November 30 - Chibicoro Purple Pig

Just a burden in my hand
Just an anchor on my heart
Just a tumor in my head
And I'm in the dark

So follow me into the desert
As desperate as you are
Where the moon is glued to a picture of heaven
And all the little pigs have God

~ Soundgarden  Burden in my Hand

I'm assuming by this point you're able to guess what today's build was going to be.  With each of the balloon concepts/people I study here on the blog, I attempt a purple pig using that style.  So here you have Chibicoro Purple Pig.

One of the things I wanted to play with and didn't afford myself the time to in this section was attempting these with the different sizes of balloons, so here is a pig in 160, 260 and 360 sizes.

Chibicoro's really translate easily to the different sizes.  The 160 is adorably tiny and reminds me somewhat of Matt Falloon's Picos, the 360 is a little big and chunky and reminds me of Jeffrey Hayes Quad Bod design.

The generous people (person?) in charge of the Chibicoro website have come up with a great, quick and versatile design and shared it freely, it's well worth the effort to practice making these because there are important subtleties you can learn from making smaller balloons.  Slightly different pressure in the building, or minor variations in sizes can be very noticeable.

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Other Chibicoro balloon designs:

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November 29 - Chibicoro Adventure Time

"People get built different. We don't need to figure it out, we just need to respect it."

~ Princess Bubblegum

For one of the last couple of Chibicoro I'm going to build for now - I thought I would try Finn and Jake from Adventure Time.

This form really works fantastic for cartoon characters or things that can become cartoonish, and it's so quick to build them that I actually waited until after 10:30 PM (after returning from choir practice) the night before publishing this with just the idea of what I wanted to build.  This was an adventure in procrastination!

 Jake was the first and easiest built, Finn came in a close second - I thinned out his face a bit so I could add the hood, similar to how I built Kenny.  Surprisingly, Princess Bubblegum is the one that I spent the most time on and I still don't think I like the way she ended up.  I tried a few ideas for long hair and the hands really interfere with that, and at this point the hands look like ears.  Of course, now that I type this (as is the case with all the balloons I feel unsatisfied) I realize I should have made one with her hair up in a ponytail or something, but I've already committed to pictures, and I'm sleepy now.

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Other Chibicoro balloon designs:

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November 28 - Chibicoro Wizard of Oz

“Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't you think?”

~ L. Frank Baum
  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Since the Chibicoro form is rather small and quickly built, I've been looking for groups of characters to build.  Which is why I settled on these Oz characters.

The Wizard of Oz was one of the staples movies of most of our childhoods, but one of the guilty pleasures I had growing up was reading almost the entire series of L. Frank Baum Oz books.  It was a collection that my mother owned and these were the days before you could click your heels three times to get another book downloaded on your tablet, or ordered for delivery the following day.

My favorite Oz book, however - was actually written by Science Fiction/Fantasy author Philip José Farmer, Barnstormer of Oz.  It was a story of a pilot who inadvertently crossed over to Oz and took a realistic(?) look at things as they were described in the original story.  Finding fault with the tale and searching for the truths behind the story.

One such story that blew my young teen mind was that of the Tin Man.  The protagonist (name eludes me) reasoned that the Tin Man's story of rusting in the woods was false.  If you cut off a leg and replace it with a tin leg, you are still you.  If you cut off your arm and replace it, the same.  You could cut off body part after body part - but what about your heart, or your head?  At what point are you not you?  He confronted the good witch with this and she confessed that she used her magic to imbue him into the armor and left him rusted on the path for Dorothy to find on her journey.

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Other Chibicoro balloon designs:

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November 27 - Chibicoro Clowns

“You know what would make a good story? Something about a clown who make people happy, but inside he's real sad. Also, he has severe diarrhea.”

 ~ Jack Handy

I was considering what to build to day when I impulsively picked up a scrap of white and lilac, made the basics of a two tone Chibicoro then I saw I could make it into a clown. I didn't really like the way the smooshed balloon worked for the lower part of the face and thought I would build one where the face is completely drawn in the upper section.

I actually almost chucked the idea out as boring - when the thought occurred that it might be fun to make a tramp-style clown.  (I'm not sure if there is a better name for them?)

This is what I've heard referred to as the "corridor approach", it was a business lesson I was taught ages ago and the analogy stuck with me. You don't know what doors are open when you stand at the very end of a corridor until you walk down it a ways. There might be completely unseen pathways until you take those steps, and a big barrier to success is an unwillingness to take those first steps until things are lined up perfectly.

I really like how the tramp turned out, and now that I've traveled down that corridor I've seen a few other tramp-clown styles I might try if given the opportunity to build it again.  I tried two different ways to get big shoes - I'm not sure which I like or if I should go a different route there.

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Other Chibicoro balloon designs:

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November 26 - Chibicoro Spongebob & Patrick

Spongebob: "Patrick, you're a genius!"
Patrick: "Yeah, I get called that a lot."
Spongebob: "What? A genius?"
Patrick: "No, Patrick."

These are my attempts at making Spongebob and Patrick using the design concept from the Chibicoro website (link).

Patrick was an obvious choice and assembled pretty quickly, but I ended up trying a couple different ideas with Spongebob before settling on something I liked.  I didn't want to have pinch twists to square off the head because they looked like an extra set of arms, and any sort of extra balloons added a weird bulk.

I ended up going for a fatter head but got enthusiastic about an idea for making the legs/shoes.  They should be a bit smaller but I hope you can see what I was going for, those are 260's over a balloon straw with one end tulip twisted in to a pants leg.

I have to remember to focus when I make Chibicoro (or any balloon concept for that matter) - it's not a matter of adding all the little details, when you are creating something using a balloon concept - stick to the concept!  Also, back to basics - what are a few words to describe Spongebob?  A goofy faced yellow sponge in a suit.  Detailed legs are neat but unnecessary.

I finally removed them, which had the added effect of keeping the characters somewhat in proportion to each other.

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Other Chibicoro balloon designs:

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November 25 - Chibicoro Farm Animals

No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be? Suppose you had decided to follow Snowball, with his moonshine of windmills– Snowball, who, as we now know, was no better than a criminal?

~ George Orwell Animal Farm

One thing that I admire about the Chibicoro site (link) is how clean each of the designs are they create.

I've been using the form, but I haven't been as precise as I probably could be - so to attempt to remedy this, I am using 4 designs directly from the site and doing my best to pay attention to these small details. Keeping the leg/hand sizes the same, sizing the top and bottom bubbles correctly, etc. The one thing I will probably keep doing different than the site is in drawing the artwork vs. using decal stickers. It's pretty hard to draw in pen on a rounded surface and have things line up well, some of that is the light I use while twisting (low) and my eyes (bad) and my hand (shakey). But practice practice practice is the only way to improve.

One thing of note is the baby chick design called for "pale yellow" - I'm not sure what color that is, but I was able to get something close by stuffing a yellow inside an ivory.

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Other Chibicoro balloon designs:

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November 24 - Chibicoro Star Wars

“So this is how liberty dies…with thunderous applause.”

~ Padmé Amidala Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Here are some Star Wars characters using the  Chibicoro style (website).

I didn't afford myself too much time to build or take pictures of these, so they are each first attempts at making the characters, and as such there are things that I would do better or different if attempting again.

My favorite is Palpatine, which was the first I built and inspiration to try a few other characters.  I realize he was partial to using force lightning, but I really like how his lightsaber turned out, which was really just some scraps and nozzles around a balloon straw.

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Other Chibicoro balloon designs:

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November 23 - Chibicoro Thanksgiving

We must find the time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.

~ John F. Kennedy

Happy Thanksgiving!
... if you celebrate it, otherwise:
Happy Thursday!

The first turkey I built used the basic Chibicoro design, but I went a little off the rails - once I added the tail, I decided to add a longer neck and go for a more realistic (?) turkey look.

The basic form is still there, but I'm not sure this one qualifies as a Chibicoro balloon. 

The tail is using the pinch-line technique (see, I said I would be using it all the time!).

The cooked turkey also uses the basics of the Chibicoro design, I'm sure you can see why I'm a big fan - you can make pretty much anything with ease.   

