May 31 - GoreyHoe

"Look," said Zaphod, "we want to eat, we don't want to make a meal of the issues. Four rare stakes please, and hurry. We haven't eaten in five hundred and seventy-six thousand million years." 

The animal staggered to its feet. It gave a mellow gurgle. "A very wise choice, sir, if I may say so. Very good," it said, "I'll just nip off and shoot myself." He turned and gave a friendly wink to Arthur.

"Don't worry, sir," he said, "I'll be very humane."

GoreyHoe is another one of those DeviantArtists that might scare off the average consumer, with an offerings like "Worms, knives, guns, whatever floats your boat!" -- one must wonder what floats his boat.  And where that boat is floating.  And good god, the calls are coming from INSIDE THE BOAT!

The smile despite the disembowelment is reminding me of the Ameglian Major Cow at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe (which I thought was a pig up until looking up the name just then) hence the quote.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is not just a comedy romp through the stars, it's full of brilliant philosophical and moral brain exercises like this.  Arthur must decide between eating a green salad when he has been told vegetables have strictly expressed their preference not to be eaten, or a talking bovine that was bred specifically for, and desires to the point of recommending it's choicest cuts of itself personally, be consumed.  

May 30 - SlinkySilver

"You have the most to offer when you're just being yourself"

~ Babar

SlinkySilver is a Canadian DeviantArtist that volunteered to make this sketch based on something similar he had created. 

It is reminding me of Babar the Elephant, so this is the ruler from the neighboring Swine Kingdom, His Royal Highness, King Roderic VonStinkle Applebottom. (Pronounced Von Shtinkle)

May 29 - Dome Head Fish

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

~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Played around with the Balloon Brother Geo Dome form and made a fish.  Fish are pretty easy in that anything in a roughly fish-y form is a fish, but with this nice big bulbous head it's definitely a cichlid of some kind.

The fins and tails were afterthoughts - I had no idea what I was doing with them, so I played around with a few different styles not really settling on anything I liked.  I thought using a slightly different color for the fins would be neat, looks bad in pictures -- next time I'm going to try crystal yellow, the color might match better and it has transparency.


(view other fish)

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Other balloons by and inspired by the Balloon Brothers:

May 28 - Dome Head Triceratops

"triassic thunder
echoes through fire storm and rain
triceratops falls"

~ Rick Parise

The difference between a balloon technique and a balloon recipe is whether or not you can use it as a launching point to make something else.  It doesn't have to make everything, it doesn't even have to make most things.

So the Geo Dome technique by the Balloon Brothers I think works well to create a creature a quick large sized head and could easily be a go-to for some designs if you like to go big.   The eyes are well placed, the slope of the head works well, it's sturdy creation - not overly complicated, you could prepare early.

Here was my attempt at a Triceratops.  I tried a few different ideas for the bony frill, kind of pleased with the 321 solution which sat the best around the neck.  The outdoor pictures ended up being mostly out of focus, and I had to wrestle that horn to get it straight - but unfortunately straight and in-focus didn't intersect anywhere.


(view other dinosaur, Dome Heads)

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Other balloons by and inspired by the Balloon Brothers:

May 27 - Dome Head Pig

"Well-being and happiness never appeared to me as an absolute aim. I am even inclined to compare such moral aims to the ambitions of a pig."

~ Albert Einstein

... of course I had to build a pig with this technique, but easily enough it is one they teach!  I feel like there is a good lesson in this.

The pink pig was made immediately after the panda at the Q Corner Convention, it seemed obvious and there was a pink geo in my junk pile.  The purple pig was made after watching the Balloon Brothers tutorial Geo Dome tutorial.

Of course it would possible to sit in a room, practice a lot and eventually probably come up with a perfect design, but why not start at the foundation of knowledge and build the next level version?

I took one picture in our house's pig sty because "insert funny joke about teens being home from college here".

(view other pigs)

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Other balloons by and inspired by the Balloon Brothers:

May 26 - Dome Head Rhino & Lion

“If we can teach people about wildlife, they will be touched. Share my wildlife with me. Because humans want to save things that they love.”

~ Steve Irwin

The rhino and lion are a couple of the other creatures taught by the Balloon Brothers for their Geo Domes tutorials.  An honest assessment would be that the form is versatile but limited by available balloons.  Grey/Mocha/Beige would really open up some greater possibilities.

One thing that I'm not a big fan of, and perhaps it's my internal-origami purist, is using glue dots.  They work great as a convenience, but create their own problems.  Something attached in a more traditional way has the ability for some fine-tuned motion around the connection point, something stuck with a glue dot has to be set up perfectly from the start or you have a slow ... risky ... repair.

I had misgivings about the angle of the ears on the purple rhino and didn't want to risk it.


(view other rhinocerous. lions)

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Other balloons by and inspired by the Balloon Brothers:

May 25 - Dome Head Panda

"You gotta let go of that stuff from the past because it just doesn't matter.  The only thing that matters is what you choose to be right now."

 ~ Po  Kung-Fu Panda

The Balloon Brothers (Joe and Brad Mock) recently taught at the Q Corner Convention.  The convention had a "short story" kind of benefit in that you got a quick exposure to a variety of styles and authors that I hadn't known about.

Apparently I missed a whole thing when these guys hit to balloon world like a storm with their stylized and usable balloon forms and have released a huge amount of tutorials over the past couple years.

So to use that same band analogy I used with Mr. Sung -- this is like I'm at the record store, I pull of the headphones and say something super-lame like "wow, that Justin guy from NSYNC seems pretty good"  Finally catching on to something that everyone already gets.

Here is the Panda they showed, I really like the "dome head" technique they show ... and they do have a tutorial series for it.

That mouth was a series of bad decisions.  I believe the process went "Too low, too far right, too big, hmm .. uhh ...I think I'll just rebuild it."   There is a subtlety that is lost with a monster mouth, let along looking like it's a zombie-virus kind of crazed.  Simply "angry eyebrows" can be a lot more effective.  One might wonder why it's angry rather than assuming "oh, it's hungry".


(view other pandas)

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Other balloons inspired by the Q Corner Convention:

May 24 - SunstaaRuu

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

~ Albert Einstein

SunstaaRuu has been a DeviantArtist for a few years.  I was attracted to the eye style of some of the images in her gallery and pleased she was willing to work with us.

I think the shadow she uses is smart and a really interesting effect, 3d without being distracting in a different color, and it works against any color really because the only color you wouldn't use in any event for a wall would be skin color.

It also gives a bit of a teen pop magazine feel?  Suitable for print.

May 23 - AzulTG-TC

You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend
You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend
You ain't never had a friend like me
You ain't never had a friend like me, hah!

~ Robin Williams Friend Like Me

AzulTG-TC is a DeviantArtist who offered to see what she could come up with using her style.

It's a super creative idea using pig in the hoodie/costume design - even including a tassel for the curly tail.  There are so many smart decisions in this image - the masterful shading, the cloven boots, the look of "quest fulfillment" at handing the balloon.

May 22 - Whale

“Queequeg explained to me that his world was very different from ours. However, one thing he learned quickly, was that within all groups of people there are kind men and there are unkind men.”

~ Herman Melville, Moby Dick

This design is one that I've admired for a while.  Mr. Sung won a color contest with a giant version of his whale, and there are instructions for the creation of that -- this is a smaller version and probably the one that most excited me to build.

The combination of the two different textures was intriguing -- and now I know the magic.

This was another, like the egg, that is simple enough to construct but exacting in the sizing to try and get the proper shape.

It seemed only too fitting to build it again in Caribbean Blue, the water spout on that one is the one taught (and my favorite).

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Other balloon designs or inspiration from Song Junlin:

May 21 - Magpie

“A bird is safe in its nest - but that is not what its wings are made for.”

― Amit Ray, World Peace: The Voice of a Mountain Bird

This bird is another that Mr. Sung teaches in his weaving series.

Some of the weaving techniques are not new, but it's refreshing to see a different approach to what you have assumed to be the right way to do things.

This was a fun bird to build, and the perch is something that really shines - it's so sturdy and stages the scene splendidly.  (whee!  Alliteration!) (also - Sorry to anyone with a lisp who was reading that out loud...) 

The rainbow tailed bird is closer to the demonstrated technique, I took a couple liberties with the other when playing.



(view other birds)

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Other balloons inspired by Phileas:

May 20 - Cake

“Knowledge may be power, but cake has great bargaining properties”

~ Julia Seitz

Here is another practice lesson from Mr. Sung weaving tutorials.   It is a refreshingly different cake than those I'm used to building.

To be honest - I'm not entirely sure what particular weave this is associated with, or if it's just practice making a repeated form with reliable sizing to help in all weaving, as there are a number of layers and techniques to this design that all interlock.

My normal cake design doubles as a top hat design, this one seems much more delicious!

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Other balloon designs or inspiration from Song Junlin:

May 19 - One Love

Jah is one perfect love, until the philosophy
Which holds one race superior and another
Inferior is finally and permanently discredited and
Abandoned there will war everyday
Jah is why we are all blessed, this Iniverse was
Created for man to live in peace concord
And happiness and the word of Haile Selassie
I's a blessing yes .

~ SOJA, Non-Partial Non-Political (link)

Technically I suppose it's Four Love.

As I watch these tutorials by Mr. Sung - I'm relying on technology for translations and I am tickled that the translation for this heart is "love".  So I can comfortably say last night I made love for well over an hour.  Tantric balloon art?

Weaving can be some mindless braiding at times, but this one does require some attention paid to pattern to get a good heart shape.

One of the fun things you can do with weaving though is to break from the pattern and make your own patterns with colors, it's like solving a crossword puzzle.  I thought it would be fun to make a rainbow, to me that is the symbol of purest "IDGAF what you think" kind of love -- and while making that, I was listening to Fantan Mojah so it felt natural to build One Love.

Let's acknowledge the corridor approach to creativity.  At the beginning of this exercise, I was building a heart.  Now that I've traveled some down the corridor, possibilities are visible that were not at the start.  I think it would be super cool to to make a giant "One Love" weave within the outline of Africa.  I have it on my Todo list now -- but if someone wants to take the baton and run with it, I have a great Spotify playlist for you to listen to while doing building. 😁 


(view other hearts)

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Other balloon designs or inspiration from Chun Lin, Sung:

May 18 - Fancy Eggs

- Are they in the proper approach?
- Negative.
- Open fire!
- on Ajax?
- All weapons, now! Charge the lightning field! I take responsibility ..  in the Emperor's name.

~ Flash Gordon - that one epic scene

Recently Chun-Lin, Sung @fusen_zero taught at the Q Corner Convention a very cool weave he named Maelstrom, which was my "hey man, that's my band name".  So in that honor, I will introduce him like we are both at a record shop, and my jam just started playing and we caught eyes while I was rocking out.  I do like a "S'up?" face (fantasy me is bad-ass - go with it) "hey man, you should totally check out his earlier stuff."

Mr. Sung has a few video tutorial series on Hahow (link) where he teaches different styles of weaving and balloon art.  This egg was one of the practice pieces.  If you saw his Maelstrom - you know he is an excellent teacher who meticulously demonstrates along the way, I can also add that he enunciates clearly, it was easy for my browser to auto-translate accurately.

I want the world.
I want the whole world.
I want to lock it all up in my pocket.
It's my box of chocolate! 
 GIVE IT TO ME! NOW!

The weave itself is not overly complicated, but getting the gradual slope of the egg shape took some effort.  Definitely helpful to be given the sizing.

I first built the rainbow egg, and you might see that become somewhat of a theme with any sort of weaving.  ... bonus, it's beautiful.

I kind of thought to golden egg would be more exciting than it ended up, it's just ... gold.  Not such a funny picture unless you imagine Veruca Salt holding it, or it being the gift for Ming the Merciless that Flash Gordon grabs because "football". 

I originally thought to decorate the fabergé egg a little more but decided to keep it simple.

Chun-Lin Sung:  Facebook / Instagram

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Other balloon designs or inspiration from Mr. Sung:

May 17 - Lauryverse-Art

“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”

~ Vincent Van Gogh

Lauryverse-Art is the DeviantArt account for Lauryn, an aspiring artist that offered to use her style on our champion.

I love how stylized it is, it's so distinct - and it has has me wondering how it was all put together.  It's a really interesting way to do staging, but I can't imagine how to do it without redrawing the form repeatedly.

This is both painting and brilliant usage of the tools.