October 31 - Dr. Frank N. Furter

So, come up to the lab
And see what's on the slab
I see you shiver with antici-
-Pation
But maybe the rain
Is really to blame
So I'll remove the cause
But not the symptom

~ Sweet Transvestite
   Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Happy Halloween! 

Ponysaurus is a local brewery run by a couple friends of ours, they not only have fantastic beers - but have also been very generous to our school community by sponsoring and contributing to events through the years.  My wife has been event coordinator for a few of these and has expressed how grateful she is to have them as sponsors and as friends.

Recently they had a Rocky Horror Picture Show movie night, so I made this for them.

Dr. Frank N. Furter is probably one of the toughest faces I've tried to create -- the balance he strikes in his androgyny, both handsome and beautiful.  I rebuilt the face a number of times trying different hair styles, different face structures.   I'm not really fond of the final result to be perfectly honest, the face is chubby around the jowels and the hair is too sparse, at least from this angle.  The one before had a better looking face but I overdid the hair into a big poofball and undoing it caused some problems which prompted this rebuild.

October 30 - Surly Pig

I break the walls
Get away from me
Leave me alone
Like the pig on the stairs Hanging
In a groovy purple shirt
~ The Cure Give Me It

Once again it's time for me to try the balloon concept on a purple pig -- and I'll be honest, this one almost stumped me.  The connection point for the nose is a bit sunken and I played with a few different configurations of the head in order to get it to attach in a way that didn't leave it levitating over the face.

I figured I'd try and keep with the Halloween theme and give him a bucket to collect candy with.

I've enjoyed exploring this balloon concept, Buster has something here that is very different from a "traditional" design.  It requires a bit of a squish and some imagination, but it gives you a nice big-head framework to work with.

Thanks Buster!

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Other Surly Dudes:

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Buster Balloon:

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October 29 - Surly Ghost

When the crypt goes creak,
And the tombstones quake.
Spooks come out for a swinging wake.
Happy haunts materialize,
And begin to vocalize.
Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize.

~ Buddy Baker and F. Xavier Atencio
Grim Grinning Ghosts

We're getting close to the end of the month, so I only have a few more of these surly dudes left to post.  I always find it surprising that I run out of days before I run out of designs to use a balloon concept for, and this one in particular I started by having no idea what I would make.

It worked out pretty well I think.  My brother presented me with a quote the last time I visited, "the absence of pressure is the enemy of art".  I think this exercise is proving the converse of that statement true - the pressure of building another 10 of these without any sort of template has encouraged a lot of creative exploration, and I've probably half-built and trashed more than I have shown here.

This ghost is probably the simplest uses of Buster's form.

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Other Surly Dudes:

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Buster Balloon:

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October 28 - Surly Fish

“Alive without breath,
As cold as death;
Never thirsty, ever drinking,
All in mail never clinking.”

~ J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit

I played around with the shape of things for today's post.  This is a little more loosely based on what I'm referring to as the "surly dudes" concept that Buster Balloon has used for a few of his Halloween designs.

Again the beauty of building a fish is that the adage of a "million fish in the sea" is true and it's easy to play around with the shape of things.  I first built the blue one but wasn't happy with the big gap that I had to fill - I built things a little more efficiently with the green.  It's less triangular, but I like the way the 646 uses up a lot of that room.

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Other Surly Dudes:

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Buster Balloon:

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October 27 - Surly Frank

I'm a teenage Frankenstein
The local freak with the twisted mind
I'm a teenage Frankenstein
These ain't my hands
And these legs ain't mine

~ Alice Cooper Teenage Frankenstein

Here is Frankenstein's Monster using the structure shown in Buster Balloon's 31 days of Halloween balloon montage.

This is the first one of these surly dudes that I've built with hair.  The technique doesn't really give you attachment points up there so it's rather limited what you can do without some sort of cheating.

I've mentioned before that one of the complications I run into at times is that these things need to stand and be somewhat poseable.  This balloon had one leg ever so slightly longer than the other and it took some finesse to get him to stand up straight.

The original idea was to have Purple wielding the torch and Frankenstein's Monster cowering, but I having hands cover his face obfuscated the design.

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Other Surly Dudes:

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Buster Balloon:

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October 26 - Surly Devil

Prayed like a martyr dusk to dawn.
Begged like a hooker all night long.
Tempted the devil with my song.
And got what I wanted all along.

But I, And I would,
If I could, And I would
Wish it away.

~ Tool Jambi

This is a devil using the Surly Dudes technique Buster Balloon has demonstrated.

The teeth give a nice snarl, something he showed in the mummy.  Since these need to be "accessorized", I gave him a soul to hold on to.

I prefer Qualatex red, one of the few Q balloons I use - it's more opaque and richer in my opinion.  I accidentally popped the upper lip which was the last red in my bucket so I used one of my reds from a junk bag that happened to be Betallatex.  You can really see the difference in colors with those two, but I think it works out well to have the lip color slightly different so it's a happy accident.  (I've since restocked my reds.)