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Other Chibicoro balloon designs:

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November 22 - Chibicoro South Park

When you're watching 'Armageddon,' and the Aerosmith song starts... Super funny.

~ Trey Parker

These four boys use the design demonstrated on the Chibicoro site (link).  They were kind of an obvious choice of something to make, being short and squat to begin with.

I saved Kenny for last because I wasn't sure how I would make his hood, but now that he's done, he's my favorite.

They do all wear gloves, but I opted to stick with blush because colors were making them look less like hands and more like weird extra flaps from the beanies.

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Other Chibicoro balloon designs:

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November 21 - Chibicoro Superheroes

... But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely.

~ Ra's al Ghul Batman Begins (2005)

I was chatting with someone today who expressed a bit of disappointment that I was embracing such a seemingly simple concept as balloon art when I just finished making some amazing Nao balloon art.  Paraphrasing my reply here:

Chibi's are simpler balloons conceptually, but more challenging than building some bigger structures.  Small balloons are unforgivable, like Picos - slight variations in size and pressure are obvious, you have very little room to work with to realize your creation and in order to keep things in scale, and very few balloon options to use.

Here is a perfect example, I had visions of building a bunch of heroes, but tried and tried again playing around trying to get a form I liked.  I started with an idea to add a head on top by pinch twisting a very soft bubble, thinking I had to have feet color underneath the pants.  I was feeling lukewarm on the first attempts so I built the two cleaner versions to the right below which gave me an extra attempt at drawing the faces, but those didn't feel right either - more like a chubby Pico than Chibicoro.  Finally I tried a couple that closely followed the Chibicoro form and they ended up being my favorite.

Excelsior!

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Other Chibicoro balloon designs:

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November 20 - Chibicoro Disney

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

~ Walt Disney

Chibicoro balloons are a balloon concept I stumbled across last year in a hunt for balloon art. (link)

But what is a Chibicoro? The word "Chibi" roughly translates to "short" in size. From the website, using google-translate I've learned that the design is intentionally small and simple, easy to build and perfect for the decoration of a gift or a greeting.

This is the first "free" balloon concept that I've used this year, the Chibicoro site (link) demonstrates how to create the basic forms and gives a LOT of examples.  Because this is available freely, I am happy to share the specific elements that I used to create my versions of the designs as I try to explore the concept further.

This time I've explored a few Disney characters - the "Big 3"; Mickey, Goofy and Donald.

First built was Mickey to refresh my memory and using the design they demonstrated in their archive (link).   Then I attempted Donald and finally the Goofy.  Goofy is a bit of a cheat on the form by adding the shoes, but he's such a tall character to begin with and I really like the way they ended up. In fact that one works well standing on it's own.

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Other Chibicoro balloon designs:

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November 19 - Pip's Sheep

“The greatest fear in the world is of the opinions of others. And the moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are no longer a sheep, you become a lion. A great roar arises in your heart, the roar of freedom.”

~ Osho, Courage The Joy of Living Dangerously

Here is another creation from Pip Milford-Hughes, Pippity-Pop! - from her recent release Loving Line Work (link) , Baaaaaaarbara Sheep.

Pip really has a great collection of fast to build, yet still very cute animals.  This one could easily be built in under two minutes if practiced, maybe less.  Even though I almost never twist in a line type situation, it's great to have something so quickly/easily built that has a nice impact.

The instructions taught the white wool sheep, I changed some colors around to build the black wool.

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Other balloon designs by Pip:

November 18 - Rainer's Spider

Sometimes it looks like I'm dancing, but it's just that I walked into a spider web.

~ Demetri Martin

This spider is a design shared by Rainer Fürstenfeld on his YouTube channel (link).  So many spider designs end up being limited by chubby legs even using the thinnest balloons, so Rainer hit on something fantastic with this one.

I made a couple to give out at various locations and they were in love with the realistic and creepy look.  I really enjoy the "whoa!!" response when I give someone a balloon.

I believe balloon artists can be caught in a cycle of thinking they can only use balloons.  The addition of some different bits of media like a simple pipe cleaner or feathers or tulle or ???? used in the right way could add an amazing depth to a creation.

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Other balloon designs by Rainer Fürstenfeld:

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