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:

April 12 - Spider Fauxlaf

Original for reference

"I like warm bugs!"

~ Fauxlaf

The credit for this idea goes to my wife, who suggested the many eyes of a spider.  At first I made a bunch of them, but ended up painting them over in favor of attaching an extra two outside the normal eyes.

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 11 - Fauxlaf Doll

Original for reference

"I mmph mmmrm mmmfs! "

~ Fauxlaf

The first time I tried making a creepy doll Fauxlaf I used cross hatching in black across the mouth and it looked a mess.  When I saw some hemp cord at the art store yesterday I thought it would do the trick.

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 10 - Crazy Fauxlaf

Original for reference

"Eye lick warm hug!"

~ Fauxlaf

This Fauxlaf started with the eyes.  Having two drastically different sized eyes gives a bit of a crazy look.

I went to one of our local art stores and decided to try a different paint pen.  The blush nose uses a "Posca" (for the blush in the nose.  It's nice and opaque and fairly cheap, but takes a long time to dry.  There were a few other styles I think I'll go back and try...

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 9 - Evil Fauxlaf

Original for reference

"I like warm souls!"

~ Fauxlaf

Today's Fauxlaf started with the teeth, which had a chattering Cenobite look to them.  So naturally, adding angry yellow bleeding eyes was necessary ...

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 8 - Fauxlaf Cyclops

Original for reference

"I like one hug!"

~ Fauxlaf

Eye wanted to play around with making this a cyclops.

Eye couldn't think of anything else distinctly "cyclops" other than it's eye.  The cyclops from Clash of the Titans had a horn, but that would not be very visible since the wide smile keeps the face very tall.

Not 100% satisfied with this one, but Eye'm not sure what else to change to make it better ...

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 7 - Fauxlaf Stoner

Original for reference

"I like warm drugs!"

~ Fauxlaf

I was playing around with adding shape to his head and a 5 o'clock shadow when the pen slipped and I made a weird mark off to the side. 

That mark became a smoke ring and the rest kind of fell into place on this one.

Beautiful accidents.

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 6 - Fauxlaf the Snowman

Original for reference

"I like warm hearts! Mmmmm!" 

~ Fauxlaf

The next in the Fauxlaf series is closer to the original than most.

Alex Pardee created a monstrous snowman that was inspiration for this variant.

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 5 - Fauxlaf Dynasty

Original for reference

"I like Rock n' Roll all night!"

~ Fauxlaf

One of the first albums I ever owned was Kiss Dynasty ... because I'm really old and/or really cool like that. 

These are all fairly rough and could probably use a second build, but a wiser man that I once said "it's better to be done than perfect."

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 4 - Fauxlaf the Boss

Original for reference

"HUG!   HUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGG!"

~ Fauxlaf

The original idea for this guy was to make a creature entirely from the prints, but a couple 160's helped anchor some sections and hide unsightly connection points.

I am amused by the idea that he's a boss creature you have to fight in a video game.  Innocently crushing his victims in an avalanche of hug.

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 3 - Fauxlafephant

Original for reference

"I like bans on trophy hunting!"

~ Fauxlaf

I played around a bit with double stuffing here.  Most colors didn't have much of a color change, even when over inflated.

This worked the best - black in white.

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Other Fauxlaf balloons:

April 2 - Fauxlaf Snake

Original for reference

"I like warm rodents!"

~ Fauxlaf

Ssso you thought it wasss an April Foolsss prank?

Here isss the sssecond Fauxlaf in the ssseriesss.

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Other Fauxlaf balloonsss: