... if I were a polar bear, I would say "yes please!"
... if I were a conservationist or research biologist with a grant to burn, I would shout "Hooray!"
... if I were a documentary narrator with a velvet british accent, I would shout "my word!"
... if I were a snowball with sentience, pondering upon life and existence during the dark winter storms, I would project *delighted apprehension!* with a flurry of flakes.
... alas I am but a balloon artist. Penguins are my inevitability.
---
This is one of the starter designs from Tobi Twist's Jojo Cuties collection. Like every modern rock album needs a ballad, every balloon design needs a penguin. Rock on little bro.
[Truth told - I actually do enjoy building a new version of -any- animal. This blog makes it easy and really fun at this point to look back and see the others that were built over time, and significant or subtle differences between them (links on website only unfortunately). This is the 13th "penguin" post by my count. Lucky!]
(view other penguin or jojos) Other balloons by and inspired by Tobi Twist:
"When you put love out in the world, it travels, and it can touch people and reach people in ways that we never even expected."
~ Laverne Cox
A normal bird would have made much more sense to have in rainbow colors, but the image of all these guys lined up kept pinging and pinging around my head.
Penguins hit that sweet spot of being immediately iconic and .. creatively flexible? Stubby or sleek, tall or round, royal crest or bald dome - you see that black and white waddle body and you just know.
There are a number of animals that share this I suppose (monkeys/crabs/frogs/birds/fish come to mind) - with just enough consistency to feel familiar, just enough wiggle room to get weird.
I can't promise this is the last penguin I will build...
-- This design is another Isopresso build. It has some interesting choices in the build, I really love the ... intentionality? .. of using a fat belly balloon.
(view other penguin) Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:
"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."
~ Sir Edmund Hillary
This is another penguin taught by Isopresso, I would say the anime-cute version of the two. I did try to downsize because with cute, going very small or very big is usually a win.
After some fiddling to get its legs just right, the little guy ended up with a "baby's first steps" vibe. Like catching a tiny mid-waddle moment of courage.
(view other penguin) Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:
"No matter what I do with my life, or how successful I am, I will always be a socially awkward penguin inside."
~ Wil Wheaton
Nobody knows why Sir Reginald Waddlesby Dabbington does it. Left wing up, right wing bent, head down - perfect form. Before diving, before eating, before waddling to the other side of the ice. It’s just this little quirk he has.
The rest of the colony has learned to live with it. They don’t question it anymore. They just shift impatiently, waiting for their turn to jump in, letting out the occasional sigh while Reginald goes through his motions . Is it weird? Sure. Does it slow things down? A little. But at this point, no one’s about to say anything.
--
This balloon is one of the penguin designs Isopresso teaches on his YouTube channel. My first arms were a bit out of proportion, hence the dabbing penguin. The bow tie is because he's Sir Reginald Waddlesby of course.
(view other penguin) Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:
“The woods would be quiet if no bird sang but the one that sang best.”
~ Henry Van Dyke
This quote is apropos, this design was a bit of a failed attempt but I'm going to stop myself from stopping myself and talk about it anyways.
Buster shows a decent variety of these Dorbs animals (I still might build them) - but I really just wanted to play around a bit instead of copy a design, yet still .. keep it simple, stupid.
I built the swan with a very basic body rather than a trying support the head on a long neck in the traditional pose. Though I didn't really like how that turned out, changing the color of the feet on both the duck and penguin look nice.
What I believe did not work, and the reason I was hesitant to post this without rebuilding - are those ears. I have ideas on how I could use the concept and get a better rounded head, but I'll have to save those attempts for a future balloon... I went completely off grid for
Skipper: Kowalski, what's our trajectory? Kowalski: Ninety-five percent certain we're still doomed. Skipper: And the, uh... other five percent? Kowalski: Adventure and glory like no penguins have ever seen before. Skipper: I'll take that action. Private: Where are going? Skipper: The future, boys. The glorious future.
~ Penguins of Madigascar (2014)
Using Matt Falloons Bopup technique for this next balloon - a penguin.
Two things Matt has worked out using this technique that bear mentioning, you don't have to stock you balloon bag with anything extra to make a Bopup. Also it creates a very precise and sturdy balance point on the bottom, these will wobble around but come precisely back to a centerpoint - so it is wise to pay attention to how things sit on a flat surface before committing to a design.
Other balloon designs by and inspired by Matt Falloon:
Surf's Up is a animated mockumentary movie from 2007 about surfing penguins. I saw it in the theater with my boys during the days when we would see just about anything animated. I'm not ashamed to admit that I kind of enjoyed it - it was predictable, it was everything you thought it would be, it had an unlikable main character, but there were some pretty funny parts. Chicken Joe is definitely a highlight.
This quad bod was another one that Jeffrey Hayes showed us in his webinar.
These simple concepts are fantastic, but it's evident to me that I didn't take very good notes in class. I didn't have a reference picture and once I started working out how I was going to stage the Purple shot, I noticed I should have made the bellies white so I had to build another.
I remember hearing in a Brian Potvin lecture at Bling Bling Jam how he builds everything three times before he calls it complete. I think this blog stands as evidence for the benefit in that. In the simplest form; a first build is an exploration, the second is a refinement and then the third is polish.
