TMNT week - Splinter

Hello all, I am sorry for this interruption to your daily routine but I would like to wish you all a very happy National No Interruptions Day.  

Today marks the last day of TMNT week (and the last day of the year, Happy New Year everyone). For the last day I have made the adoptive father and sensei of all four of the Turtles - Master Splinter. 

Splinter is wise, mature, and highly trained in the art of Ninjutsu, he is also a giant rat, it depends on which story line you follow but he was either the mutated/reincarnated martial artist Hamato Yoshi, OR he was the pet rat of Hamato Yoshi. Splinter idolises the four turtles and occasionally comes to their rescue in times of crisis.

My version of Splinter was quite complicated to make, I'm not even sure if I remember how I made the body, the only parts of Splinter which are photoshopped are the pupils of the eyes and the background.

Have a great new year everyone

Rob

TMNT Week - Raphael

 

Hello everyone and may I wish you a very Happy National Bacon Day, I do hope you all have a wonderful day full of bacon galore. Today I am featuring the last of the 4 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Raphael (Raph).

Raph is named after the Italian Renaissance artist Raffael and is the most aggressive of the four turtles, he generally wields his twin Sai as his primary weapon and is often very angry and sometimes rebellious.  

The background of this weeks pictures has all been the same background but I have been able to change the colours of each background to make them all look slightly different, the eyes and mouth were photoshopped on and then I added some detail to his weapons.

Tomorrow I move away from turtles and we get to see another character. See you tomorrow.

Rob 

TMNT Week - Donatello

Hello happy people, I hope you are having a wonderful week, today is national Pepper Pot day so I hope you all have a great day with your pepper pots. 

Meet Donatello (Donnie), the tallest and most intelligent of all the turtles with a natural aptitude for science and technology. Donnie's primary signature weapon is his effective bō staff but he generally relies on his gadgetry rather than his combat skills. Donnie is names after the Italian Renaissance sculptor Donatello.

See you tomorrow for the final of the 4 turtles

Rob

TMNT Week - Michelangelo

Hello everyone and happy National Card Playing day, today I have shuffled and dealt you a balloon of our second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Michelangelo.

This balloon Michelangelo (Mike) is actually a completely different balloon sculpture from the one I made yesterday, you will see there are subtle differences in all the turtles this week even though they are all made in very similar ways. Mike is the youngest of the turtles and is the most playful, his signature weapons are dual nunchaku, though he has also been portrayed using other weapons, such as a grappling hook, and a three-section staff. Mike was named after Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti and it is Mike who was responsible for the catch phrase "Cowabunga!".

Have a great day fellow turtle fans

Rob

#balloonartist #balloon #balloonart #balloonsculpture #robdriscoll #balloons #balloontwisting #bowtieballoonguy #photoshop #balloontwister #TMNT #turtles #balloonartistry #robdriscollbowtieballoonguy #Michelangelo #Michelangeloturtle #Michelangelotmnt #tmntmike #tmntMichelangelo #mike

TMNT Week - Leonardo

Hello everyone and welcome to a new week and a new theme. before I get to the balloons can I wish you all a very happy National Fruit Cake day.

So this weeks theme of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was suggested by my cousin Charlie, at first I had dismissed the idea as they are all very similar however once I had thought about it I figured I could make them all different enough. Today we have Leonardo, the oldest of the four turtles he is the commander and tactical advisor of the team. 

The weapons that Leonardo uses are a pair of Ninjatos (a Japanese short sword), Leonardo is seen wearing blue and because he is the most skilled of the turtles he is names after one of the most skilled of the Renaissance artists Leonardo da Vinci.

The eyes and mouth are Photoshopped on plus I gave the sword a slight sharp edge, The background I made from scratch but I only had to work on this the once as I have adapted it and used it for all the images this week.

See you tomorrow turtle fans

Rob

Ninji Turtle week

Hello folks. Happy National Candy Cane day, I do hope you've had a great weekend and have a wonderful day celebrating your Candy canes. 

Today I announce a brand new week, this was an idea given to me by my cousin Charlie, its going to be a week of the Teenage Mutant Ninji Turtles. 

See you tomorrow 

Rob

Christmas Week - Bonus

Hello everyone, its been a bit difficult to find a national holiday of importance to celebrate today but thankfully after an exhaustive search (taking roughly 20 seconds) I have discovered that is is National Pumpkin Pie day.

