October 18 - Pip's Cat

If cats looked like frogs we’d realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That’s what people remember.

~ Terry Pratchett

This is another one from Pippity Pop's Loving Line Work instructions.  Pip does another great job at showing a quickly made, yet attractive cat. One of the common problems when making something with four legs is that unless they are attached to each other in some way, they splay out - I really like the way Pip keeps everything tight to the body and builds only the important features.

I felt a black cat was again one that was somewhat appropriate for the upcoming holiday, but when I used all black, it didn't read very well and I changed the nose to pink and added the white paws.

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Other balloon designs by Pip:

October 17 - Pip's Spider

Out in the night
Glaring eyes in darkness
Tigers want to fight
Out in the night
Spiders all around you
Spinning webs and make you pray
Tie you up and you can't get away

~ Scorpions Bad Boys Running Wild

I was looking around the tutorials that I haven't used yet and ran across this one from Pippity Pop's recent release, Loving Line Work -- I felt like a spider would be appropriate as we're getting closer to Halloween.

True to the title, this can be made very quickly and would be quite suitable for linework.  It has big cartoonish eyes and fits perfectly as a wrist wearable balloon.  'Cute spider' is a very rare pairing of words - but I think it fits here.

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Other balloon designs by Pip:

October 16 - Oogie Boogie

“... Mr. Oogie Boogie is the meanest guy around
If I were on his Boogie list, I'd get out of town”

~ Kidnap the Sandy Claws The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Mr. Oogie Boogie is the villain in Tim Burton's fantastic movie The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I've seen a couple people post their versions of Mr. Oogie Boogie so far this year, I figured I would try my hand at him as well.

He is really just a big bulap sack filled with insects, so I figured I would build him as a Smoosh!  I am really liking having the upper torso section as an arm attachment point.  It still gives you big pinch twist "shoulder pads", but it makes the arms much more poseable.

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Other Smoosh:

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Other balloon designs by Scott Tripp:

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October 15 - Clockwork Pig

I break the walls
Get away from me
Leave me alone
Like the pig on the stairs
Hanging
In a groovy purple shirt

~ The Cure Give Me It

For anyone who has followed the blog this year, this should come as no surprise - but here is my attempt at a purple pig using the cheek design taught in Christopher Lyle's Clockwork Yellow instructions.

I used Betallatex this time because Qualatex has no lilac hearts.  You can see the difference in the two lilacs as I used the Q for his feet.  I tried for a chunkier look when making the peach blush version.

I know Christopher is a Q guy, but I have to say I believe this technique works a lot better with the long necked B hearts. 

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Other Clockwork Cheeks:

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Other balloon designs by Christopher Lyle:

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October 14 - Clockwork Lyle

Yellow-colored objects appear to be gold.

~ Aristotle

Here is one of the last balloons using the cheeks design from Christopher Lyle's Clockwork Yellow instructions, the man himself.

This isn't the first time I've built Mr. Lyle.  One of the (many) reasons for Christopher's success is he has a very distinct style - early on in his profession, his grandmother took him to buy a suit and suggested bright yellow, it has been a hallmark for much of his career.

Christopher has an enviable way of elevating balloon art.  More than his actual skill, one of the things I probably respect most about him is that he oftentimes goes out of his way to showcase the work of other balloon innovators, sharing a dazzling montage from his restaurants and encouraging others to support the designers.   He's a good person to be able to call friend.

In his promo material - he is wearing a black fedora, which I tried making but didn't really like the way it rested on his head.  Unfortunately when I was detaching it I popped his forehead, which is why the image with Purple has a different sized noggin (and now that I look closer, slightly offset features ....)

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Other Clockwork Cheeks:

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Other balloon designs by Christopher Lyle:

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October 13 - Clockwork Opossum

I was a little excited but mostly blorft. "Blorft" is an adjective I just made up that means 'Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.' I have been blorft every day for the past seven years.

~ Tina Fey

Opossum are oftentimes incorrectly referred to as possum.  A possum is an Australian marsupial given it's name for it's resemblance to the opossum, whereas the opossum is the name of the American marsupial.

"The more you know."

This opossum is another based on Christopher Lyle's cheeks design from his Clockwork Yellow instructions.

I struggled a bit with how to attach the legs, but kept it rather simple in the end.  Reducing an opossum to it's simplest form, it's an upside-down hanging-from-tail white-faced grey body rodent.

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Other Clockwork Cheeks:

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Other balloon designs by Christopher Lyle:

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October 12 - Clockwork Skips

I seem to be making all the characters from Regular Show....  I'm okay with this.

This is Skips, using the cheek design Christopher Lyle shows in Clockwork Yellow.  This time I was playing around with different colors and sizes of the components and saw a gorilla face.  I actually made two, but had an overnight cheek and leg deflation so I started over.  The body style this time is a bit like Bauldy's superdudes.

Skips (voiced by Mark Hamill) is actually an immortal Yeti and is oftentimes the voice of reason on the show.  Every 157 years he must defeat Klorgbane the Destroyer or the world will end. His actual name is "Walks", but he skips everywhere without exception, why he does so is revealed in an episode where everyone had to share their deepest secrets. It's because [spoiler!].

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Other Clockwork Cheeks:

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Other balloon designs by Christopher Lyle:

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