December 27 - Li'l Bee

The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.

~ Elizabeth Lawrence

Jackie Ochitwa shared this design at the Q convention in 2020 -- I had planned on writing some text and setting it to post that October but well ... but as I recall, 2020 was pretty sucky, and I certainly fell off the planet for a bit.

Jackie again has an uncanny ability to make everything she touches into something cutesy, even a ghost bee.

I personally find it completely tasteless if slightly arousing to refer to these as Jackie's Boo Bees, so I will refrain from saying that .. any more.

But I won't stop thinking it.  Giggity!!





(view other bees, ghosts, zombies, Li'l Guys)

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May 1 - Li'l Brain Snake

“A baby has brains, but it doesn't know much. Experience is the only thing that brings knowledge, and the longer you are on earth the more experience you are sure to get.”

~ L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz

Sometimes people ignore facts and obvious evidence, rewrite their own version of history despite video evidence of the opposite.  Sometimes people attempt to convince us that what we heard and saw was not what we heard and saw, gaslight ... and sometimes these people have a brain snake.

Here is the thing.

A brain snake is not a parasite, it's a symbiotic relationship that is cultivated through years of avoiding the work of using it.  It is no simple feat to replace ones soul with a serpent - but it is very profitable.

This is another Kawaii-not, inspired by the class Jackie Ochitwa taught at the Q Corner Convention.

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April 30 - Li'l Alien

“I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here.”

~ Arthur C. Clarke

These Li'l Aliens are also inspired by Jackie Ochitwa's Q Corner Convention class. 

I had originally made the generic LGM alien, which is cute and yadayada - but I feel like cute isn't a challenge at this point with the technique.

Lets get lumpy!

I had in mind a lumpy headed alien whose eyes were constantly swirling around in a fluid sac.  Still cute - just with a bit of added goo!




(view other aliens)

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April 29 - Li'l Heroes

“Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me. ”

~ Fred Rogers

Just a quick trip into some superheroes using Jackie Ochitwa's Li'l Guy body form.

Spiderman ended up being more pen work than I imagined at the outset, the plain blue did not work well as the body.

Hulk is the first of these that was built with (a ratty mop of) hair.

Venom showed that the shape of the head is important, which points out something interesting.  Our heads are typically more vertical oval bean shaped, these "kawaii" heads are horizontal beans.  Round shapes don't seem to work well for humanoid heads.

... and yes, Dr. Manhattan was built anatomically correct.   If curiosity is getting the better of you, I've made it clickable.




(view other superheroes)

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April 28 - Li'l Devil

“When devils will the blackest sins put on
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows”

~ William Shakespeare

I was thinking with all of these kawaii Li'l Guys -- they're cute, but I like things with a little more slime and dirt in them.

What is the opposite ... the kawaii-not?   Sure you could really dirty it up with penwork, but what are the simple adds we can do to make things scary/ugly/evil?

It boils down to one simple thing.  Eyebrows.  I made a basic devil and just gave a bit angrier eyebrows.  Even with a smile, angry eyebrows make for a mischievous expression.

I rebuilt a Cadillac version and mounted it on a flame (6, booya!).




(view other devils)

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April 27 - Li'l Pig

Teacher: Kids what does a chicken give you?
Students: Eggs
Teacher: Very good now what does the pig give you?
Kids: Bacon
Teacher: Excellent now what does the fat cow give you?
Kids: Homework

Probably already expected at this point, but I do feel compelled to try a purple pig version of any balloon concept.

Jackie Ochitwa's "kawaii" creatures are a very versatile form, but there are two main issues you need to work with - first - they are not very poseable, second - there is no easy ear attachment points.

I ran into the same problems with ears as the tiger, but I think worked out a pretty decent solution this time with the pig.



(view other devils)

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April 24 - Li'l Big Cats

That bungled goodbye hurts me to this day. I wish so much that I'd had one last look at him in the lifeboat, that I'd provoked him a little, so that I was on his mind. I wish I had said to him then - yes, I know, to a tiger, but still - I wish I had said, "Richard Parker, it's over. We have survived. Can you believe it? I owe you more gratitude than I can express I couldn't have done it without you. I would like to say it formally: Richard Parker, thank you. Thank you for saving my life."

~ Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Such a powerful movie and a moving scene, I need a moment ...  These are inspired by Jackie Ochitwa's class and a wavy orange balloon.

I wasn't content with how I got the ears to fit into the base, so I built lions instead using a similarly styled muzzle.

At some point Qualatex decided they needed balloons with waves on them and around that same point in time, my compulsion made me get some.  I have 4 bags of various colors, and I think I have probably used 4 total balloons out of them.

You can imagine how excited I was when I got to use one for this li'l tiger.   ... so .. 5.



(view other lions, tigers)

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April 23 - Li'l Narwahl

“...you never truly win a conservation battle - you just win the right to fight another day. Like an alcoholic, the environment is never saved. It always needs saving.”

~ Joshua Horwitz

Next Jackie Ochitwa shared how she makes her Li'l Narwahl using this base form.

I tried building a couple different horn styles, the single wrapped looks better but feels less stable than the double horn.  I wanted to play around and see if if there were other sea creatures this would fit well with.

This base is very simple and somewhat cartoon-ish, you really need something distinct to define the character.   So something generic like a whale I think would be hard to realize, but something distinct like a beluga whale which would be white.

The walrus turned out great.  Coo-coo ka choo.



(view other whales)

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April 22.5 - Li'l Dragon

“We men (and women) dream dreams, we work magic, we do good, we do evil. The dragons do not dream. They are dreams. They do not work magic: it is their substance, their being. They do not do; they are.”

~ Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

During the class Jackie Ochitwa taught, she mentioned going to her Instagram to reference the face artwork she does and I noticed she had a cute little green dragon.

Sometimes balloons look better in person than they do in a photo because of the 2-D representation of the 3-D image.  The standing version came first but didn't have a very dragon-y feel because the only thing that says "dragon" at all are the dorsal ridges which can't be visible from any angle where he would be facing you.

I built it again sitting and gave him more of a grrr face, but it had the same problems.   I had to cheat like a 2-D animator for the shot.  Notice in any cartoon where a girl has her hair bound in a ponytail, the hair and usually the scrunchy holding it are always visible outside of a transition move. 

The dorsal fins are set at about a 30º angle for visibility in the main shot.




(view other dragons)

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April 21 - Li'l Chick

 

How funky is your chicken?
How loose is your goose?
Now come on everybody!
And shake your caboose!

Jackie Ochitwa's class at the Q Corner Convention was full of these cute little "kawaii" animals.  This was the chick she taught, and a number of them follow this same over-sized head cutesy-chibi style, so for organizational purposes and because I still think of Kawaii as a Hawaiian Island every time I hear it, I'm going to refer to these as Li'l Guys.

She suggested that you could use a smaller quicklink for the head and I actually think that works better since it keeps closer in color to the rest and is easily big enough as is.

You can see how easily this simple form could be any number of li'l birds with just a color change, brown/white/black for a li'l chicken, head feathers sideways for a li'l cockatiel, the head attachment allows for easy spin so it's perfect for a li'l owl or a li'l exorcism.



(view other birds, chicks, chickens)

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Other Jackie Ochitwa inspired balloons: