December 30 - Alp Hund

“Every time I go to sleep, I know I may never wake up. How could anyone expect to? You drop your tiny, helpless mind into a bottomless well, crossing your fingers and hoping when you pull it out on its flimsy fishing wire it hasn't been gnawed to bones by nameless beasts below.”

~ Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies

An Alp is a creature from Germanic folklore who resembles an elf.  It comes to you in the night and twists your dreams into nightmares.  In fact the German word for nightmare is Alptraum, the German word for dream is Traum...

The next creature in the balloon bestiary is an Alp Hund, these blind creatures use a psycho-cognitive ability to hunt and feast upon night terrors.  Oftentimes they will follow an Alp on his nightly haunt anticipating a delicious and malevolent repast.  It's tail is tipped with a vicious stinger that can paralyze a sleeper inside of the dream.  If you have ever have a nightmare wherein your legs refuse to move and you feel trapped, keep your eyes shut tight - keep to the safety of the monsters in your imaginations.

December 28 - Dagon

I cannot think of the deep sea without shuddering at the nameless things that may at this very moment be crawling and floundering on its slimy bed, worshipping their ancient stone idols and carving their own detestable likenesses on submarine obelisks of water-soaked granite. I dream of a day when they may rise above the billows to drag down in their reeking talons the remnants of puny, war-exhausted mankind -- of a day when the land shall sink, and the dark ocean floor shall ascend amidst universal pandemonium.

~ H.P. Lovecraft Dagon

Dagon is one of the earlier works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and details the account of a man who escaped capture at sea only to later be washed up on an unnatural shore, seemingly thrust from the bottom of the sea by a volcanic expansion. Upon exploring this wasteland, he comes across a monolith with pictorial carvings and hieroglyphics the likes of which he had never seen, with aquatic symbols and ominous marine humanoids with bulbous eyes.

He flees in horror when he catches sight of one of these grotesque creatures, but is endlessly pursued even after returning to San Francisco. The creature haunts both his waking moments and dreams, and the narrator believes that only morphine or death will will give him any respite. There is a sloshing sound from the hallway and the story ends rather abrup...

This balloon design is based on one of Buster Balloon's head designs I used last year that I referred to as Surly Dudes.

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Other Lovecraftian balloon designs:

December 27 - The Candy Cane Man

On the day after Christmas, in the dead of the night,
Make sure you're asleep, and your kids are tucked tight.
For tonight is the night of the midnight explorer,
Who goes house to house, a peppermint horror.
He's searching for those who have taken his young,
Wrapped them in plastic and decoratively hung.
Heed this warning, though it's no guarantee -
But make sure you've eaten the canes off the tree.
Throw them away, or do what you can,
To avoid the wrath of the Candy Cane Man.

This balloon was inspired by Alex Pardee, who posted another of his amazing monstrosities with an after-Christmas poem about "Fun Henry".  It's so good, you should go read it now: link.

It got me thinking of the nozzle-monster I made last year around this time, and I thought to recreate him with balloons and candy cane fingers.

I tried a few ways to get some snarly teeth, but eventually scrapped the idea because it kept creating too much separation between balloons.  Perhaps if I had drastically under-inflated the middle section ...

December 26 - Dark Young Seedling

“Something black in the road, something that wasn’t a tree. Something big and black and ropy, just squatting there, waiting, with ropy arms squirming and reaching . . . It came crawling up the hillside . . . and it was the black thing of my dreams—that black, ropy, slime jelly tree-thing out of the woods. It crawled up and it flowed up on its hoofs and mouths and snaky arms.”

~ Robert Bloch Notebook Found in a Deserted House

Lovecraft's Shub-Niggurath is one of the Outer Gods in the pantheon, said to be the progenitor of the "thousand young" or "dark young".

When spawned, they are suckled by their mother, where they latch on with their powerful limbs, each tipped with a single sharp tooth.  Their gaping maw consumes not only the milk, but the flesh of their mother until cast aside to roam the cosmos.

Fully formed Dark Young stand over twelve feet tall and are roughly tree shaped with a mass of tentacles and gaping maws dripping with green goo.  They are often called upon to reside over cult ceremonies and act as proxies to Shub-Niggurath by accepting the sacrifices.

Adorable!

May 21 - Akua'ba

Children are the reward of life.

~ African proverb

I saw and was drawn to this African artwork display when on a college tour with my oldest son, and in particular this wooden fertility doll.

Some artwork is much more than art, and this is one such piece - I don't imagine it was crafted for pleasure or sale, but rather as an artifact, a talisman of hope for parents who were hoping for a healthy child.  I found myself transported while staring at it, wondering if it were cherished and hoping it was successful.

If there is any true magic in the world as I hope; somewhere, somebody is alive as direct result of this.

Instead of paraphrasing what I learned about these dolls, I'm going to quote the Wiki directly:

Akua'ba are wooden ritual fertility dolls from Ghana and nearby areas. The best known akua'ba are those of the Ashanti people, whose akua'ba have large, disc-like heads. Other tribes in the region (f.ex. Lobi people ) have their own distinctive style of akua'ba.

Traditionally, these dolls are carried on the back of women either hoping to conceive a child, or to ensure the attractiveness of the child being carried. When not in active use, the akua'ba would be ritually washed and cared for. 

Today, one is more likely to see a mass-produced akua'ba for sale as a souvenir than an heirloom in ritual use. Traditional use does, however, continue in some areas. The form of the akua'ba has also gained currency as a general symbol of good luck.

I tried capturing the form in a couple different ways.

May 20 - Holy Diver

In the misty morning, on the edge of time
We've lost the rising sun, a final sign
As the misty morning rolls away to die
Reaching for the stars, we blind the sky

We sailed across the air before we learned to fly
We thought that it could never end
We'd glide above the ground before we learned to run,
Now it seems our world has come undone

~ Black Sabbath Children of the Sea
   Ronnie James Dio
   (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010)

Ronnie James Dio is one of those musicians that has helped provide the musical landscape for my life.

I owned few albums in 5-6th grade, but one of the first times I tried to make a tape for myself was with my boombox paced next to the speaker and playing the Heavy Metal movie soundtrack.  I would read the liner notes and introduce each song like a DJ.

This was my first exposure to Dio, The Mob Rules with it's slow rolling introduction, set to an epic cartoon, chock full of fantasy sexuality and I ... loved .... it.  I didn't know much about it at the time, I was a musical mess but I knew I loved this.

It was the following year that my best friend Marvin introduced me to Holy Diver and I began to associate this musical sound with the Dungeons & Dragons we would play, it was the perfect landscape and we started defining more clearly our musical tastes.  I have been lucky enough to see him play a number of times, and to this day, Black Sabbath Heaven & Hell remains on my "desert island" playlist.

The day Ronnie James Dio passed left me in shock.  Music is a constant companion, there in your best and worst times - and to think that this person who for 30+ years had been providing a connection and release through my history.  I had lost a friend in a way I couldn't express, I sat in my room and wept for the loss.

\m/ Magic \m/

May 10 - Maria Franz

~ Heilung - Othan

Hariuha laþu laukar gakar alu ole lule laukar

The balloon today is dedicated to Maria Franz, Norwegian singer and co-founder of the bands Euzen and Heilung.  This image is based on the shaman she portrays in Heilung.

I tend to like a wide variety of music, my kids never know what will be playing in the car when I pick them up: choral music, reggae, 80's rock/metal, perhaps some songs I might be practicing for my next time at Karaoke.  Recently it's been a selection of Norwegian folk music, but to describe Heilung as music seems somehow insufficient - it's more like magic.

The video above is for the song Othan, the text of which is from Hávamál - The Sayings of Hár, the second poem in the Poetic Edda - which is said to be one of the most important works regarding Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends. Maria's vocals are as hauntingly beautiful as she is herself.

May 4 - Thanos

I'll do my best not to include any spoilers here, but if you haven't made the time to see Infinity War by this point - it's really on you.

For me, every superhero movie is defined by the villain, the better the villain the better the movie.  Black Panther was fantastic in this respect, there was a sympathetic quality to Erik Killmonger - you were torn between understanding his quest and the ends at which he was going about it.

Thanos's motivation is pure, he wants stability in the universe - it's what he is willing to do to achieve it that makes him a villain.

Brilliant.  Can't wait for the next installment.

May 2 - Gall Biter

Galladnium Bitoris or "Gall Biter" is a predatory and parasitic worm.  Though practically blind, this jaundiced leech uses olfactory nerves at the tips of its appendages to sense infected and perforated gallbladders, a primary food source.

This was inspired by both Alex Pardee, who is just now recovering from gallbladder surgery (Gall Boy cannot be stopped!) and Zipper Von Don Groshong (zippertpaints) who offered a challenge based on the word "monster".

April 30 - Grief

Jackie left on a cold, dark night
Telling me he'd be home
Sailed the seas for a hundred years
Leaving me all alone
And I've been dead for twenty years
I've been washing the sand
With my ghostly tears
Searching the shores for my Jackie-oh

~ Sinead O'Connor Jackie (link)

One of the favorite high school memories that my wife has shared with me is when she and a friend won tickets to a Sinead O'Connor concert.  (Click that link!!)  Sinead has an unmatched soulful power in her voice and songs, it's a shame that many people reduce her to "that one bald chick".

Jackie is a song about a woman dealing with the grief of losing her husband at sea.  Screaming "you're all wrong!" in denial at the man who brings the news, and never accepting it as reality.  She is haunted to search the shores, ever scanning the horizon in hopes of his return.

I built two balloons trying to capture the grief.  First was the older woman, refusing to call herself a widower, but then I took the lyrics literally and built a ghost version of her younger self.

The rough form of the balloon is based on Shana Brenion's cutie dolls and remains one of my favorite balloon concepts to make women with.

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Other cutie doll balloon designs:

All Shana

April 25 - Eddie

"O God of Earth and Altar,
Bow down and hear our cry,
Our earthly rulers falter,
Our people drift and die,
The walls of gold entomb us,
The swords of scorn divide,
Take not thy thunder from us,
Take away our pride."

~ G.K. Chesterton: English Hymnal
   Iron Maiden Revelations

I love Eddie.

I remember distinctly the first time I ever listened to Iron Maiden.  My sister played Piece of Mind for me at the impressionable young age of 13 and I was blown away not only by the music, but this mascot/zombie guy on the cover.  I became a fan.

The only time I have ever slept overnight for concert tickets was for Iron Maiden's Somewhere In Time tour, some friends and I ended up with 10th row tickets.  Worth it, easily one of the best concert experiences of my youth.  The band is amazing live and Bruce Dickinson is a consummate showman.  \m/

This balloon started as a little bit of an experiment in whether or not I could draw Eddie's face.  He has more of a skull-like appearance so I used a bit of distortion to try and emulate that.

April 20 - Evil

"I don't think he's medically unfit to be president. I think he's morally unfit to be president."

~ James Comey

I have shied away from making any sort of direct political statements on this blog so far.

But art is a reflection of the world, interpreted through a medium, and despite the vitriol and disdain this might invoke from his supporters - this is how I view our president.

Steeped in greed, hungry for power, impulsive and cruel.  Misogynistic.  Xenophobic.  Dangerous.  Manipulative.  Evil.

April 19 - Gremlin

The sugar plums are rancid
And the stockings are in flames
There's a demon in my belly
And a gremlin in my brain

~ Spinal Tap Christmas with the Devil

Gremlins are viewed as mischievous creatures in roughly humanoid shape, oftentimes blamed for mechanical failures in aircraft and machines in WWI and WWII.

Though it's open for debate, it's said the origin of the term 'Gremlin' is said to have been derived from the old English term 'Greme', which is to vex or annoy.

Similar to the tale of elves helping the shoe cobbler, in folklore, Gremlins are creatures said to have helped humans invent machinery.  But humans showed these creatures little regard or gratitude and thus angered and invited their wrath.

The design uses the head structure similar to the baby bumblebee that was just recently released in my first ever tutorial collaborations, TBA (actual title) - link.  TBA is a benefit project set up for a fellow twister in need, I don't receive anything from it - but if you have purchased, I would love any feedback, good or bad - this was a fun exercise and I'd like to do better but I have a immediate negative perspective (hearing myself talk, seeing myself on camera, etc.).

I cheated a bit (more than usual) on the final image, I didn't like how reflective the mouth was in the photo, so I painted it over with black.

April 16 - Fauxlaf Cutting Room Floor

Original for reference

"I like warm farewells!"

~ Fauxlaf

My confession is this started as a bit of an April Fools joke, but ended up being a pretty fun creativity exercise.  Sooooo ... "April Fools!" I suppose ....

As with everything we've explored on the blog, I'm sure we could keep going.  As I write this I'm remembering I still need to build a cyborg, and a muscleman, and a two-headed giant, and .... 

But at this point things are getting too ... comfortable?  In most any sort of exercise, whenever something gets too comfortable - it's time to change things up.

So here a few of the remaining bits and baubles with the various reasons of why they didn't get used.

Fauxlaf Walter Brimley (Too random of a celebrity, thought I would make a Sam Spade or Porn Stache Policeman)	Fauxlaf Dead Skin Mask (Too drastic of a face swap, doesn't maintain anything Olaf except the eyes and lower jaw)
Fauxlafette (I wanted to add hair and never got it together)	Fauxlaf Googley Eyes (lame, no clear theme)
Fauxlaf Upside Down Face (idea didn't pan out to anything cool)	Fauxlaf Unibrow (prototype, no clear theme)

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 15 - Delicious Fauxlaf

Original for reference

XX

~ Fauxlaf

This is my new favorite.

.. and it's one of the things I love about creativity challenges like this.  I'm not sure I would have come up with this if I hadn't exhausted doing other more easily imagined versions.

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 14 - Zombie Fauxlaf

Original for reference

"Brrraaaiiiinnnns!"

~ Fauxlaf

So much balloon inkwork is defined by crisp lines, I started smudging around the sharpie marks and decided I should try and make a zombie.

The smudging worked really well for the teeth, they look rotten.

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 13 - Fauxlaf Flowers

Original for reference

"I like worms!"

~ Fauxlaf

I went a little bit crazy with the markers on this one.   In hindsight it probably would have been better to have a blue background, perhaps some grass.  But I would have had to paint over the mouth and the black circle kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

You can still see the faint outline of his mouth.

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Other Fauxlaf balloons: