September 8 - Owls

"The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders at our quaint spirits."

~ William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hearing an owl is like having hiccups.

I'll explain. 

There is a special thrill in hearing an owl, distinct from all other chattering/singing birds.  But there is a point in the silence that follows where you ponder the odd sound you just heard.  Waiting in cautious anticipation for proof that it's still there, kind of maybe wanting to hear a good loud one, wondering if that was the las... *HOOT!*  (-cup!)   🦉💕

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Sergey Loginov shared how he creates a one+ balloon owl.  I had almost forgotten how precise and well done his videos are, like a math professor showing some new trick with numbers.

(view other owls)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Sergey Loginov:

July 12 - Owl

"A wise old owl sat on an oak;
the more he saw the less he spoke."

~ Nursery rhyme

With eyes big as moons and heads that turn just far enough to see -everything-, owls have always been the quiet librarians of the night.  They watch.

They see your midnight snack trips, your questionable 2am purchases, your late night online gaming obsession.

Still, they keep your secret, "who?" Exactly.

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This design is one Isopresso showed a while ago that I've had earmarked to build forever ... which occurred yesterday.  

(view other birds or specifically owls)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

April 3 - Pig, RA-bot, Owl and Cat Loop-Heads

“Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard.”

~ Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Here are a few other Loop-Heads I made while playing around with Mr. Boma's head design.

I really like the way the owl turned out, I feel like this face design could work with most anything and so much of the overall look of the balloon is what you do with the body.

To whit, I think the RA-bot body should have been more like the cat body with those hoppy back legs, and the cat should have probably just been a standing "Garfield" body.

As with every balloon technique we explore here, I had to try my hand at a pig.


View other: owls, cats, rabbits, bunnys, pigs

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Other Mr. Boma inspired balloons:

May 20 - Geo Babies

Sometimes the littlest things take up the most room in your heart.

~ Winnie the Pooh

I was browsing images in the balloon forums recently when I stumbled across some images posted by ‎Rosaleen Burkholder.  Probably because of this recent geo-playing I've been doing, I recognized them as inverted geos.

Rosaleen does a great job at making these into cute little quick creations, yet they are probably the easiest balloon I've ever made, there is not one twist!  Yet still, being a geo it has an interesting abnormal shape, and the ears add to the effect. The only bit of struggle is that it's more difficult to draw on such an under-filled balloon as it tends to move with the sharpie.

Rosaleen credits Jeanine Von Essen Sharpen.  I have used a couple of her designs on this site already (link), so I did a little digging through her photo archives.  These are attributed to a mini-jam in San Jose around November 2012.  Jeanine does sell some PDFs on her website (link) but it's a bit hard to tell if these are currently part of any collection.

I'm now down to the last few of these extra green (and I still have bags of emerald green and whites!).  I guess I sort of stumbled into "geos" being the second balloon concept for May - I will need to go back through time and see if I can correctly label any previous geo based creations.  Though it's not a concept in itself, the unique balloon shape really gives an interesting workspace to create with.

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Other posts specifying geos:

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October 18 - Linda's Owl

“Owl," said Rabbit shortly, "you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is any thinking to be done in this Forest--and when I say thinking I mean thinking--you and I must do it.”

~ A.A. Milne The House at Pooh Corner

Linda Truscheit has an enviable style, she is masterful at evoking emotion from her balloons. She doesn't just create a pug, she creates a pug that is saying "please feed me!".

I count Linda as not only a great designer, but a good friend - and I know I've already mentioned that I keep a folder of her designs as inspiration. A while ago I attended a webinar where she taught a different type of owl, but this is one she has posted fairly recently that is just plain adorable. I was able to ask her about a few critical bits in this owl design and with her help attempt to recreate it since it fits in the holiday theme.

What I love about her designs is that they just make you want to squeeze them. I have made a number of these now, my line is - "someone said I should give this to you" -- "who?" -- "perfect."

I think the smaller body with chubbier cheeks is my favorite.

As with the previous ghost image, these were taken on too bright of a background for the background that they ended up being on.  I can't unsee reflective blue and green!

Owl you need is love	Hedwig on the Angry Branch (six inches forward, five inches back)
You're a hoot.  ---  Who me?

Other posts with Linda's designs:


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May 27 - Owl

Back to the howling old owl in the woods
Hunting the horny back toad
Oh I've finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road
~ Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

This owl is the last design in Eric Weinstein's Live Balloon's Volume 6.  This Birds and Beaks pdf was a nice initial foray in to world of distortion.  Each is a simple self-contained wrapper around a structure - and are a relatively low "weird" balloon commitment, a few beak colored 646s.   I can't wait ... and I'm terrified to reach Volume #8!

This design in particular hearkens back to that classic Weinstein chubby-cheek style, it's probably the easiest/cheapest of the beak distortions in the set, so I'm not sure why it's included last in the book.  Eric draws on feathers, but I'm not sure I like the look of a fully scribbled on balloon or that it's necessary.  I improvised on the feet a little, but I was able to get them to stand on their own fairly easily.

Seriously, what is Hu's last name?	We are the original angry birds!
I believe it's called irritable owl syndrome

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Other posts with Eric's designs:


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