December 7 - Bopup Flintstones

Flintstones — meet the Flintstones,
They’re a modern stone age family.
From the town of Bedrock,
They’re a page right out of history.
Let’s ride with the family down the street,
through the courtesy of Fred’s two feet.
When you’re with the Flintstones,
have a yabba dabba doo time,
a dabba doo time,
we’ll have a gay old time!

~ The Flintstones opening theme

So I was thinking about how Matt Falloon's Bopup concept could be a stocky egg-shaped humanoid as well when it occured to me to try making the Flintstone boys.

I think the shape works pretty well for these guys, adding balloon arms would have looked stocky and out of place.  There was a good bit of shading for these guys but it covered fairly quickly, I was going to draw in the arms but decided they weren't needed.

These remind me most of "Weebles".

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Matt Falloon:

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December 6 - Bopup Girls

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

~ Albert Einstein

Each of these Bopup designs are ending up with some inkwork.  So I thought instead of fighting it I would embrace it - I have purchased Lindsey Foster's DVD Purty Faces (link).  I made a simple girl face using the bopup technique and started practicing purty faces. 

I felt the design was missing something without a body, so I made a short squat one with a neck the bopup can balance upon.  All the bodies are interchangeable.  It makes it feel more like a doll.

Lindsey has a great casual way of teaching, and includes plenty of fine points of detail along the way.  The instructions cover faces drawn on both rounds and normal twister balloons, cartoon and princess styles and what you might cut in order to do these quickly in a linework situation.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Matt Falloon:

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Pookie:

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December 5 - Bopup Cats

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.

~ Terry Pratchett

Lessons were learned over and over again while making Chibicoro, but apparently I needed another one.  What you're seeing here is actually the simplified form of something I was over-complicating -- my first attempts at making a Bopup cat had back legs, a head section - ears.  It was losing the charm of what it was.

It takes a little bit of finesse to "do the move" to make these.  So to try and keep from messing up the final attempt, I can easily attempt the ink art on a round before putting it in the wobbledy one.

The secret here is the one without the claw marks on the paws is the prototype and not actually a bopup.  It had to be placed in between the grey and pink to be held still.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Matt Falloon:

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December 4 - Bopup Penguin

Skipper: Kowalski, what's our trajectory?
Kowalski: Ninety-five percent certain we're still doomed.
Skipper: And the, uh... other five percent?
Kowalski: Adventure and glory like no penguins have ever seen before.
Skipper: I'll take that action.
Private: Where are going?
Skipper: The future, boys. The glorious future.

~ Penguins of Madigascar (2014)

Using Matt Falloons Bopup technique for this next balloon - a penguin.

Two things Matt has worked out using this technique that bear mentioning, you don't have to stock you balloon bag with anything extra to make a Bopup.  Also it creates a very precise and sturdy balance point on the bottom, these will wobble around but come precisely back to a centerpoint - so it is wise to pay attention to how things sit on a flat surface before committing to a design.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Matt Falloon:

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December 3 - Bopup Snowman

Part of the kick of making people laugh was doing something different. We were a rare breed - spotting one of us was like pinning a space alien, or abdominal snowman. There were maybe a hundred stand-ups in the whole country when I was doing it.

~ Lenny Bruce

Really this is a combination of the designs of two people, Pippity Pop and Matt Falloon.

Pippity has the form of the snowman on her recent "Loving Line Work" tutorial, and the main form works well with a balloon concept that Matt Falloon has been sharing recently at conventions and on tour - a bopup. He has allowed me to show off some designs because the concept is safe and hidden inside.

A "Bopup" is a balloon that you could toss around like a ball and will wobble and yet always come back on their bottoms or feet. If you're from my generation you might know the jingle "Weebles wobble but they wont fall down!", this is the balloon version of a Weeble. It's a balloon toy.

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Other balloon designs by Pippity-Pop:

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Other balloon designs by Matt Falloon:

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December 2 - Matt's Frumpal Cat

Black cat you're beautiful,
Why does everybody run away
Has anybody told you, I care
Has anybody told you, I love you

~ Ziggy Marley Black Cat

For balloon art, Matt Falloon has a knack for creatively pushing the bounds. Each of his balloon concepts that I've shared on this blog are a good example of that - his OCD designs were a physical challenge to complete, his flowerbuds were a new an interesting way to create a 4 legged creature, his Pico's make a perfect tiny accessory for a gift or a hair tie and remain one of my favorite things to build with the random balloons I keep in my car while waiting for my sons to be done with their after school activities.

Recently Matt travelled to a few select places with both Christopher Lyle and David Brenion on what was dubbed "The Magical Twistery Tour". Unfortunately none of the stops was close to me so I was unable to attend, but one of the things Matt offered as incentive to attend was the first of his Frumpal designs - this cat.

Now I would love to explore Frumpal creations here, but I've been told it's still something he is teaching at conventions and there might be a DVD instructions at some point (take my money!), and I respect his intellectual property. But since he taught and released a video for making this cat, I asked for and was given permission to show my attempts at it.

Note that these were done without a tutorial and are based on the images that both he and other people shared after attending the tour, I have since learned a few things that he does with greater efficiency than I did fumbling around.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Matt Falloon:

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December 1 - Rob's Parrot

Intellectual is a parrot; wise man is a crow. One is repetitive; other is creative!

~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Can you tell I just got a delivery of the latest Balloon Magic magazine?  One of my friends and probably one of the most frequent contributors to the magazine has a model included in the latest issue that I wanted to try.  Rob Balchunas, better known by his name and tagline - Rob the Balloon Guy (that's just his name don't rob him) created this parrot.

I first built it with colors matching the magazine.  It's getting darker earlier and earlier, so I quickly took a picture outside thinking it was going to be too late by the time I built another.

I looked up images of parrots when building the second so I could more closely match colors and decided to try a different foot style.  These are fairly quickly built so I rushed back outside for a couple more pictures and it was only then that I realized I had accidently reversed the wings!  It was almost dark o'clock, so I left them that way but I think it still looks okay with them flipped around.

One other thing that I want to mention about Rob - he is the designer and creator of my favorite balloon bag, the Bagchunas.  This bag was not only designed by a professional, but every stitch was sewn by him as well, it is craftsmanship that has been fine tuned to create the perfect bag.   He doesn't actively attempt to sell them, there are a few other brands that really tend to push their wares, some even defining themselves by the comparison to a Bagchunas.  You would do well to investigate, they're worth it.  (Bagchunas Website)

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Other balloon designs by Rob:

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