June 30 - Loopy Goofy

“I've found that child's play -stuff that was not considered serious, but goofy- was the stuff I liked to do, so I still do it as an adult.”

~ Matt Groening

This Goofy is another freestyle use of Tony Twist's Loop the Loop concept.

Goofy is my favorite of the Disney "Big Three", and I thought I would give him a try using this style.  I think it worked fairly well, but I built it all from memory and now that I look at the pictures I realize I forgot his vest and white gloves.

I sometimes waffle between taking pictures using my photo box and taking them outside, but I really only have one option when it's a bigger model.  There is more control in the photo box, but I tend to have more fun trying to set up some sort of scene outside.  When I put head to the side, I got the idea that would pose him on a surf board.

Hyuk - Gawrsh!

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June 29 - Loopy Normal Sized Bird

“There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask "What if I fall?"
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?”

~ Erin Hanson

After building Big Bird yesterday I thought I would play a little more with Tony Twist's Loop the Loop concept and make a "plumpier" bird shape.

Even though the purple bird to the right has wonky eyes, the big fat belly and the spread wings make it my favorite.

The smaller bird on the right below uses Betallic burgundy - one of my favorite new colors.  I wish it was in all sizes, it's a bit restricting to only have 260s.

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June 28 - Loopy Big Bird

Watch out for each other. Love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself. Forgive your anger. Forgive your guilt. Your shame. Your sadness. Embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart.

~ Jim Henson

This little loopy Big Bird is the next to use Tony Twist's Loop the Loop concept.

Big Bird is one of the central characters on Sesame Street, designed to be about 4 1/2 years old he was curious about the world in the same way many of the viewers were, oftentimes learning to deal with complicated issues.  In 1981 he lost his nest to a hurricane, and I distinctly remember the episode where he learned that Mr. Hooper had died (the actor who played him had perished).

The whole idea for making Big Bird began from imagining building these legs, which I think are fairly successful.  But this one falls a little bit short for me.  Mainly because in reducing Big Bird down to what makes him distinct - so much of that is his big plump bird body.

Big Bird also has a "feather cowlick" - when I tried putting some small feathers poking out the top, but having that central portion made them look more like antennae.

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June 27 - Loopy Dragon

~ Skyrim Theme cover by Malukah

This weekend we had the pleasure of running the new escape room "Enchanted Kingdom" at one of our favorite establishments, Bull City Escape.

Our group, the Escape Goats, has escaped from a good number of escape rooms in the area, so I can say with confidence that owner and escape expert of Bull City Escape, Alice Cheung (pictured below) is a master puzzle-smith, the best we've encountered.  Her rooms are creative, challenging, balanced, engaging and perfectly themed.  It was awesome to have her as game master and show us some of the thought and mechanics that went behind a few of the puzzles after we had solved them - so clever!

I thought a dragon would be a nice thing to bring as well as fit with Tony Twist's Loop the Loop design concept that I've been exploring for the latter part of the month.  It sticks to the standard form "with limbs and tail", and came together quick - I ended up building one for our office as well.  The request this month was for the keyblade from Kingdom of Hearts, but it felt a little plain so I gave it to the dragon to hold but had a busy day and didn't get any pictures before leaving ...

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June 26 - Loopy Elephant

“We admire elephants in part because they demonstrate what we consider the finest human traits: empathy, self-awareness, and social intelligence. But the way we treat them puts on display the very worst of human behavior.”

~ Graydon Carter

Here is one of my first attempts in using Tony Twist's Loop the Loop concept to build something "off the page".

Each year I donate a balloon package to our school gala fundraiser, in previous years it was to provide balloons for an event, but this year we opted for a lower 'buy it now" price and offer multiple smaller balloon creations.  This is the first of these - an elephant as decoration for someone's first birthday party.  I was happy that the Loop the Loop concept could work so well for providing a nice larger sized model.

I built a prototype first and decided the ears were a bit small and I wanted to experiment with a nice Lima-twisted trunk that could hold a cake.   I think I had good success in the decision to have a separate balloon for the tip of the trunk because it could more easily be offset to provide a nice base.  I made a woven cake but it ended up a bit large and heavy, so i had to simplify with what you see here.

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June 25 - Loopy Fox

One day in the year of the fox
Came a time remembered well
When the strong young man of the rising sun
Heard the tolling of the great black bell

One day in the year of the fox
When the bell began to ring
Meant the time had come for one to go
To the temple of the king

~ Rainbow The Temple of the King

I love me some Ronnie James Dio.  I was fortunate enough to see him live a number of times in the later years.  I was crushed when he passed - but heard that old band mates of his are going to tour with his hologram (link) .... and I believe the top comment sums it up accurately for me. "That weird feeling of being both amazed and horrified at the same time."

The fox one of the few remaining designs from Tony Twist's Loop the Loop instructions.  He provides the main structure and I build in the appendages/tail - but this is the first time I'm happy with the tail.  Typically tails are not an easy thing to photograph as they are hidden behind a main structure and force either a sideways pose or some adjustment, this tail fit nicely wedged into the body shape sideways.