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Other Surly Dudes:

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Buster Balloon:

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October 25 - Surly Alien

You and I, we are strangers by one chromosome
Slave to the hormone, body and soul
In a struggle to be happy and free
Swimming in a primitive sea

You and I, we must dive below the surface
A world of red neon, and ultramarine
Shining bridges on the ocean floor
Reaching to the alien shore

~ Rush Alien Shore

I was once again playing with the "Surly Dude" balloon concept introduced by Buster Balloon in his 31 Days of Halloween, and came up with this alien.

I thought about making this in grey, but the little grey men have a very distinct look, so I went for the classic little green men look.

I feel like these creations need an accessory, because as great as the head structure is, the body is a bit plain vanilla.  So I gave this guy a space blaster to complete the look.

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Other Surly Dudes:

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Buster Balloon:

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October 24 - Surly Pumpkin

I used to be a little boy
So old in my shoes
And what I choose is my choice
What's a boy supposed to do?
The killer in me is the killer in you
My love
I send this smile over to you

~ Smashing Pumpkins Disarm

With just over a week until Halloween, here is one a little more fitting for the season.

Last weekend we went and got our own pumpkins to carve, which served as inspiration for creating this guy.

This is once again based on a balloon concept shown by Buster Balloon in a few designs on his image montage "31 days of Halloween" (Instagram link).

This one looks a bit like a member of the pumpkin mafia in his pinstripe suit.   Gourdo Zucca wants his protection money or things are going to get "smashy".

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Other Surly Dudes:

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Buster Balloon:

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October 23 - Surly Bee

Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
Who watches over you
Make a little birdhouse in your soul
Not to put too fine a point on it
Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little birdhouse in your soul

~ They Might Be Giants Birdhouse in Your Soul
   (video)

Before TMBG began making children's albums, they created a masterpiece called "Flood".  The songs are corny and catchy at first, but are filled with symbolic meaning and depth.  This one (to me, as it is obviously open to interpretation) is about growing up and facing your fears, initially with the help of the inanimate object of a nightlight - but then encouraging you to take the step beyond needing this crutch.

I have a good number of yellow 646s that I've used to make minions with, so I thought I would play with this Buster Balloon concept (surly dudes) with those.

This surly bee came out of that. I thought about drawing on the stripes, but I think a woven body works a bit better.

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Other Surly Dudes:

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Buster Balloon:

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October 22 - Surly Bulldog

It's good to be king and have your own way
Get a feeling of peace at the end of the day
And when your bulldog barks and your canary sings
You're out there with winners, it's good to be king

~ Tom Petty It's Good to be King

Here is one of my first attempts at playing with this Buster Balloon "Surly Dude" concept.  I have a number of 646/660s in my "extra junk" bag that I was going through just to play around with the design when this guy sort of appeared.

I'm really enjoying this play - the design base is very different from the others, and it really creates an interesting look.  The big protruding chin gives a good bulldog look.

If you look carefully in the image with Purple - you can see not only the professional camera setup I use ... ... ... but the Werewolf from yesterday is on display to help with our Halloween decorations.

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Other Surly Dudes:

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Buster Balloon:

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October 21 - Surly Werewolf

It's close to midnight
Something evil's lurking from the dark
Under the moonlight
You see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream
But terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze
As horror looks you right between your eyes
You're paralyzed

~ Michael Jackson Thriller

The second balloon concept I'd like to explore this month is something that Buster Balloon has used a few times on his 31-days of Halloween image montage he does every year.  I built two of them last year, Mummy (link) and Creature from the Black Lagoon (link), and this Werewolf is one other that I've seen him build.

It's certainly more complicated to attempt to build something that there are not instructions for, but in this case it's worth it - it's such a unique looking head.  Great for an angry creature, I believe I will refer to these as Buster's Surly Dudes.  I can't wait to play around with the idea a little bit more.

His pants ended up a bit big and poofy...

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Other Surly Dudes:

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Buster Balloon:

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October 20 - 8-bit Zombie

"In those moments where you're not quite sure if the undead are really dead, dead, don't get all stingy with your bullets."

~ Zombieland (2009)

Earlier this year, Buster Balloon hosted a balloon lab where he went over in very fine detail the process he uses to create his show.  I don't perform, but it was chock full of valuable information nonetheless.  Additionally if you signed up for a certain subscription level - you were given the opportunity to have Buster design a balloon for you and share it with everyone in the group.

This was from the first of those videos, someone requested how to build a zombie face.  This was delivered in "lab" fashion - and I really like the conversational tone it has.  It is far more useful than a simple tutorial if you understand the reasons why something is this way rather than prattling on about a bubble sizes and twists.

I made a simple body to go with it.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Buster Balloon:

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October 19 - Eric's Pumpkin

Linus: Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.

~ Linus It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Here is one from the Eric Weinstein collection Party Delights (link).

This pumpkin looks great with those big giant eyes, and Eric proves that with some practice it can be made in under three minutes.

We are getting our pumpkins this weekend, and for many years now we've been using the stencils you can get at the supermarket to make elaborate designs.  It was a novel thing 5-10 years ago, but now it's something pretty common and I think now I prefer the "classic" look.  However this time I'm inspired to make a painted pumpkin instead.

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Other Party Delights:

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Eric Weinstein:

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