April 24 - Conrad Frappuccino

Agnes: Oh, my gosh look at that fluffy unicorn! ... He's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!

~ Despicable Me (2010)

Being that choir season has ended, I'm no longer frequenting the Starbucks along that path. They are always so enthusiastic about receiving balloon art that I wanted to make something nice and big as a "farewell for the summer". Though I've previously made a version on Conrad last year (link), I thought timing was perfect for a making him again.

The day of Unicorn Frappuccino's has passed, I think the world might be better off without it.  (Though I never tried one - the very idea terrified me.)

Carolynn Hayman has become quite a media superstar making this unicorn - this was originally created for Twist & Shout 2016 but Conrad (and Carolynn) has been all over for events and even a daytime news show.

In my attempt, the body came together very easily and the head was equally easy to make - it was marrying the two that was the more difficult part, getting a good arc and keeping a "horse head shape". Thankfully there is a rainbow unicorn mane to distract from that!

April 23 - Loch Ness

This legend lives through centuries
Evoking history's memories
Prevailing in eternities
On and on and on

Loch Ness confess
Your terror of the deep
Loch Ness distress
Malingers what you keep
Loch Ness protects monstrosity
Loch Ness confess to me

~ Judas Priest Lochness

Today was the final performance of the season for my choir (Beethoven's 9th) and between that and kid activities and yard work, I didn't have a lot of time for art. I am not done with my Sweet Cheeks, but I saw this image posted again recently in Eric Weinstein's special group and thought it would be a quick build.

John Justice posted this and I believe it his take on the snail and/or worm that Eric shared. It reminded me of that classic Loch Ness picture, so I tried using that in my image.

---

Other designs by John:


Show all

April 22 - Skunk

Bambi: Flower!
Flower: Me?
Thumper: No, no, no, no! That's not a flower! He's a little...
Flower: Oh, that's all right. He can call me a flower if he wants to.  I don't mind.
Bambi: Purty. Purty *flower*!
Flower: Oh...Gosh.

 ~ Bambi (1942)

There are so many fantastic designs in Eric Weinstein's Sweet Cheeks #3 (link) - that I'm having a hard time getting off the page with them and creating something using the technique instead of just using his tutorials. I tried today though, I used a random animal generator to come up with something I hadn't built before, or at least in a while and ended up with a skunk.

My first attempt was with the brown nose.  It's got all the signs of a first attempt, the hair tuft is distracting, and the ears are too fox-like.  I was able to improve on it with the second build (pink nose), but there are still things that I would change if I had time to build it again.  The tail should be big and bushy and prominent like a squirrel's tail and the nose needs to be resting up higher..

---

Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


Show all

April 21 - Ursula (Sweet Chicks #2)

There you see her
Sitting there across the way
She don't got a lot to say
But there's something about her

And you don't know why
But you're dying to try
You wanna kiss girl

~ The Little Mermaid Kiss the Girl

I've previously made something similar to this when reverse engineering something John Justice had posted in the past, but Ursula is his glorious contribution the Sweet Cheeks #3 (link).

John certainly pushes the bounds of balloon art. His creations are oftentimes the cleanest looking, artistic, cartoonishly awesome balloons you are lucky to find. In addition to the actual balloon art, he does a fantastic job in demonstrating the sharpie work - and Ursula's face is really fantastic.

I tried making a couple other ladies using the same technique, but obviously the malicious face wouldn't work for those!

---

Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


Show all

April 20 - Sweet Cheeks Fish

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

~ Henry David Thoreau

I'm following another recipe from Eric Weinstein's Sweet Cheeks #3 - here is the fish.

This is one of the more difficult balloon animals to get a good picture of. The eyes on something cartoonish like this typically point forward, but the head does not rotate. So you either have a picture of just the face, or a sideways picture of it staring off camera.

Like with the previous post, Eric again demonstrates how to make a specific fish - Flounder. A base from which you could build a plethora of fish in similar fashion. I had spare blue and green hearts in my extras pile, so first I thought it might be fun to build one of those toothy fish from Finding Nemo with the light bait - hold on, looking up the name -- a Black Sea Devil. Well, I guess this then is a Green Sea Devil. Then with the blue I tried bulking up the form a little and giving it a spout to make a baby whale.

---

Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


Show all

April 19 - Sweet Cheeks Fox

Big Mama: Tod, that Copper is going to come back a hunting dog, a real killer.
Young Tod: Oh no, not my friend Copper. He won't ever change.
Big Mama: I hope you're right.
Young Tod: And we'll keep on being friends forever. Right, Big Mama?
Big Mama: Darling, forever is a long, long time, and time has a way of changing things.

~ The Fox and the Hound (1981)

This fox is another of the balloon tutorials from Eric Weinstein's Sweet Cheeks #3 (link).

Eric is throwing in the kitchen sink with these tutorials, in addition to the collection of designs - each of these videos seem to have a specific lesson attached. With this he demonstrates one way in which you might build a seated animal using his technique. This could be used with almost all of the previous creatures.

What I really like about this design in particular is that instead of teaching a typical fox, he shows how to build Foxy from Five Nights at Freddy's, I simplified the colors in order to make a typical fox. I ended up building two versions of Foxy, in the second I played around with some of the earlier SC techniques for a bulkier head but opted to not give it any eyebrows.

---

Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


Show all

April 18 - Sweet Cheeks Hermit Crab

I'd rather be shiny
Like a treasure from a sunken pirate wreck
Scrub the deck and make it look shiny
I will sparkle like a wealthy woman's neck
Just a sec, don't you know?
Fish are dumb, dumb, dumb
They chase anything that glitters, beginners
Here they come, come, come
To the brightest thing that glitters
My dinners

~ Moana Shiny

Here is the next offering from Eric Weinstein's Sweet Cheeks #3 (link) - the hermit crab.

Eric mentions in the video that this is one of the two designs that started the whole ball rolling on making cheek tutorials. I can see why he saved it for these, as the first two videos were geared a little more towards quick line work and these make for nicer sculptures.

My initial thought was to make Tamatoa (the crab from Moana - so shiney!) but when I took a look at some of the pictures, it has a substantially different shape - with eyes on stalks and a big jagged toothed mouth. So I made a lady friend for the shown design.

It isn't different from the main design with the exception of the colors and the flower addition to the shell, which actually gives it a little bit of a bonnet. But there is something painful to look at in the lady design for me, the big delicious heart balloons that I use are from Qualatex, but most of my kit balloons are Betallic, the pinks clash! - ow! my eyes!

---

Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


Show all