May 14 - Droid Cuties

“Robots are important also. If I don my pure-scientist hat, I would say just send robots; I'll stay down here and get the data. But nobody's ever given a parade for a robot. Nobody's ever named a high school after a robot. So when I don my public-educator hat, I have to recognize the elements of exploration that excite people. It's not only the discoveries and the beautiful photos that come down from the heavens; it's the vicarious participation in discovery itself.”
~ Neil deGrasse Tyson

May the Fourteenth be with you!

This fourth installment marks and end of this batch of Corinne Sparkles Smith character cuties.  I hadn't forgotten, and what Star Wars anything would be complete without our ever-present artificial companions?

R2-D2 and BB8 instructions were shown in the video series, but she must have opted not to include C-3PO for some reason.  He was in the crowd shot of the characters though so I pulled up a freeze frame and tried to copy as best I could.  BB8 looks great in form, that one takes a lot of sharpie.

Also, since this is the last installment of these charcter cuties I figure I would include a couple that didn't quite work out - Ackbar and Greedo.

I used a different tail when creating Jabba, I was so excited to have a use for those chubby wavy balloons.

You'll be malfunctioning within a day, you nearsighted scrap pile!
"It's a fail!"
Let's head over to Pizza the Hutt

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May 13 - Vulture

"If your friend is already dead, and being eaten by vultures, I think it's okay to feed some bits of your friend to one of the vultures, to teach him to do some tricks. But only if you're serious about adopting the vulture."
~ Jack Handy

This is the next offering from Eric Weinstein's Live Balloons Volume 6 -- a vulture.

I avoided building this one for a while because it seemed pretty close to an ostrich, and I didn't imagine thrilling anyone by a surprise vulture, "I'm not saying you look of death!"   Too much explanation.

I thought the first build of the vulture (orange beak) looked a bit too tall, so I gave him shorter legs an an extra long neck the second time.  Plus I found my yellow 646's.  I toyed with the idea of glue dots to keep the shape, but in the end I don't think the straps are too noticeable. I like the head and neck, but I think he could still use a bit more body shaping, definitely bigger wings and his legs need to be position higher next build.

Keep Calm and Carrion!

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May 12 - Banjo

"When you want genuine music -- music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whisky, go right through you like Brandreth's pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose, -- when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo!"  ~ Mark Twain

If you haven't figured it out by now, you probably are just looking at the pretty pictures - in which case you're not even reading this so the point is moot.  But.  I am a HUGE fan of the Balloon Blast Show.

What was once a weekly show gave way to a monthly digest has now given way to a bi-monthly installment.  (Crowd:  awwwwwwww)   But they've gathered a good Patreon following  (Crowd:  *cheer!*) so they invest a lot of time in these bonus videos. This one was a 4-parter (Crowd: *wild cheering!*) starting with a banjo (Crowd: *abrupt awkward silence*) 

... the first instrument of the Balloon Blast Show Rubber Band!  (Crowd: *canned laughter*)

(cue intro music)

Sam has a great attention to detail and, as always, gives very clear instructions both visually and descriptively.  This one was pretty easy and I think looks great.  I made the drum a little bit big on my first attempt, so I had to compensate with an extra bit (mocha neck).  Also ... *gimpy bubble sigh*.

	Finger Pickin' Good!

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May 11 - Dragon

“My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!”
~ Smaug

Balloon Sage released another great YouTube tutorial about a week ago.  His recent fire-breathing dragon hat was a big hit, so he created a smaller companion, this dragon wrist wearable.

Sage is a constant and enthusiastic contributor to the balloon community.  His designs are unique and constantly improving, his instructions are clear and easy to follow and direct to the point. He seems like he would be pretty cool from the videos, I wish I could say more about him than that, but I don't even know his real name.

This one took a few attempts to get things twisted correctly without popping, but it was a really good exercise at practice in getting the thinner 160's to thread through some high traffic areas repeatedly without a lot of friction.

Looks like I need some back-up!
Lightning bolt!  Lightning bolt!  Lightning bolt!

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May 10 - Cockatiel

"All I know is something like a bird within her sang,
All I know she sang a little while and then flew on,
Tell me all that you know, I'll show you snow and rain."
~ "Bird Song"

I was taught this design at Florida Super Jam by Nathalie "Miss Ballooniverse" Haverstock.  She was showcasing designs from Tony Twists Real World Wow DVD (link).  Nathalie is a fun person to learn from, she is the type of person that the spotlight demands (not the reverse), has an infectious confidence and you can tell that she would be entertaining while performing - "fill it up with ... oh, just the right amount of air".

Recently Tony made his tutorials available as downloadable files, but I figured if I built anything I should start with this one because it really was my introduction.

Tony is very precise in his instructions, it was really easy to relearn this, so I'll look forward to the others.   In the end I tried four different eye styles ... not sure which my favorite really is, but I know I like the yellow crest bird the least.

One thing I've noticed recently is that I'm having a difficult time taking good pictures of painted eyes, the actual light reflection is adding to the painted reflection creating a bigger spot.  I have the light muted but it's not completely reflected light ... I should experiment, this should be fixable.

Simple white on black eyes	Falloon eyes
Michael Floyd 3-D eyes

"I call him Bargain because he was going 'Cheep!'"

May 9 - Rebel Cuties

"Uuuuuuuuuurrr Aahhhhhhhhrrrrr Uuuurrrr Ahhhhrrrr Aaaaaaarrhg...."

~ Chewbacca

After building all the force users, I couldn't move on without at least building Han and Chewie Character Cuties.

I know I've said it previously, but I really enjoy these videos - they are taught well and easy to twist along with, and the artwork is shown in very clear detail using simple shapes. With so many Star Wars characters to explore, this ends up being a great vehicle with which to practice the body type. Since the body is based on a quick simple form, it takes artistic effort to bring forth the character with "as few lines/bubbles" as possible - and Corinne does a fantastic job with these Star Wars characters. That's why even though I have the gist of the Character Cutie-style, I would definitely support any sort of Superhero/Disney/Spooky/etc. Cutie lines in the future.

I struggled this time a bit on Han, and might make his shirt bubble just an overlay bubble next time. Also I had some scraps to use for the bloody hand print on Finn's helmet, but I'm not sure it ended up any cooler than sharpie.

This time I went for using this technique on an X-wing pilot.  The helmet blank looks like princess hair, here's what I mean by it needs the artwork!!  I used the same chibi-style face, but I think I made the cheeks a bit too rosy ...

One of my guilty pleasures is reading the Star Wars books. What the writers have done with the universe is fantastic and brilliant and tragic and wonderful. So you can imagine the shock when I heard that Disney wanted to treat all books as fiction and only the movies (including the Clone Wars cartoon...) as Star Wars reality. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Force Awakens ... but the epic they have just rejected, I hope they use some of. The Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen and Jaina Solo. Mara Jade. Ben Skywalker. Chewie. OH man -- Chewie! I could barely get the words out as I read that last chapter to my son ...

Please take good care of my universe, Disney.

Where is your weapon, FN-2187?	Laugh it up, furball!
Actually I'm kind of glad I'm not the Chewie you were looking for...

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May 8 - Garden - Orchid

"Hush now, baby, baby, don't you cry
Mama's gonna check out all your
      girlfriends for you
Mama won't let anyone dirty get through
Mama's gonna wait up till you get in
Mama will always find out where you've been
Mamma's gonna keep baby healthy and clean
Ooooh, babe, ooooh, babe, ooooh, babe
You'll always be a baby to me"

Happy Mothers Day!

Today Mothers all over are waking up to flowers, 2500 miles away I send these instead and will build something bigger when you arrive!

My mom.  A garden is completely appropriate design to build for my mother, who has the greenest thumb you can imagine.  At one point while growing up we lived in Colorado with about a 30' x 30' garden.  This thing was huge, and heavily used - I remember on the few occasions I had to water by hand it felt like I stood there hours.










Recently she's taken to converting their tiny suburban back lawn into her own private jungle paradise, but not stopping there she has a windowsill full of orchids.

My mom is quite possibly the Mother Nature.

I love you, Mom!  Up to the sky, around the world - to infinity and back again!

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This design is all Helen Budinger.

Helen is a fantastic person, so supportive of not just me - but to all of us timidly bearing our souls with our art.  I credit her with giving me the confidence to bring those first few balloons in to school and work, I remember that nervous or embarrassed feeling as I imagined people thinking "why would I want that?"   Now if I show up where I have set balloon precedent empty handed ... I gots some splainin' to do.

Helen is my favorite person to learn any balloon technique from, because it means I'm seeing her in person.  She has never taught a balloon class or released any instructions, but has taught so much and is so helpful in the convention jam rooms that she deserves an instructors badge anyways!

She is also the one of the reasons I use Facebook again, about once a week Helen shares another inspirational image from her balloon garden - oftentimes a beautiful blooming balloon bouquet scene.  I have a folder full of these saved to attempt at some point, but this is the first time I've tried anything.

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