August 31 - Alligator (with a flamethrower)

The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.

~ George Carlin

I've had this image for a little while, but with one more day in the month, I figure it's a good time to clean house and start fresh.   (Plus I've had a very long day and want to go to be early!)

What's more dangerous than an alligator?  An alligator with a flamethrower of course!  Some of you may have already seen this image, it was posted in Ballon Twister Central because #animalswithflamethrowers.

The basic form of the alligator is around the Bauldy Super Dudes, and I believe this is a good example of why being familiar with a few of these basic balloon concepts is more valuable than knowing a bunch of "formula for a designs".   There is a self satisfaction in building something you have never seen.

(This is different than building Daniel Tiger - where I was trying to copy an image and get it to match as close as possible. )

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Other Super Dudes:

August 30 - Eric's Mario

"Video Games are bad for you? That's what they said about Rock 'N' Roll."

~ Shigeru Miyamoto

Eric Weinstein has released a good number of tutorials on both video and PDF, ranging from very detailed distortion techniques to quickly built linework items.

This is from a recent video series of his called "Party Delights" which contains some popular but quickly built designs.  Each of these has a bit of Eric's flair and he proves he can build each of them in under three minutes.

This Mario is designed to be wrist wearable, but could easily be made into a standing figure.

After building Mario, I thought to try for Luigi - but even with a thinner face and longer jaw I don't think I got the bean shape well enough, it looks like a green Mario to me, which is why I went for another attempt at one and built Fire Mario.

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Other balloon designs by Eric:

August 29 - Daniel Tiger

It's Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
A land of make-believe
Won't you ride along with me (ride along)
It's Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
So much to do, so much to see
Won't you ride along with me (ride along)

~ It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Happy Birthday Geo!

The third balloon I've made for people who won the auctions at our school gala is this Daniel Tiger.  This was a centerpiece for a birthday party the last weekend.

I had not heard of Daniel Tiger before this - but the internet provided plenty of information.  This is a program produced by the Fred Rogers Company and based on the Neighborhood of Make Believe from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. It's goal is to teach emotional intelligence and respect using guidelines set forth by Fred Roger's research in child development. This isn't just a goofy cartoon - this is the good stuff.

I had made a prototype face but had a crazy busy day - and the night I was going to build this I didn't get started until about midnight. There are things I would do different upon building it again. The stuffed geo head worked great for a nice round head, but it is a bit overinflated and oval in the final build. Also, the top half and the bottom half are a little mismatched. Instead of having a layer of red to give a bulk to the bottom of the sweater, it might have looked better and created a better transition if it were just a 260.

August 28 - Fabrizio's Mouse

“Any cat may stare into a fire and see red mice play,”

~ George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

This mouse is a mini one of what was shown by Fabrizio at Bling Bling Jam this year.

I think there is something both beautiful and terrible about Facebook bringing together balloon artists.  Beautiful in that it's a great place to share ideas, and terrible in that by sharing it kind of homogenizes things.  There is little incentive to come up with your mermaid when you've seen a bunch of efficient ones shared.

Brian Potvin spoke on this briefly in one of his lectures about how he had to distance himself from social media in order to develop his own style.  There are many artists who elevate themselves above this and you can know by their style.  It would be a disservice to make a list, because I would inevitably leave of a good number of people that deserve this kind of recognition.  The rest of us are a melting pot of the creative forces that effect us.

Fabrizio embodies this individuality.  All of his designs I found to be characteristically "him".  This mouse is a prime example.

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Other balloon designs from Bling Bling Jam 2017:

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Other balloon designs from Fabrizio:

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August 27 - Baby Pig

Narrator: And though every single human in the stands or in the commentary boxes was at a complete loss for words, the man who in his life had uttered fewer words than any of them knew exactly what to say.
Farmer Hoggett: That'll do, pig. That'll do.

~ Babe (1995)

The rule I gave for myself at the beginning of this year was to try to make a purple pig using each of the balloon concepts - and even though the baby face balloon isn't so much of a concept, neither was "Bling Bling Jam" or "Geos" - so I fretted for a bit on how I would solve this puzzle. I had already made a purple baby last year when poking a little fun with the Lyle-pig (link).

This idea occurred while I was looking for shapes in the textures of our shower curtain - I saw a giant bunny and thought a pig costume might work out.  I left the nozzle on intentionally, thinking it would add to the "suit" effect.

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Other babyface designs:

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August 26 - Baby Roarke & Tattoo

"Smiles, everyone! Smiles!"

~ Mr. Roarke Fantasy Island

I have no way near exhausted everything that you can do with these baby faces, but I'm thinking I will draw this baby face exercise to a close.  Just like every balloon concept we've explored on this blog, I'm sure we could go one for a long while making different babies - but truth told, it's not as exciting as some other things I'd prefer to build.

I continue to waffle between liking and not liking these baby faces and I'm on a low ebb. I'm sure they are perfect for some people in certain speed twisting occasions, but since they are such a simple design, why not take the 15 seconds and draw.

So what in my opinion makes a good printed round? Either something that has enough detail that you wouldn't want to draw (Buster's Zombie, Scott Tripp's Robot, etc.), or something that you can use to accessorize whatever you are building (eyeballs, basketball, clear snowflakes, etc.)

One terrific example of that is one I don't actually have - Anthony Lena has created a baby face for the Continental Sales Private Catalog that is printed on both sides, one happy and one crying face.  I could see this used for great effect - build it while showing the crying face and swivel it around once you hand it to the child, etc.

I'm getting side-tracked. These I originally made a couple days ago while making the "dapper" babies.  I thought the first looked like baby Mr. Roarke so I went with it and built baby Tattoo using toffee.

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Other babyface designs:

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August 25 - Baby Picos

A baby will make
Love stronger
Days shorter
Nights longer
Bankroll smaller
Home happier
Clothes shabbier
the past forgotten
and the future
worth living for.

Here is the cold splash of reality.  As nice as the simple face is on these prints, it really is just a simple face - the real value added is the launching of the idea space.  The thrifty among us will realize that a bag of these prints is $12, while the same sized bag of blush or mocha rounds is less than half that.

Rachel Ripkin posted an extreme downsizing of the baby though and I wanted to try it out as well.

I made three, they got progressively smaller -- the first two are the basic form downsized, the last uses Matt Falloon's Pico techniques to get super tiny.

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Other babyface designs:

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August 24 - Baby Angels

It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.

~ John Steinbeck

Bowie looooooves his toys, but chews them to pieces.  So you can imagine his excitement when after keeping him away from Purple for so long, he finally got to get a good sniff in (and maybe even snuck a lick).

One thing I wanted to point out is that I accidentally popped the right arm of the devil, so I grabbed another blush from my scrap barrel -- but it was much darker by comparison.  I avoid mixing balloon brands for this same reason so it's interesting to note that different batches of the same brand can have such a variance.

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Other babyface designs:

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August 23 - Swaddled Babies

"Ah, babies! They're more than just adorable little creatures on whom you can blame your farts."

~ Tina Fey

This design was originally posted by Juan Gonzales but has been shared repeatedly on Facebook, both as is and as a baby björn.  Christopher Lyle shared one with a baby bottle using 3' rounds that he made for a little girl about half the size of the final creation and received the biggest tip I've ever heard for a balloon artist,  and yet it is is probably one of the quickest built uses of the baby head print.

Juan hit it right with this design and I think it's fairly safe to say that a baby is a fairly universal balloon you could create for any party/event.

Not everyone wants the latest movie hero, zombie, ninja, alien or princess ... but who is going to refuse a swaddled wittle biddy boo?

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Other babyface designs:

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August 22 - Car Babies

I hooked up my accelerator pedal in my car to my brake lights. I hit the gas, people behind me stop, and I'm gone.

~ Steven Wright

Another good use of this and other printed round heads is to mount them in a vehicle, and you can do this with pretty much any head and any type of vehicle - planes, tanks, boats, cars, spaceships, etc.  Here are some very young drivers in their cars.

The car design is a rough version of something Stephanie Moratz taught in a webinar ages ago.  I built the pink car first - thinking "Pink Cadillac" - and I think I like it better than my second attempt.  Using the larger balloons on top give it a cleaner/straighter body.

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Other babyface designs:

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August 21 - Baby Rockers

“... And these children
that you spit on
as they try to change their worlds
are immune to your consultations.
They're quite aware
of what they're going through...”

~ David Bowie - Changes

Juan Gonzales posted his awesome version of a baby David Bowie a while back and I've had it saved in my inspiration folder for this very moment.

There are a good number of musical superstars out there that I could have chosen, and I still think it would be hilarious to make 4 baby KISS - but at last I decided on baby Prince.

I am enjoying how these baby heads (and arguably a few other prints) can add to a design.  The 'baby' adjective makes things more interesting than vanilla.  Somewhat similar to a creativity exercise game Scott Tripp had us play - where we chose from a list of randomly generated adjectives and randomly generated nouns.  The adjective takes something as simple as a train - and makes it a zombie train, baby train, robot train, minion train, evil train, space train, magical train.

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Other babyface designs:

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August 20 - Dapper Babies

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.

~ Ernest Hemingway

Note that it's "Dapper" not "Diaper" this time!

Juan Gonzales posted a number of designs showcasing his new (at the time) baby faced print, and one that caught my eye was this dapper gentleman.

The body design he used was slightly different, this one is based on his kakamora (link).  I believe the compressed torso helps keep the baby look, any more midsection and it would be too adult.

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Other babyface designs:

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August 19 - Baby Heroes

If I go crazy then will you still
Call me Superman
If I'm alive and well, will you be
There holding my hand
I'll keep you by my side with
My superhuman might
Kryptonite

~ 3 Doors Down Kryptonite

The nice thing about these baby faces, is that they can be used for almost any humanoid if you incorporate those specific character details.

So here is my attempt at "super babies".  I started building Super... infant(?) but when I was finished he seemed too obvious of a choice, so I tried coming up with a couple others.

These faces come in both mocha and blush, but my choices are fairly limited with superheros I could use mocha with.   I've already built Luke Cage on this blog - but the Defenders just released on Netflix, so I felt it was fair game.  In fact, I was side watching it while I was working on these.

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Other babyface designs:

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