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June 24 - Loopy Mouse

Hey you, White House
Ha, ha, charade you are
You house proud town mouse
Ha, ha, charade you are

~ Pink Floyd Pigs (Three Different Ones)

When I was working on the bears for yesterday, I thought to make a polar bear.  But when the construction started looking mouse-like, I thought I would go for it.  I didn't realize at the time that the next design on Tony Twist's Loop the Loop instructions was a mouse.

The grey is what he teaches in the download but with a different cheese.  I went ahead and used the standard animal leg form that I've been using for the others and built a couple different cheeses.

I've almost gone through all of the designs that are shown on the download, I'm looking forward to using this design without relying on instructions!

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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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June 22 - Loopy Chipmunk

Dave: All right you Chipmunks! Ready to sing your song?
Chipmunks: I'll say we are! Yeah! Let's sing it now!
Dave: Okay, Simon?
Simon: Okay!
Dave: Okay, Theodore?
Theodore: Okay!
Dave: Okay, Alvin? .. Alvin? ALVIIINNN!!
Alvin: Okay!

~ Alvin and the Chipmunks, Ross Bagdasarian Sr. The Chipmunk Song

This chipmunk uses Tony Twist's Loop the Loop form.

We were tasked to take some iconic pictures of Raleigh, so I built and brought this guy downtown to take a picture in front of one of the big acorns. This one is in front of Meymandi Concert Hall.  (Raleigh is the 'City of Oaks' - New Years Eve, we lower a giant acorn instead of a ball.  Yep.  That's a thing.)

This uses the basic Loop the Loop form with the addition of some basic animal legs and a bushy 'Lima' tail.  I ended up making two because I wanted to experiment with a different way for adding the tail, and the one we brought downtown did not take outdoors nor being in a hot car very well and lost it's toes and head fur.

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June 21 - Loopy Cat

Siamese Cats have a way of staring at you. Those who have walked in on the Queen cleaning her teeth will know the expression.

~ Douglas Adams

Once again I got to experiment with some different limb styles for these Loop the Loop designs by Tony Twist and this cat.  Though Loop the Loops are primarily designed to be upright so it can attach to a hat base, you aren't so limited when creating a sculpture.

First I made the sitting cat using the form and colors Tony shows, but I thought I would try for a Siamese look with the standing form - in hindsight I should have probably made the cheeks beige as well.

Cats have a little extra bit to their legs that is tough to capture, they walk on their toes so it appears like there is an extra leg section that is actually the main body of their foot.  The feet I used don't really reflect that, they look like floppy socks to me.

This was a rare instance of getting a photo of our cat, Tosh - normally he wants nothing to do with balloons, but he was quite content to let me pet him in between attempts to take this photo of the cat council.

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June 20 - Loopy Bull

“For us, warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who can not provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity.”

-- Sitting Bull

Here is the next installment from Tony Twist's Loop the Loop - a bull.

I went for a different limb style on this - I think it makes a rather cute bull calf in the sitting pose. I didn't think about it at the time I took the picture, but it now prompts these quotes from Sitting Bull, and though I've done my best to avoid political commentary on this blog - it bears some mention here.

Sitting Bull was a Sioux holy man, who led a resistance movement against the American incursion, later made the "Supreme Chief of the Whole Sioux Nation". He was killed at Standing Rock Indian Reservation in an attempt to arrest him, site of the Dakota Access Pipeline movement. Taken from the Wiki:

On January 24, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to advance the construction of the pipeline under "terms and conditions to be negotiated," expediting the environmental review that Trump described as an "incredibly cumbersome, long, horrible permitting process." On February 7, 2017, Trump authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to proceed, ending its environmental impact assessment and the associated public comment period.

“What treaty that the whites have kept has the red man broken? Not one.”
-- Sitting Bull

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June 19 - Loopy Aliens

Rose: If you are an alien, how come you sound like you're from the north?
Doctor: Lots of planets have a north!

~ Doctor Who

The next design offered on Tony Twist's Loop the Loop (link) design concept is an alien.

Tony is very clear in his instructions, these are all fairly quickly constructed and probably perfect for line work as he builds them, but again since I'm not building them for someone in particular, I'm taking some extra time to experiment with hands and legs in a different way than he shows.

I tried two different versions of legs and hands this time, but I think I prefer the versatility and poseability of little grey man.

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June 18 - Loopy Devil

If you get down and you quarrel everyday
You're saying prayers to the devils, I say, wooh
Why not help one another on the way?
Make it much easier (just a little bit easier)

~ Bob Marley Positive Vibration

Tony Twist created the next balloon concept I'll be taking a look at - one of his newer releases entitled "Loop the Loop", available on his website (link).

This concept bears some similarities to his gigantic Embraceables line as it's a standing character - but the core design is very different and it's smaller, with the primary construction a hat (or at least worn on the head).  I'm not really fond of making head worn things, they tend to be problematic to take pictures of, so I'll be using the pattern for the character method and trying to come up with a few alternate ways to build the limbs.

This devil is the first he teaches.  I didn't change the limbs at all on this one, but it is missing the hat base.  Tony shows the design with the pitchfork accessory - I thought it might be amusing to have it walking a three-headed dog.

My photos have been suffering recently and I need to change something with my set up.  I had a problem with one of my lights and replaced it, but it's creating a bit of a yellow glow.  The picture above (one light off) is richer than the one on the left below (all lights on), but neither give the nice true colors of the photo that was taken outside.

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