March 18 - Pumpkinhead

"There are three things that I've learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin."

~ It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

A single, forgotten plot of land - long overgrown and untended. The kind of place farmers avoid without knowing why, where the crows perch in eerie silence, watching. It's here that a pumpkin, chosen by forces unknown, begins to stir.  At first, it's subtle - a slow creak as vines tighten, a faint glow in the hollowed spaces where no eyes should be.  Then, it rises.

No hands plant it on a scarecrow's shoulders.  It places itself. 

Tonight the contract will be fulfilled.
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This design is based on Isopresso's scarecrow tutorial. My previous attempt felt too ... neat for something that has such potential for creepiness.  

I overdid it  -- went dark and had to pull back to 'creepy'.  

I left the description/images on the blog if you're oddly curious or curiously odd though.  The thought for the image was "bleached bones left behind as a warning sign .. a poor deckhand who felt fortunate being asked by the captain to help bury his treasure."  The last hole he dug and it wasn't even for his own grave.  Oof.  I don't like human monsters.

Drawing on a flower shape is rough, it even feels a bit like cheating since you can get it to look decent from one direction even if it looks terrible from the side because of it.

 

(view other pumpkin or Pumpkinheads)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

March 17 - Scarecrow

"Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't you think?"

~ L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Legend has it that 'The Harbinger' is the most terrifying creature in corvid lore - a colossal crow with feathers as dark as a starless night, eyes that gleam crimson and a dreadful voice that caws of darkness and death.

So... we put Farmer Frump in the field to keep them away.  

... who really needs the brain here?

This scarecrow design comes from one of Isopresso's tutorials. As I was making it, I tried to picture what a scarecrow's face should look like, but the only one that came to mind was from 'The Wizard of Oz'.

(view other scarecrow)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

March 16 - Iso Penguins #2

"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

~ Sir Edmund Hillary

This is another penguin taught by Isopresso, I would say the anime-cute version of the two. I did try to downsize because with cute, going very small or very big is usually a win. 

After some fiddling to get its legs just right, the little guy ended up with a "baby's first steps" vibe. Like catching a tiny mid-waddle moment of courage.

(view other penguin)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

March 15 - Iso Camel

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be a camel.

Carry what you must, but don’t let it weigh you down. Adapt to the heat, the wind, the unexpected. Endure. Move forward, even when the path is uncertain.

... and when the moment calls for it? Spit.
--
These camels are from Isopresso tutorials, where he shows two versions on his main channel - a one-balloon design and this more detailed version. 

As a side note, I really like pure black eyeballs - much easier to pose since they don't give a specific look vector.  

(view other camel)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

March 14 - Pie

"I suppose I will die never knowing what pumpkin pie tastes like when you have room for it."

~ Robert Brault

In the eternal battle of cake vs. pie, cake wins. Undeniably. Decisively. Without question.

... On every day but today.

For just this one glorious moment, pie takes its place in the spotlight .. you know, because math and stuff.

These balloons were inspired by the slice of cake design on the Sepo Balloon Brother's channel (link).  From what I can gather they are a South Korean team of balloon artists that specialize in decor but span a broad spectrum of balloon art, and I get a sense that they have a blast filming together.  They seem like a fun crew. :)

    
(view other cakes)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Sepo Balloon Brothers:

March 13 - Graham's Horse

"A horse doesn’t care how much you know until he knows how much you care."

~ Pat Parelli

When looking for a horse to add to my pocket full of sunshine ammo, I saw this one as well and liked the look of it.

This was shown by Graham Lee on his BalloonTube channel. Graham is an icon in the balloon industry and has been on this blog a number of times already - he has a great style so it's nice to see all that he's created in the past few years that I've missed.  

I built the two in the colors he demonstrated, but then thought I could try a donkey.  I would probably do the mane in a darker color to really sell it.

... and if you can build a pig with it, then well ... you and I would probably make good friends.

(view other horses)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Graham Lee:

March 12 - Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

"And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it'"

~ Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I've built eggs using this tutorial previously (link) - but the exercise of creating a consistent form is good, like practicing musical scales.

Sung Chun-Lin (Fusen_Zero) is an incredible artist and fantastic instructor - extremely thorough, he released a series of instructional videos on the online learning platform 'Hahow' some years ago, these videos cover almost every topic I can think of related to twisting balloons, just stopping short of decor.  Unfortunately, they're not available anymore and I (*think I) saw notice that they will be removed at some point, so I want to run through them again.

The egg is a more forgiving shape, the ball took a few attempts.  The final section sizes were 8-10-11-10-8 cm.

 

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Other balloons by and inspired by Sung Chun-Lin: