April 1 - Fauxlaf

Original for reference

"I like worm hugs!"

~ Fauxlaf

As I will not have much time over spring break to build things, so being that I still have 100+ of these Olaf prints, I'm going to give myself the challenge of making a different Olaf version every day for as long as I can tolerate it.

I realize this probably feels like an April Fools prank - these are not the sexiest of balloon creations.  Though I have made a few to get started, I really don't know what else to make, and pushing beyond what I thought I could do is kind of the primary goal of this blog, exploring creativity and attempting to make better art.

So here is the first "Fauxlaf" in the series.  Playing around with some wrinkly bits, going for "old man".  Not sure I like the lips, they look like worms to me.

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

March 31 - King Leonidas

It's been more than 30 years since the wolf in the winter cold.  And now, as then, it's not fear that grips him... only restlessness. A heightened sense of things.

The seaborne breeze coolly kissing the sweat at his chest and neck. Gulls cawing... complaining even as they feast on the thousands of floating dead.

The steady breathing of the 300 at his back... ready to die for him without a moment's pause.  Every one of them... ready to die.

His helmet is stifling. It narrowed his vision, and he must see far.

His shield was heavy. It threw him off balance... and his target is far away.

The old ones say we Spartans are descended from Hercules himself. Bold Leonidas gives testament to our bloodline.

 ~ 300 (2006)

THIS ... IS ... SPARTA!

300 is both a visually stunning and powerful story, seasoned with testosterone and wrapped in bacon. It's perfect.  It's one of those movies that I don't click past. ... I couldn't even keep myself to just one quote:

Dilios: "Remember us." As simple an order as a king can give. "Remember why we died." For he did not wish tribute, nor song, nor monuments nor poems of war and valor. His wish was simple. "Remember us," he said to me. That was his hope, should any free soul come across that place, in all the countless centuries yet to be. May all our voices whisper to you from the ageless stones, "Go tell the Spartans, passerby, that here by Spartan law, we lie."

March 30 - Green Bottle Fly

Help me. Please... help me.

~ The Fly (1986)

Here is my next submission for the latest sketch4sketch challenge.  I tweaked a bit how the base structure was assembled and saw those as pincers of some insect.

The final result ended up looking like a fly, which prompted the final build using the metallic green.

I took some liberties when making the final build with the shape, changing the pincers to a sucker, and building the body in a way that would make the wings easier to attach.  I don't see it as cheating because the whole goal of the exercise is to inspire creativity.

One factoid jumped out when reading about the green bottle fly - their maggots prefer to consume dead tissue, and there was a time when they were sold as maggot therapy.   "The more you know!"

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Other balloon designs inspired by Alex Pardee:

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March 29 - Alligator With Finger Food

The most recent and last for a while episode of Alex Pardee's Sketch 4 Sketch show had this challenge, which was to draw something based on a sketch that he was using that evening.

There are some inherent difficulties in trying to build balloons vs. drawing a picture.  There are less liberties to take because balloons are (for the most part) three sizes of cylinders and some rounds, and yet it still has to look like a "something". 

Additionally, any pen work on a balloon does not look as well as it would on an image because it is difficult to give things a 3D look when a slight change in viewpoint will destroy the illusion.

However, there is one major advantage that modelling provides in an example like this.  I'm able to look at things from more that right-side up or down.  In this case I turned it to face the camera and saw a baby alligator.

When I built the first on the left, I wasn't content with the nostrils, nor the difficulty with positioning the body on the feet.   I built the one on the right but felt he needed something that I couldn't put my finger quite on (Dad jokes FTW!), so I added the hand-kabob.

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Other balloon designs inspired by Alex Pardee:

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March 22 - Bunnywith Human Feet

... And the LORD spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."

~ Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Last night I only side-watched Sketch 4 Sketch while playing Sea of Thieves with some friends.  The challenge was to build your own Bunnywith. 

Bunnywith, like Butterboy is a character created by Alex Pardee's - he is a bunny with ... ?  Name it.  The more bizarre the better.  He has a book available for purchase on his website - (link).

I went with the idea rather than the design, my bunny doesn't look like his outside of the color.  I also initially built mine with arms, and it was only this afternoon when I really got a chance to listen to the stream that I heard Alex say that Bunnywith has no arms.  "You can put arms on it, but I won't like it." he said in jest -- but that's what I want most, so I'm not risking it! 

March 21 - NOlaf

Hi, everyone. I'm NOlaf and I like warm bugs!

Before the first time at the one gig I ever do in a year, I was pretty nervous and wanted to do all I could to be prepared.  They had just released these Olaf printed rounds and the perceived new hotness of them made me rush to buy two bags.  ... I didn't use a single one. 

Cut to today where there is a veritable plethora (go go 11th grade English) of balloon prints.  Even... a dog.  Instead of making the simplest most iconic balloon in the world, someone blows up a round dog face and attaches it to the same body they use for a bear/cat/panda/cow/duck/monkey - it's just with a different printed head.  This seems almost tragic ...

So for a couple years now I've not only had these in my supplies, but also a spare bag in a drawer; and every time I come across them I wonder what I'll ever do with them.

In one of the recent Balloon Blast Video Shows, Sam and Scott reworked a balloon print to make a good variety of creatures -- I thought I would give that a go with some NOlafs.

March 19 - The Thing

We're gonna draw a little bit of everyone's blood, 'cause we're gonna find out who's the Thing. Watching Norris in there gave me the idea that every little part of him was a whole. Every little piece was an individual animal with a built-in desire to protect its own life. You see, when a man bleeds, it's just tissue. But blood from one of you Things won't obey when it's attacked. It'll try and survive. Crawl away from a hot needle, say.

~ MacReady The Thing (1982)

I had the pleasure this weekend of hanging out with some of my best friends and watching the original The Thing.  It's been 20+ years since I've seen this movie, and it still holds up.

The movie tanked pretty hard at the box office, competing with a few other science fiction and fantasy films at the time - people were enjoying the fun fantasy of E.T. and weren't thrilled by the nihilistic tone and hopelessness here.

Also, Wilford Brimley without a mustache? (!!!!)  Seriously weird stuff. 

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Other Dorb balloon designs:

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