December 9 - Bears

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

~ John Muir

I saw a video recently of a polar bear doing its absolute best to rescue a poor cameraman who had somehow gotten himself sealed inside a fiberglass box.  

The bear worked every angle with a toothy determination - one single rivet not seated properly could have made all the difference.

I'm not sure how it ended, but I really hope they were able to free that cameraman.

Mother nature provides.

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These use the panda bear form shown by Patrick Van De Ven in his Holy Snail tutorials, I like the "chewing" face more than I care to admit.

(view other bears)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Patrick Van De Ven:

October 10 - Panda

"The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists."

~ Japanese proverb

It's one of the usual suspects in a balloon technique > Panda, Penguin, Dog, Bee, Elephant, Frog ...

Just a lil' guy doing his lil' thing in the lil' banboo forest.

I heard what I said.  
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Marina Filatova shared this technique in a series of tutorials I purchased years ago that sort of got lost in the shuffle. They are a lesson in double-stuffing, but probably more important, they are an -exercise- in double-stuffing!


(view other pandas)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Marina Filatova:

July 3 - Jojo Panda

"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us."

~ Helen Keller

Long ago in the misty Sichuan mountains, pandas were as pure white as fresh snow, gentle and shy among the bamboo groves. A kind young shepherd girl often played with the pandas and watched over them like family. One day, she saw a leopard about to attack a baby panda, and without hesitation threw herself between them, saving the cub but losing her own life.

Stricken with grief, the pandas covered their arms with black ashes to mourn her. As they cried, hugged, and wiped their eyes, the ashes spread to their eyes, ears, and legs. From that day on, their black and white fur became a living tribute to the girl and her sacrifice.

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This is another Jojo Cutie from the Tobi Twist collection.  Universally recognizeable creatures are perfect for practicing balloon techniques.

I really love origin stories like "The Legend of the Shepherd Girl and the Pandas" - even knowing they are fiction, they still connect me with a sense of ... primitive wonder?  
(view other pandas or jojos

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Other balloons by and inspired by Tobi Twist:

April 14 - Baby Panda

"Never underestimate the power of being adorable."

~ Terry Pratchett

The red panda was first.  That is today's factoid.

Obviously both existed, but a red panda was named in 1825, decades before anyone named the black-and-white version. 

I know they are different species.  I've been to a zoo.

But the branding got to me. I grabbed sunset orange balloons thinking the only reason I hadn't done this sooner was I didn't have the right color.  This poor animal - overlooked then, overlooked now - and with the same quiet shrug it got in the 1800s. "Oops. Oh well. Something something the squishy face on this guy though!”  

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This design is one taught in the MeyiaArt balloon channel using her mini doll as a base structure.  I actually really love the face shape this technique creates, but this arm design feels like it is designed to hold something (a stick of bamboo?) that I'm wishing I had done now because the visible twisted string is distracting.  

 
(view other pandas)

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Other balloons by and inspired by MeyiaArtBalloon channel:

April 6 - Bears

"Do not fear being repetitive. Repetition is the way to mastery."

~ Robin Sharma

I find myself compelled when I see images of a technique used to make such a variety of things -- I was hooked the moment I saw someone holding three versions of this bear at once.

It bears some mentioning (hahahahah, that was for me) that this is the second design that the auto-translation has to referred to as "on a stick".  And honestly?  That might be the best delivery method for balloon art in a linework setting.  It's quick, satisfying, and most importantly - it's actionable.

Consider the difference between a panda on a bracelet and a panda on a stick.  One's cute and delicate.  The other is something you're going to jump off the couch and swing at the dog as the new Panda warrior king.  Simply more fun.

This bear technique is fairly abstract, but works great and was shared by the Balloon Brothers Sepo on their YouTube channel.

(view other bears)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Balloon Brothers Sepo:

January 7 - Loopy Bearz

Always respect Mother Nature. Especially when she weighs 400 pounds and is guarding her baby.

~ James Rollins

These bears use the David Brenn Loopy Headz base design.

The simple concepts are great in so many ways.  Kind of like using a doodle to draw a picture from, you can pick two or three colors to use before deciding what to even create.  

I tried playing around with a couple different body styles (or pseudo-styles).  This is really a good minimalistic form to hang accessories on, which gives you the ability to make it as complex as you want it to be and/or have time for.

The polar bear is an homage in part to a balloon Matt Falloon showed during Q Convention 2020.  Matt, as always, brilliant in all he does - I'm looking forward to, but I am definitely not ready to try whatever finger burners he has been up to in the past years.   

Other balloons by and inspired by the David Brenn:

May 25 - Dome Head Panda

"You gotta let go of that stuff from the past because it just doesn't matter.  The only thing that matters is what you choose to be right now."

 ~ Po  Kung-Fu Panda

The Balloon Brothers (Joe and Brad Mock) recently taught at the Q Corner Convention.  The convention had a "short story" kind of benefit in that you got a quick exposure to a variety of styles and authors that I hadn't known about.

Apparently I missed a whole thing when these guys hit to balloon world like a storm with their stylized and usable balloon forms and have released a huge amount of tutorials over the past couple years.

So to use that same band analogy I used with Mr. Sung -- this is like I'm at the record store, I pull of the headphones and say something super-lame like "wow, that Justin guy from NSYNC seems pretty good"  Finally catching on to something that everyone already gets.

Here is the Panda they showed, I really like the "dome head" technique they show ... and they do have a tutorial series for it.

That mouth was a series of bad decisions.  I believe the process went "Too low, too far right, too big, hmm .. uhh ...I think I'll just rebuild it."   There is a subtlety that is lost with a monster mouth, let along looking like it's a zombie-virus kind of crazed.  Simply "angry eyebrows" can be a lot more effective.  One might wonder why it's angry rather than assuming "oh, it's hungry".


(view other pandas)

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Other balloons inspired by the Q Corner Convention:

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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Other Jackie Ochitwa inspired balloons:

April 17 - Panda

“If you keep on doing what you do, you will never be more than who you are right now.”

~ Master Shifu Kung-Fu Panda

Wise words from Master Shifu on the benefit of practice.  It's a good reason why to go to a convention, or try something new, or make a new version of something that you already know how to make.  You grow from the change.

This panda design is another from Stephanie Morace - and even though I've built (let me count... whoa) 10 other panda on this site, there is still value in making others.

Not only is it distinctly different from others here but it's also, like all of the designs Stephanie shared with us, an amazingly quick, simple and effective.  (Which should be obvious by how many were built!)

Panda with sons, P and A.

(view other bear, panda)

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Other Stephanie Morace inspired balloons:

March 30 - Panda Loop-Head

“The gypsies believe the bear to be a brother to man because he has the same body beneath his hide, because he drinks beer, because he enjoys music and because he likes to dance.”

~ Ernest Hemingway

The houses in my neighborhood have started hiding bears in windows as a scavenger hunt and activity for the younger kids.   This was what I put in ours, I thought white would be bright and visible - but I might swap this out for something more colorful soon.

This design is Mr. Boma's updated Loop-Head (link), used in a couple of his designs.   It's always fun to kick the brain bag around with a balloon concept ... hmmm.



(view other panda)

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Other Mr. Boma inspired balloons:

September 16 - Smoosh Panda

"Your story may not have such a happy beginning, but that does not make you who you are.  It is the rest of it - who you choose to be."

 ~ Soothsayer - Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

SMOOSH!

The second exercise for September is Smoosh! (link) - a balloon concept by Scott Tripp that mostly uses a smooshing technique.  The idea is that people have seen balloon artists do amazing things with twister type balloons - but to use round balloons, something everyone is familiar with - and turn it into art, makes it that much more impressive.

I've built a few Smoosh on this blog already.  There was a special preview video for Balloon Blast Patreon members, and I played around with it a little around Halloween last year as well.  Now it's time to do the deep dive and get smooshing!

The first video is for this panda, and Scott makes good use of your scraps to make some bamboo.  I ended up making three playing around with different sizings of things -- despite the simplicity of the concept, there is still some practice involved in getting things sized correctly.

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Other Smoosh:

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Other balloon designs by Scott Tripp:

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June 23 - Loopy Bear

I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.

~ Sun Bear, Chippewa

There were a couple bears shown in Tony Twist's Loop the Loop download (link).

The brown bear, panda and koala are all part of the release, but they are close enough in design to group together here.  Plus so far I have been building mostly what Tony has taught and it will help me speed through the rest to start leveraging this idea into other creatures.

This is the first time I experimented with using a smaller size Loop the Loop.  The form transfers well, but I need to figure out a better way to make the eyes as they are bulging out pretty badly here.

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Other Loop the loop designs:

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March 1 - Rolly Pollie Panda

“Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose kung fu skills were the stuff of legend.”

~ Kung Fu Panda

I've been a big fan of Dan Staples' creations - and Rolly Pollies are definitely my favorites (link).

They are easily made and a great use of big bear head balloons, but on top of that they provide a HUGE canvas for you to practice art on.  So when he released a second video in collaboration with the artwork of Lindsey "Pookie the Clown" Foster, I noticed the advertisement 8 minutes after he posted it's availability -- an insta-buy for me.

Time to Pookify these Pollies!

I'd like to use Rolly Pollies as my next balloon concept to explore since it's so versatile, but I'm going to be stuck in these videos for a bit because I keep stopping them to play with painting the new faces!  This panda is one of the first shown.

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Other posts with the Dan's Rolly Pollies:


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