Sunday, May 7, 2017

May 7 - Frozen Cuties


You're as cold as ice
You're willing to sacrifice our love
You never take advice
Someday you'll pay the price, I know

~ Foreigner Cold as Ice

These are a couple more cutie dolls that I never got around to building from Shana Brenion's Cutie Dolls instructions (link).

Once again, having boys probably saved me from the worst of this, they had no interest so we didn't see this in the theater.  I do distinctly remember the look my wife gave me when she came downstairs at 11pm to ask me what I was watching and I explained that I couldn't stop ...

I lacked some specific colors called out for Elsa, but I think it's more that she has a cape, she is the one white haired princess.

I'm trying to get a better shape to the eyes, most of my "princess" eyes end up too flat - like the Anna balloon.  I was able to get Elsa's eyes to have a little more personality.







Other Cutie Dolls:


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Saturday, May 6, 2017

May 6 - Princess Jasmine


I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me, princess, now when did
You last let your heart decide?1

Aladdin: I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride

~ Aladdin - A Whole New World

I have only made it to one balloon convention with any consistence, Bling Bling Jam (link) - and A Whole New World is the theme this year.

Steve Klein's webinars were the mind expanding first glimpse of what could be done with balloons, and it was through his encouragement that I attended my first balloon convention, so I feel a certain loyalty. It's not as big of a convention as Twist & Shout (though I have never been) - but with smaller size comes the opportunity to meet everyone.

This Jasmine is derivative of what Shana Brenion teaches on her cutie dolls download, but I added a belly. The legs on Shana's version go straight up to her chest which made the proportions look a bit weird to me.  I'm thinking a smaller waist would work better to avoid front butt ...







Other Cutie Dolls:


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Friday, May 5, 2017

May 5 - Cinco de Mayo


Ay, ay, ay, ay
Canta y no llores,
Porque cantando se alegran,
Cielito lindo, los corazones

~ Cielito Lindo

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Cinco de Mayo is the Mexican holiday to commemorate the Battle of Puebla, where the Mexican Army drove back the French forces in an unlikely victory. In the United States it has taken on greater significance as being a day to celebrate Mexican-American culture.

When considering what to build with Shana Brenion's cutie doll concept for the holiday, I was excited at the prospect of building a sugar skull lady. This is technically associated with Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), so you'll have to excuse my timing - she is a recolor of Merida with added fringe for the bottom of the dress. The dancer is loosely based on some Spanish wall art we have hanging in our house, I tried to recreate one of the ladies on it.






Other Cutie Dolls:


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Thursday, May 4, 2017

May 4 - Queen Amidala


It is clear to me now that the Republic no longer functions. I pray you will bring sanity and compassion back to the Senate.

~ Queen Amidala The Phantom Menace

Happy Star Wars Day!

The first few times you heard it, it was clever and perhaps amusing - but now that Star Wars has become so universally embraced, (see what I did there?) I expect today to be completely overrun with May the 4th "humor". So instead I'll just say "I've got a bad feeling about this".

I'm a big Star Wars fan, I've copped in earlier posts to the amount of books in the series I've read, and I've also lamented on Disney's rejection of all written material from the canon when they purchased the rights (link). It really hit home recently when I was in a book store and grabbed a recent book (Rebel Rising?).  Typically in the first few pages would be a large detailed timeline showing where the book fits within in the universe among all the other books and series. This time the list was so small I almost missed it ...

So happy there are new movies, so sad they won't be telling the epic stories from the original canon.

Since I'm working with Shana Brenion's cutie doll concept (link), I first thought to make Princess Leia for today.  It seemed a little tame - so here is Queen Amidala.






Other Cutie Dolls:


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Wednesday, May 3, 2017

May 3 - Merida Cutie


I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

~ Leonardo da Vinci

When we saw the movie Brave in the theater and I really was looking forward to it. The ads painted a picture of a spunky Scottish girl fighting for her land and respect, a master with a bow and images of giant menacing bears ending with the message "If you had a chance to change yer fate, would ye?"

Boy was I wrong, and this movie made me angry for what I wished it was. "Spoilers" - if you haven't seen it, you might want to skip ahead, or perhaps you might want to read it and consider it a warning:
[Spoiler]
It did have some of those elements, with a somewhat overbearing mother insisting that Merida play her role as a respectable lady. But when Merida follows some magical wisps to a witch's cottage to help change her fate, the witch gives her a pie which turns her mother and her triplet brothers into bears.  Makes perfect sense, right?

Merida's quest to break the spell involves repairing an old family tapestry while protecting her mother from huntsmen, meanwhile her mother fends off a legendary bear and almost dies. She drapes the fixed tapestry over her wounded mother, but when morning arrives and she realizes it didn't work, Merida finally breaks down to a weepy apology, thus breaking the spell ... What did we learn? Give Merida whatever she wants or she will ruin you.
[/Spoiler]

This Merida design uses the Shana Brenion cutie dolls form, I made two Merida trying to get the hair color to match a little better in mocha stuffed orange. I also made her poor mother who suffered so much because of this wretched (but adorable) daughter.

I have to be more careful when building these cuties to make the face much smaller to avoid a chubby cartoonish look.  The orange/mocha hair is way too wide.






Other Cutie Dolls:


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Tuesday, May 2, 2017

May 2 - Rapunzel Cutie



LOVE this video.  If you're a parent, I dare you to watch that video and not get at least a little bit choked up.   Go on, I'll wait for you.

This is Rapunzel.  I confess I never saw the movie Tangled, I have two boys who roll their eyes at my suggestion to watch it, all I know is broad strokes from the original tale by Brothers Grimm.

I've talked about these before, this is another older balloon concept. Designed by Shana Brenion - these are cutie dolls. First Shana released a video on how to make princess eyes called Making Faces (link), which she would put on a flower wrist wearable or headband. But people wanted a full figure, and so at Twist & Shout 2015, she introduced her Cutie Dolls series (link) which is a perfect companion to her face tutorials.

As with the other balloon concepts I've worked on this year, I'm going to re-familiarize myself with the concept by building a few from her tutorials before scribbling outside the lines.







Other Cutie Dolls:


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Monday, May 1, 2017

May 1 - Ninja Hotdog


You know what I love best about baseball? The pine tar, the resin, the grass, the dirt - and that's just in the hot-dogs.

~ David Letterman

From his simple origins as molded together meat trimmings, he has traveled the world searching for the one who ate his family. He has honed his skills into a delicious fighting machine and follows his only clue. Frankly, he will not stop until he finds this "man in yellow" and relishes the idea of releasing the special sauce of vengeance upon him!

He is .. Ninja Hotdog!

I was all set to move on to the next balloon concept at the start of this month, when I accidentally on purpose watched the first balloon from Christopher Lyle's Clockwork Yellow video (currently available from him directly, but soon to be released on balloon-animals.com). I couldn't resist building this guy.








Other posts with Christopher's designs: