November 27 - Raccoon

Rocket Raccoon: His people are completely literal. Metaphors go over his head.
Drax the Destroyer: *Nothing* goes over my head...! My reflexes are too fast, I would catch it.

~ Guardians of the Galaxy

I copied this design from my Patrick Van de Ven inspiration folder. I really think the design looks fantastic, and I love the cheerful personality he's able to get in the face.

The main purpose of this blog was to inspire myself to be a better balloon artist. I really love showcasing the designs that people have made available not only because it's an easier way to figure out design elements, but I also really respect and admire their dedication to furthering the artform and want to support their efforts. Oftentimes the effort to create far outweighs any financial rewards, no one makes a fat bankroll selling balloon designs.

Copying a design from an image is certainly much more difficult (I included my chubby first attempt below), but definitely worth the effort.   In comparison to music, it's the difference between being taught a song and being able to play after listening to a song. It's okay if you're not exact in your copy, you're playing from the heart and using that as a launching point for your own creations.

I still have a good number (too many?) actual tutorials, that won't stop. But it's in that spirit that I will be trying more and more to create from images, with the eventual goal to get past the reliance of these images.

It was like this when we got here ...

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Other posts with Patrick's designs:


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