There is a mysterious ritual that dates back thousands of years. No living creature has survived it except the penguin. They have wings but cannot fly. They're birds that think they're fish. And every year, they embark on a nearly impossible journey to find a mate. For twenty days and twenty nights the emperor penguin will march to a place so extreme it supports no other life. In the harshest place on Earth loves finds a way. This is the incredible true story of a family's journey to bring life into the world: March of the Penguins.
~ Narrator March of the Penguins
This penguin is another one from my Linda Truscheit inspiration folder that uses "Truscheit-style". She has a knack for getting them so chubby cheek cute. Hers didn't have arms, but I felt when I tried copying that it was missing - I probably didn't get the backside right, so I added.
This one took a few tries until I was satisfied with the neck connection, there is one that looked too weird to even post. I also tried a couple different body types and ideas with attaching the feet, but with great shame I admit I attached them with rubber cement on my last attempt after getting frustrated and giving up trying to get them to sit right and have him stand up.
That's one of the complications with having to take a picture - things have to be able to stand or lean well enough to look good while I take the picture.
I've marched until April. May I leave now, June? (If julyke?)
Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band
Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man
Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand
And now she's in me, always with me,
tiny dancer in my hand
~ Elton John Tiny Dancer
I just recently received my copy of Matt Falloon's Picos DVD, and barely made it through the first couple designs before I had to stop and play with it.
Matt's videos are always well produced and chock full of great designs - these are no exception. These Picos are created to fit on a hair clip or small ring or as an accessory to a larger sculpture. They're cute enough to elicit a squeal of pleasure from anyone lucky enough to receive them.
I can already tell these are going to be my new favorite thing to do with a few random scraps of balloons. I grabbed a few out of my miscellaneous pile and made a pico-bird based on the penguin design.
I'm going to have to work on my sharpie skills if I'm going to start drawing more accurate faces on such a tiny area though!
Waddle we do?
I'm out of my cage - Polly gone.
Come on guys, you can make it! - anyone too tired should just hop on!
I have been going through the newest Sweet Cheeks video from Eric Weinstein at a furious pace. I'm almost complete, but I ended up looking back at the previous one and saw that I hadn't built this penguin yet. Since I've already talked ad nauseum about how much I like these, I figured I would tell you a story centered around why I made this.
Tim is a fellow Bass who sings in the North Carolina Masters Chorale with me, he collects penguins so when I saw this I knew I wanted to bring one to him. We just started our new season - the NCMC is 170 people strong and an amazing group, led by a inspirational, dynamic and musically demanding conductor - Al Sturgis.
Sweet Cheeks & Ate-too-many-sweets Cheeks
My parents forced me to join choir my senior year in high school, but I fell in love and since I had a light schedule - Mr. Rose allowed me to join both the general chorus and the chamber choir. In college I was part of the men's choir - and I can't even begin to describe the amazing sound 60 men make when singing gospels in a stairwell. It was magical, I think the stairway is still probably vibrating from it.
After college comes life - and for 20 years I lost touch with one of the great loves of my life. But 5 years ago, I heard the NCMC season was beginning and they were to be performing Carmina Burana, which has been part of the musical fabric of my life since watching the movie Excalibur over and over again. It was on my iPod nestled between 80s metal bands. I nervously auditioned and was accepted, now every Tuesday in the season I feel spiritually renewed at practice.
This season we are once again singing Carmina as live choir backdrop for a modern ballet. It's the second time I've been part of it, we wear black and sit in the first few rows facing the stage - it's really a magical event.
This school year also marks the last year of Mr. Rose's long career as choir instructor at my high school. In the last concert of the year, it is tradition to invite all of the returning choir members to come up on stage and sing the final song - this year I'm hoping to return and be part of Mr. Rose's Opus.
Skipper: Kowalski, what's our trajectory? Kowalski: Ninety-five percent certain we're still doomed. Skipper: And the, uh... other five percent? Kowalski: Adventure and glory like no penguins have ever seen before. Skipper: I'll take that action. Private: Where are going? Skipper: The future, boys. The glorious future.
I can't speak for the quilting, rubber stamping or small porcelain doll groups, but we have an awesome balloon community that is very willing to share and help others. Kaiumporn Tee (Balloon TwisTEE) is based out of Thailand, she has a very stylized look to her designs and has shared many of them as picture tutorials - I'm sure I will be building more of them to post here!
I really like the chibi look of this penguin. The construction is fairly simple, but you do need to get a feel for the various bubble sizes with some trial and error, because often you are twisting your connection points before you need to lock them in.
Penguin
Pink one
Freeze a jolly good f-f-f-fellow, Freeze a j-jolly good f-f-fellow!
I have a folder dedicated to balloon art from Lily Tan. She's an amazing and brilliant professional balloon artist from Singapore, has published a few books on balloon twisting, is in this years Guinness Book of World Records credited for creating "The world's largest three dimensional balloon sculpture" and is very often featured in Balloon Magic magazine.
I really like how squeezy-squishable-huggable this guy ended up.
