December 31 - Alien Quad Bod

All Aliens: [pointing up] The clawwwwwwwww!
Alien #1: The claw is our master.
Alien #2: The claw chooses who will go and who will stay.

This is the last hidden Jeff Hayes post I found in the backlog of posts I had set up to complete some day.

Thank you, Jeff -- not just for everything you taught, but for being the person you were, for inspiring not only me, but so many others to reach for loftier goals.  "What would Jeff do?" will stick in my vocabulary forever.  Miss you, friend.

Original text:

This Toy Story alien is one of the many uses of Jeffrey Hayes Quod-bod design.   Jeffrey Hayes does it again with a simple concept that you could use for a bajillion things (I've counted).  You could add attachment points anywhere on this simple 4 balloon structure, change up the colors and accessories to make a pudgy "whatever-you-want".   It kind of has that "Weeble Wobble", or chubby anime (chibi?) look. It works perfect for this toy story alien, just like something you would win out of a giant claw machine.

I'm bustin' you out of here!

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Other quad bod designs:

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All balloons by and inspired by the Jeffrey Hayes:

December 30 - Hayes In Space

Two possibilities exist:
Either we are along in the universe or we are not.  Both are equally terrifying.

 ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Here is another from my bucket of misfit balloons, from 2017 based on carbon latex dating and some guessing ... miss you, Jeff.

Original text:

Jeffrey Hayes has created many lat-extra terrestrials that have visited this blog - this alien spacecraft is from his DVD Seriously Out There.

I made a couple before I realized that I had snowflake instead of star print clears ... so I made an Olaf-ship and called it done.

It doesn't really show up in the images, but the bottom of the ship uses a light.

Do you want to build a space man?

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Other balloons by and inspired by the Jeffrey Hayes:

December 29 - Boy Tiara's

"What is lovely never dies, but passes into another loveliness, star-dust or sea-foam, flower or winged air."

~ Thomas Bailey Aldrich

This post was in my half-finished-need-to-get-back-to-work-on bucket, but I feel like I need to let it go now.

I pretty much fell off the face of the earth in regards to social media and the balloon world, so it was only a couple days ago that I stumbled across a video that referred to a "Jeff Hayes memorial fund" -- ...   I need a minute ... 

Jeff was indescribable in one word.  Uncanny?  

I first met him in the very beginning of this balloon blog when I attended a Steve Klein seminar, the original host was having technical problems so he stepped in like a boss for one of the most inspiring hours in my early balloon twisting.  When I reached out to him afterward to thank him, we struck up a conversation that went on for months.

Jeff has a knack, no - a super power, of elevating simple ideas to something extra-ordinary.  I believe I have said frequently on this blog that I would try to think about things in a "what would Jeff do?" sort of way.   This is a good example of his brilliance I think.

Original post text:

These tiara's were designed by Jeff "The Uncanny" Hayes and taught at our webinar.  Taking the normal tiara type crown and spicing it up with sticks and snails and puppy dog tails.  Since it's Jeff, I had to try and make it ride a shark and shoot lasers, so I went for a dragon.  Not entirely happy with the result, especially since I didn't put the tongue in for any of the pictures!!  He also showed us a zombie using a similar structure, but with a brain in the belly - guaranteed to make anyone who sees it laugh in ...horror?

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Other balloons by and inspired by the Jeffrey Hayes:

December 28 - Mr. Lanky

Pick up a sunflower and count the florets running into its centre, or count the spiral scales of a pine cone or a pineapple, running from its bottom up its sides to the top, and you will find an extraordinary truth: recurring numbers, ratios and proportions.

~ Charles Jencks

Reginald Lankershim wanted to be an artist, but was born out of proportion - his legs, arms and torso were abnormally long. 

Because of this people rarely saw him for what he wanted to be, and regarded him how they thought he should be.  To keep himself safe from the cruelty of his peers, he conceded to their plans - he played basketball.

This balloon was really just a stupid way to intentionally think about proportion.  For the most part I tend to wing it on proportions, I know that arms extend a little past the waist, legs are typically a little longer than arms, etc.  I also realize that you don't have to conform to standard proportions, but this is at least a starting point.

The image at the left was found on How to Draw Manga Characters blog post by Preston Stone.  Notice that the size of the head can be used as a general guide to the body proportions, so unless you know exactly what type/size of head you are making, that is likely the best starting point to get something in more realistic proportions.

The way to make things more comic/cartoon-y is to exaggerate something larger (not smaller, it just looks weird), but do so in a logical way.   A larger head should not strictly grow vertically up, it offsets all proportions, it would occupy more of the chest area as well.

December 27 - Li'l Bee

The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.

~ Elizabeth Lawrence

Jackie Ochitwa shared this design at the Q convention in 2020 -- I had planned on writing some text and setting it to post that October but well ... but as I recall, 2020 was pretty sucky, and I certainly fell off the planet for a bit.

Jackie again has an uncanny ability to make everything she touches into something cutesy, even a ghost bee.

I personally find it completely tasteless if slightly arousing to refer to these as Jackie's Boo Bees, so I will refrain from saying that .. any more.

But I won't stop thinking it.  Giggity!!





(view other bees, ghosts, zombies, Li'l Guys)

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Other Jackie Ochitwa inspired balloons:

December 26 - Juan's Turtle

You can’t reach for anything new if your hands are full of yesterday’s clutter.

~ Louise Smith

Another something built ages ago and left to float in the infinite nothingness of unposted space.

This is a turtle design posted by Juan Gonzales.  

Juan does a lot of line twisting, but the designs do not suffer for it, here is a turtle he made a while back.   It looks super cute in 160's.   The face looks a bit "froggy" to me but the shell (lines) do a great job pulling it back to turtle.

The larger one needs some cheeks ...




(view other turtle)

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Other Juan Gonzales balloons:

December 25 - Eatey the Extra-Terrestrial

Elliott : He's a man from outer space and we're taking him to his spaceship.
Greg : Well, can't he just beam up?
Elliott : This is *reality*, Greg.

~ E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

Cygnus is the neighboring planet to Asogia, with a harsh and unforgiving environment unlike their sister planet which hung like a green pearl in the smoldering sky.  At the time of the great awakening, the arriving Cygnian ships were greeted warmly by the Asogians who were vegetarians and in peaceful harmony with their planet.

But as the Cygnian atmosphere hardened it's population, so did Asogia allow it's residents to become soft - and as is the nature with all alien encounters, discomfort gives rise to disagreement, disagreement to racial tension, racial tension to abuse, abuse to strife and war.

Asogians suffered the worse for it, and in effort to save their species launched exploratory ships to look for a habitable planet.  (On one such expedition while collecting samples, one scientist was accidentally left behind and found by a human named Elliot, but that's a story for another time.)

With their departure, the planet was renamed Cygnus Prime and the duality assumed the name "Cygnus Supremus".

By calling Elliot "Cygnus Supremus" he was effectively comparing him to the dual planets, he is both parts harsh and kind, but the cruelty inside him is winning.  It's a subtle but effective insult.

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Because "random YouTube" - I ended up watching the part in ET where Elliot and one of Greg's friends exchange insults.  "Zero charisma!"  "Cintus supremus!"  "Zero charisma!"  "Cintus supremus!".

So I consulted the Oracle.  "Google, what is cintus supremus?"  ... No one knows.  People have guessed at it being a Spielberg edit to remove vulgarity, postulated a number of things similar to cintus (Cygnus?) that it could have been, no one has the actual answer.  ... until now.

December 24 - Chibi'ish Elves

Confusion is the first step toward clarity.

~ Syd Field

This is another "cleaning out the closet" post.

To be perfectly honest, this were some images I had set up for text I had planned to write years ago, and I don't think my memory lasts longer than a few weeks at this point -- sometimes less than the time it takes to walk TO the refrigerator.   

I wasn't going to post them, but then one of the thing I have always espoused on this blog is that it should not be about a perfect build/picture/text, it's about practice and learning and exploring and celebrating some of the amazing designs that others have made.   A failed attempt to me is as equally instructive as a perfectly crafted image. 

These are obviously not chibi, they don't follow the basic form design -- they are more like stacked chibi parts.  More just "mini"? -- I kind of think these are more in line with Matt Falloon's "pico" designs but at this point I would probably need to watch the videos again.

I don't know .. I should be wrapping presents anyways. 

December 23 - Santa Little Body

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

~ Robert H. Schuller

I built these guys a few years ago after the Qualatex (RIP) online balloon convention in 2020, they are based on Stephanie Morace's little bodies (buddies?) she taught there and I didn't want to overuse her design at the time in case she wanted to do something more with it.  The previous post had been queued to send in the far future ... 

Stephanie has a knack for coming up with unique quick and cute designs, not only just an amazing artist - I remember meeting her as she deservedly won "top dog" twister award (remember her amazing dog?) - always smiling or laughing, she is a gem.

I won't lament losing balloon shapes in every post -- but I will at least in the first.   321's ... I shall miss you.  I will always remember the shark teeth, the witches chins ... the .. ghost?  I mean there really honestly weren't a LOT of uses I had for them, but still giving up any markers out of the kit feels like a loss.

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Other Stephanie Morace inspired balloons: