April 17 - Sweet Cheek Husky

Mittens: Think about it, Bolt: since you got lost, none of your superpowers are working, are they? For the first time, you're hungry, you're bleeding... I mean, do you really think that you were born with a birthmark in the exact shape of a lighting bolt?
Bolt: It's my mark of power, cat.

~ Bolt (2008)

I've been a fan of Eric Weinstein's work and balloon instructions for a while (a Wein-o?). I think I've built his designs more than anyone else on this blog, so when he released the third installment of his Sweet Cheeks balloon concept tutorial, it was an insta-buy for me.

You might say, "But cheeks have already been explored thoroughly on this blog". Well played ... well played. I will need to go back and make sure I have labelled them correctly to show up on the list, but these videos are Eric's ultimate and final installment in the series. To seal the lid on the project he started a private Facebook group for anyone who has purchased his tutorials as a place to share any future cheek-y ideas.

The instructions for this husky include a body, but it was a little small for the big beautiful face so I used John Justice's Adventure Pups balloon body which seemed to fit it better. I did try making it in a few other colors, but I think the pure white looks the cleanest when it's done.   Lastly, I made "Bolt" - opting for a simpler mouth and body.

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Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


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April 16 - Little Rabbits

And if you go chasing rabbits,
and you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar
has given you the call
And call Alice,
when she was just small

~ Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit

Happy Easter!

This is the final entry (as always, 'for now') from Patrick Van de Ven's 'Little Guy' balloon concept.  I figured it was appropriate to save this rabbit for today.

This rabbit was shown in his "extras" section with white fur, so I tried making it again in mocha - and brought them both into the office.

I have really enjoyed this balloon concept, and could easily fill the month with the variety of creatures, characters and cartoons that it allows you to quickly build.  But -- I need to force myself to move on to the next.

What will it be?  Stay tuned!!

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Other Little Guys:


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April 15 - Senior Wedding

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy, you must have somebody to divide it with.

~ Mark Twain on Marriage

Congratulations!

Senior is a teacher at my son's school and is getting married today.

His actual name is Nick Smith, but the school encourages address most teachers by their first names.  When there was a student named Nick, he adopted Nick Senior to avoid confusion.  That was shortened to "Senior" and the name has stuck long past the student leaving.

I made this display for a cupcake feast they were having at the school to celebrate the occasion, but today is the actual day of the wedding. The design is from one of Tatyana DjeTa Lyashko collection of PDFs. Which are always both an education and fun challenge to complete. There was a big accomplishment in getting the arch to stay up straight!

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Other designs by Tatyana:


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April 14 - Little Purple Pigs

Bourgeois Pig, you got too big
You forgot where you came from

You big pop star, you took it too far
You better get humble and then some

~ Styx - Bourgeois Pig

It's that time again!

I said at the start of this year I would try to use every technique along the way to make a purple pig.
This was a little bit of a struggle to be honest.  The balloon concept is fairly simple, so there is no "standard" way to create this pig.

The biggest struggle I faced was how I would create the ears.  My first attempt was the toothy one below, but they seemed too low on the head so I built the dark purple guy, and now the ears were too high, and though the body was a little cleaner it looked even weirder.

In my final attempt, I changed the shape of the top of the head to get them on the side and made his hooves reach the ground.  I like it the best of the three, but honestly if I wasn't out of town - these probably would never be posted and I would have tried another three attempts.

What I do like - is the new nose that was suggested I use, which fittingly enough was taught at a convention by Patrick Van de Ven.

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Other Little Guys:


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April 13 - Caveman

Lar: Atouk, nya haraka.
Atouk: Tonda haraka. Tonda haraka!

~ Caveman (1981)

This caveman is one of the extra suggestions included in Patrick Van de Ven's 'Little Guy' PDF.

When initially planning this I was going to make a cavewoman to go along with him, but time got scarce as we were getting set to head out for our Spring Break family trip.  (I am currently in San Francisco visiting with family.)

This balloon concept works *fantastic* for making guys with beards, it really shapes the face well.  Adding the loincloth kind of affected the position of the feet, which is why he ended up on his tippy-toes for these images.  If I had more time I would have adjusted some things for that.

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Other Little Guys:


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April 12 - Goofy

Gawrsh!

~ Goofy

Goofy is my favorite character from the "Big 3" -- and I thought to make him with Patrick Van de Ven's 'Little Guy' technique. There are a number of places I had to cheat to get it done though, and in the end, Goofy's snout area is much more pronounced and longer than this balloon concept allows for. Still, when I gave this away it was instantly recognizable.

... though I should have added his hat ...

From a Disney Wiki:

His original concept name was "Dippy Dawg" in cartoon shorts created during the 1930s; then his name was given as "George Geef" or "G.G. Geef" in cartoon shorts during the 1950's, implying that "Goofy" was a nickname. Contemporary sources, including the Goof Troop television show and A Goofy Movie, now give the character's full name to be Goofy Goof. The Goof Troop pilot also refers to 'G. G. Goof' on a diploma, likely a reference to the 1950's name.

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Other Little Guys:


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April 11 - Orange is the New Black

Taystee

It’s like you become more you. Which normally is like [mimes a bomb going off] because the person, like, whoever, they chose to take all that on. All that weird stuff. But now it’s okay…whatever is wrong or bad or hiding in you, suddenly it’s alright. You don’t feel like such a freak anymore.’

~ Suzanne on love

Orange is the New Black is another one of my favorite shows, it's the story of life in the Litchfield prison system.  Not only is the subject inherently interesting, but every week you get a backstory as to what brought each of these women (and guards) to be in this place.

The idea for building these gals was based on my spare kit of balloons and seeing I had a number of orange.  For the most part, they women wear beige - but their initial outfits as they enter are orange.

My first attempt was Piper, who the story generally follows, but I'm not sure I like the way the hair and mouth ended up.

Next I wanted to build my favorite character, Suzanne. Suzanne, nicknamed 'Crazy Eyes' is a fantastic and emotional character, oftentimes the mind of an 8 year old trapped in an adult body (which you might say is how she ended up in prison).  My first attempt at her didn't get it right, so I fluffed her hair up more and turned her into Taystee, who is one of the most grounded characters and ends up being somewhat of the "mom" to the bunch.

Suzanne	Piper

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Other Little Guys:


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