December 24 - Chibi'ish Elves

Confusion is the first step toward clarity.

~ Syd Field

This is another "cleaning out the closet" post.

To be perfectly honest, this were some images I had set up for text I had planned to write years ago, and I don't think my memory lasts longer than a few weeks at this point -- sometimes less than the time it takes to walk TO the refrigerator.   

I wasn't going to post them, but then one of the thing I have always espoused on this blog is that it should not be about a perfect build/picture/text, it's about practice and learning and exploring and celebrating some of the amazing designs that others have made.   A failed attempt to me is as equally instructive as a perfectly crafted image. 

These are obviously not chibi, they don't follow the basic form design -- they are more like stacked chibi parts.  More just "mini"? -- I kind of think these are more in line with Matt Falloon's "pico" designs but at this point I would probably need to watch the videos again.

I don't know .. I should be wrapping presents anyways. 

December 23 - Santa Little Body

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

~ Robert H. Schuller

I built these guys a few years ago after the Qualatex (RIP) online balloon convention in 2020, they are based on Stephanie Morace's little bodies (buddies?) she taught there and I didn't want to overuse her design at the time in case she wanted to do something more with it.  The previous post had been queued to send in the far future ... 

Stephanie has a knack for coming up with unique quick and cute designs, not only just an amazing artist - I remember meeting her as she deservedly won "top dog" twister award (remember her amazing dog?) - always smiling or laughing, she is a gem.

I won't lament losing balloon shapes in every post -- but I will at least in the first.   321's ... I shall miss you.  I will always remember the shark teeth, the witches chins ... the .. ghost?  I mean there really honestly weren't a LOT of uses I had for them, but still giving up any markers out of the kit feels like a loss.

---

Other Stephanie Morace inspired balloons:

March 18 - Other Little Bodies

“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”

~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Here shows some of the versatility of Stephanie Morace's Little Body balloon base.

The baseball player was one example she showed us, I thought I would play around with a few others.

Adding a mustache to the keystone cop I thought had good effect and made the jaw really pronounced.   I wish I had opted for a "grr face" on the soldier and less prominent ears - it's a bit Beetle Bailey as it stands.

---

Other Stephanie Morace inspired balloons:

March 17 - Little Body Leprechaun

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

~ Dalai Lama

I've had this post archived and saved for a long while now (Since March 17, 2021 actually).  Stephanie Morace created her "Little Body" design and shared it in the first Qualatex online balloon convention, but since she was considering releasing it as a downloadable, I didn't want to step on her doing that by posting variations.

Here's Little Body Leprechaun, super-duper tight pinch twists giving a bit of a clover look.

---

Other balloons like this:

February 25 - wafflefriies

“Life is long and art a toy”

~ Antonio Machado

wafflefriies is a recent DeviantArtist who I imagine was playing around with commissions probably wondering "what does this button do".  Surprise!  Wanna build a purple pig?

But then moments later I received my own, "Suprise!  sure!"

This is probably a perfect design for an oven mitt.  It actually kind of reminds me a bit of a finger puppet toy, or maybe a teether for a baby if it was hard plastic.

February 24 - PixelDutchie

Adolescence is just one big walking pimple.

~ Carol Burnett

PixelDutchie is a DeviantArt artist from the United States that had a very colorful badge commission and volunteered to see what she could do with our pig as inspiration.

One wonderful thing about DeviantArt is you can sometimes see the artistic evolution of someone in their gallery.  PixelDutchie just really blossomed as an artist, some of the most recent images she has done are fantastic - her most recent is my favorite, though I may be a bit biased. :)

This looks like a teen pig, proud because his spikes are finally coming in, not realizing that this means acne as well...

Februrary 23 - ZacharyVasquez

Sketching is like dancing. It's process as much as product. You can turn your head off and just sort of dissolve into the now. Doing a giant, super thought-out painting is the opposite of that.

~ Molly Crabapple

ZacharyVasquez is a DeviantArtist from the United States that offered to sketch up today's tough guy.

This is the sinister look you see in an anthropomorphized pig down a dark alley and start questioning your life choices and whether or not you will ever eat bacon again.