April 17 - Mega Swords

Lost Wind - Once wielded by Argna
the twice named, hero and legion
commander in the Barren War.

"It is called Lothric, where the transitory lands of the Lords of Cinder converge.  In venturing north, the pilgrims discover the truth of the old words. "The fire fades and the lords go without thrones."

When the link of fire is threatened, the bell tolls, unearthing the old Lords of Cinder from their graves:
Aldrich, Saint of the Deep. Farron's Undead Legion, the Abyss Watchers. And the reclusive lord of the Profaned Capital, Yhorm the Giant.

Only, in truth ... The Lords will abandon their thrones and the Unkindled will rise. Nameless, accursed Undead, unfit even to be cinder. And so it is, That ash seeketh embers."
    ~ Dark Souls 3

Dark Souls 3 released this week.  Such a good game.  So good it puts other games to shame, they're too easy, they don't require the same focused skill.

I wanted to create something Dark Souls'y but practically everything so far has been a misshapen beast dragging a gigantic axe.   Probably beyond a simple crafting ...  I'm still searching for something good and/or symbolic.

In the meanwhile may I present to you the swords of power.  These swords are the Balloon Sage's Mega Balloon Sword design

Balloon Sage is a very creative YouTube balloon artist who thinks outside the box (link) - he did not have a whole lot of videos when I first discovered him but he has been posting very reliably and they keep getting better and better.  Much respect because you can tell that much of what he does he makes up himself as sometimes he tries to coin a phrase for something known.

At this point he has a huge library of great designs!

Blix - crafted from tundra steel by the lost elves of Dyrfog, it's cold metal bathed in the pristene pools of the forest of Narthur.	Widowmaker - Legendary bastard sword of the frost giant Throm, so named for the number of foes it has felled.
Flower Power - The amazingly light primary sword of  Sprite King Zaeph	"I want this one!" The Baconator - death never tasted so salty.

April 16 - Alien Dog

Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them's making a poop, the other one's carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge.
 ~ Jerry Seinfeld

We travel again with Jeffrey Hayes to another destination - this time to his Alien's Best Friend design from his Seriously Out There DVD.

Welcome to planet K9 - a dog utopia.  Cosmic forces whisk lost or abandoned dogs through a warp tunnel to here where they are free to roam the cosmos, where smells are plentiful and the fields beg you to run.  Off planet people are allowed to visit, but must remain in a small enclosed area.  If a dog chooses to adopt you, only then may you bring it back it back home.

And the universe was happy.

Now that we've installed a new voice translator ...

Open the pod bay doors, Siri

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Other posts with Mr. Hayes' designs:


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April 15 - Linda's Dogs

If you don't have a dog there may not be something wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.
  ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Yes. Apparently Vincent Van Gogh according to the internets... before he went insane.

I have a balloon crush on Linda Truscheit.  Everything she posts is so dang adorable, I have no idea how she does it - but I want to copy it.

This dog was taught in a balloon webinar about a year ago, and was my first introduction to Linda.  When I stumbled across it in my notes I knew I had to try it again, shamefully I took no pictures at the time and I remember it being much cuter than I'm able to recreate here.  I figured I would remember it forever because I built like 5 of them at the time - let this be a lesson to always take pictures!

Have you seen updog?	Bigger eyes = begger eyes
How does Van Gogh call for his dogs? ... Ear puppy puppy puppy!

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Other posts with Linda's designs:


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April 14 - Alien #2

I just want to hug your face...

Ripley: Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo, third officer reporting. The other members of the crew, Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash and Captain Dallas, are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.

Jeffrey "The Uncanny" Hayes takes us into space once again with his Alien Crawler.

This creepy squid-like alien is another installment on his Seriously Out There DVD.  The form is once again a framework to build any number of creatures.  Not just for aliens, it would work just as well as a starfish or ghost or even as the body of Ursula ... hmmmm. Must remember that.

I have a bag of balloon miscellany that I try to pick through when first practicing a design, I saw the baby face print in there and knew what had to be done.


Still ... kinda cute for an evil-mutant alien hybrid set on planetary domination.

Show your good side!

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Other posts with Mr. Hayes' designs:


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April 13 - Alien #1

“We have held the peculiar notion that a person or society that is a little different from us, whoever we are, is somehow strange or bizarre, to be distrusted or loathed. Think of the negative connotations of words like alien or outlandish. And yet the monuments and cultures of each of our civilizations merely represent different ways of being human. An extraterrestrial visitor, looking at the differences among human beings and their societies, would find those differences trivial compared to the similarities.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Jeffrey "The Uncanny" Hayes created this alien for release on his video Seriously Out There (link).  It's one of many great designs on the DVD, and probably the simplest form.  This gigantic eye makes me a big fan of the chisel tip sharpie markers - easy to fill a big area.

Really this is a raw alien form that could be accessorized in a million different ways...

What does this button do?

What do you call an alien with 3 eyes? ... Aliiien.

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Other posts with Mr. Hayes' designs:


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April 12 - Gabrielle's Horse

I thought I would try something different in lieu of a quote today, please enjoy "конь" - a Russian folk song. (Translation: horse)

Gabrielle Hodge showed us how to make this horse in our recent webinar. I'm still not content with how far up I was able to get matching sidewall bubbles, the legs have bigger shoulders than I would prefer.  It still works well, even though it's a bit cartoonish - I fell in love with the design once I started thinking of the prancing horse from that bugs bunny opera.  Let me find an image ... :

The face, in my opinion, is the sexy bit to this design, hearts give really chubby jowl cheeks, and this same facial structure could become a squirrel head by changing a couple colors.    Add another sidewall bubble to the outer cheek and you could make the classic triangular /_|_\ face structure with pudge bubble cheeks and easy connection points for the ears .. call that the Hodge Effect, she gets you thinking about using hearts in ways you haven't before. <3 <3 <3  .. The Queen of Hearts!

Now you should also see why I'm such a fan of Steve Klein's webinars - you never know what you have signed up for on a given night, but that is part of the fun, it's almost always great, and sometimes pure gold.  We learned 3(!!) things from Gabrielle in that hour, the bug, mermaid and this horse, all with her distinct flair. Yes I wish there was better technology, yes it's hard to follow along sometimes, and yes I wish there was a way to access the archives, but the content given the meager cost - GOLD I say.

Me?  Stirrup trouble?  ... Neigh.

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Other posts with Gabrielle's designs:


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April 11 - Gabrielle's Mermaid

"The sirens will sing his mind away,
on their sweet meadow lolling,
There are bones of dead men rotting in a pile beside them,
and flayed skins shrivel around the spot."
  ~ Homer The Odyssey

Who knew Homer was so metal? \m/

Gabrielle Hodge proves again why she is the Queen of Hearts! - here is another creative use for them, taught in a webinar last month. It took a couple attempts to find the right softness and sizing for the tail fin, but I really like the overall look, sort of a pudgy belly "cutie doll" mermaid. I've actually been meaning to post this mermaid for a while now, my prototype was getting smooshy.

It's easy to see how important it is to over-size rather than under-size a face when comparing these two builds. Let's just say I think the not-so-little mermaid in the red top bikini might be able to swim in colder climates...

Come to think of it, you still might want to add a 160 waist to get rid of the muffin-top regardless.

Anna T.

.. but I love muffins!

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Other posts with Gabrielle's designs:


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