nao has a knack for creating fairly realistic creatures and he doesn't "cheat" by using other balloon sizes. Check out the links below for some of the designs of his that I've created from instructions and conventions I've attended, and each one is a masterpiece but each one has a fairly unique construction.

But let me also add another bit of Dune/Bene Gesserit wisdom: The harshest environment breeds the fiercest warriors.  Challenge accepted, lets do this.

I can tell you this took a LOT of balloons.  I made a number of versions of the face before settling in on something I liked.  The body was fairly straightforward as far as Nao style is concerned.  I ran into two difficulties - first, I used so many mocha balloons that I ran out and ended up having to use caramel, if you squint you can see the different color front leg and muzzle - and now you won't be able to unsee the differences.  Second, getting little stick horse legs to be the correct length and support the body weight is maddening at times.  I cheated and gave him foot pad flowers, which allowed for some better posing.

This was originally intended as a horse, but I think it would need a bigger barrel-chest and body, so lets call it a pony.

---

Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

Show All

January 2 - Sam's Horse

I'll find those stairs. I'll whip their butt, too. Those stairs won't know which way they're going... take drastic steps, kick it to the curb. Don't mess wit' me. I'm the Stair Master. I've mastered the stairs. I wish I had a step right here, right now, I'd step all over it...

~ Donkey Shrek

These horse are based on some images Sam Cremeens posted recently, which in turn are the result of his toying around with an image Buster Balloon posted over the holiday.  Sam spotted something awesome in the design, realizing it was more of a balloon concept.

Again, concept designs are my favorite things ever -- they spark a hundred other ideas.   When I first started twisting balloons, I was worried that I would be asked for something I didn't know how to build.  But with a handful of concept designs, you can create just about anything.

I really should make a list of all the design concepts ..

---

Other posts with Sam's designs:


Show all

August 26 - Little Pony

Выйду ночью в поле с конем
Ночкой темной тихо пойдем
Мы пойдем с конем по полю вдвоем
Мы пойдем с конем по полю вдвоем

~ Конь (Horse) - (video link)

I've referenced the above video previously, but it inspires me to practice - and my choir begins next week, so I'm listening to this and Ljube's version as I type this.

Justin Reams released instructions for this pony on the Twisters Cookbook website.

One of the things I like about Justin's video is that while building almost every section he starts out with a fresh balloon.  It creates a decent amount of scrap, but oftentimes designs suffer from being overly efficient, and though I understand that it is better to use every scrap of a balloon to save on costs, until you are familiar enough with the design or very meticulous about measurements, you are oftentimes left with too little or too much when you're down to the last little bit.  Adding to that are the varying sizes of balloons - Betallic offering 360s vs. Qualatex's shorter 350s, it can be a mess. It's good to focus on the form first.

Brony's are everywhere. When I brought the black one to the office, my coworker said "oh is this from the episode when she went bad"?  I think I shamed him by saying I was going for the M:TG Nightmare Steed, or one of the horses of the apocalypse from the Red Dead Redemption expansion.  Nerdly in my own way. Not judging, teasing - there's a fine difference.  But I have to remember to ask him which Care Bear is his favorite, and whether or not Strawberry Shortcake is a dessert or berry best friend.

But then ... if he's a Brony, I guess that makes me a Burple.

A dashing pony	Power and toughness equal to the number of swamps you control.
This is a little pony?!?

April 12 - Gabrielle's Horse

I thought I would try something different in lieu of a quote today, please enjoy "конь" - a Russian folk song. (Translation: horse)

Gabrielle Hodge showed us how to make this horse in our recent webinar. I'm still not content with how far up I was able to get matching sidewall bubbles, the legs have bigger shoulders than I would prefer.  It still works well, even though it's a bit cartoonish - I fell in love with the design once I started thinking of the prancing horse from that bugs bunny opera.  Let me find an image ... :

The face, in my opinion, is the sexy bit to this design, hearts give really chubby jowl cheeks, and this same facial structure could become a squirrel head by changing a couple colors.    Add another sidewall bubble to the outer cheek and you could make the classic triangular /_|_\ face structure with pudge bubble cheeks and easy connection points for the ears .. call that the Hodge Effect, she gets you thinking about using hearts in ways you haven't before. <3 <3 <3  .. The Queen of Hearts!

Now you should also see why I'm such a fan of Steve Klein's webinars - you never know what you have signed up for on a given night, but that is part of the fun, it's almost always great, and sometimes pure gold.  We learned 3(!!) things from Gabrielle in that hour, the bug, mermaid and this horse, all with her distinct flair. Yes I wish there was better technology, yes it's hard to follow along sometimes, and yes I wish there was a way to access the archives, but the content given the meager cost - GOLD I say.

Me?  Stirrup trouble?  ... Neigh.

---

Other posts with Gabrielle's designs:


Show all

February 10 - Pony

FuDD's third creation from the webinar this last Sunday was a horse.  This one gives a nice frame for the eyes, but I think the short face length gives it the appearance of a pony.   The one I created in the webinar could have been used for a deer.

These could be perfect My Little Pony models.

I'm feeling a little hoarse..

Are you a horse?  ... neigh.