I don't normally do new photos on Saturdays but because there seems to be something major going on today I have decided to do an extra bonus photo.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

Rob

#balloontwisting #balloon #balloontwister #balloonart #photoshop #movie #christmasweek #robdriscoll #bowtieballoonguy #christmasweek🎄 #balloonartistry #robdriscollbowtieballoonguy #christmas #christmas2021 #balloonartist #balloonsculpture #balloons #santa #santaclaus #santa #santaclaus #fatherchristmas #fatherchristmas #fatherchristmas🎅

Christmas Week - The Snowman

 

    Hello fellow Festive fans and may I be the first to wish you a very happy national eggnog day, Today should be the last day of my week of festive photos however I have a bonus photo tomorrow.

    Today I have made what I think might be a very British character, I am really not sure how well known this chap is around the world, maybe if you are from outside the UK you can let me know in the comments below?

    So this is The Snowman from the book (and 1982 animated short film) by Raymond Briggs. I have a feeling that this animation is a Christmas tradition for many families in the UK, it is usually shown on TV every year. If you are unfamiliar with it then buckle up because you are in for a treat, here is a link to the full 26 minute animation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A3THighARU&ab_channel=uderzo1984

    See you tomorrow for my bonus photograph folks and I hope you all have a wonderful few days whatever it is you get up to.

Rob

#balloonart #photoshop #christmas2021 #balloontwister #christmas #robdriscoll #balloonsculpture #balloontwisting #balloonartist #balloons #balloon #bowtieballoonguy #christmasweek #robdriscollbowtieballoonguy #balloonartistry #christmasweek🎄 #movie #snowman #thesnowman #RaymondBriggs #snow #walkingintheair

Christmas week - Gonzo

Hello everyone, today I would like to wish you a very happy Night of the Radishes, an awesome looking Mexican festival to celebrate oversized carved radishes. 

Today I have chosen a character from what I consider to be the best Christmas film AND the greatest Dickens adaptation. It is Gonzo from a Muppets Christmas Carol. 

I used so many bits of scrap balloon in this I can't even remember where I started, but the only photoshop work is the pupils of the eyes and the background and text. 

Enjoy your day radish fans

Rob

Christmas Week - Elf

Hello everyone and may I wish you a very happy national date nut bread day. We are half way through Christmas week and today I have made my own version of Buddy the Elf from the movie Elf. 

Some of the most popular scenes in the film feature the exciting facial expressions of Will Ferrell who plays Buddy, translating those expressions into balloon/photoshop form was quite a challenge and I hope I did it justice. The face, jacket details and background is all made with photoshop, I also reworked the shape of the hat a little bit to get it looking more like the actual hat.

See you tomorrow for another festive photo

Rob

Christmas Week - Die Hard

 

Hello everyone and happy don't make your bed day, I have gone straight into the celebrations for this important occasion by not making my bed . . . again.

Today we have another Christmas movie, it is Die Hard, yes it IS a Christmas movie, even if Bruce Willis has recently stated that it is NOT a Christmas movie he is wrong, if a film takes place on or near Christmas then it IS a Christmas movie, Just like Ghostbusters 2 and Batman Returns. 

I made this John McClane during a recent balloon event, the only additions I have made with Photoshop are the eyes but I did go to town with the background creating the Skyscraper and the explosion from scratch. 

See you tomorrow my festive friends.

Rob

Christmas Week - The Grinch

    Hello everyone and welcome to a new week in my Take Five project, before I get to todays balloon I I would like to wish you a very happy National Sangria Day, I am pretty sure there are lots of people out there who would like to celebrate this important occasion. 

    This week I am starting Christmas week off with a very popular character, it is the Grinch from the 1957 children's book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr Seuss. I was never a big fan of the Grinch, we didn't really get Dr Seuss here in the UK when I was a child and I never really liked the early films however that all changed with the 2018 animated movie The Grinch starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the main character. 

    This balloon Grinch is made completely from lime green balloons (no surprise there), The mouth, nose, eyes and eyebrows were all put in using photoshop and I created the background from scratch. It was so nice to start the week off with such a jolly fun loving character. 

See you tomorrow 

Rob 

Christmas week

Hello Everyone, I do hope you are all having a lovely weekend and you are not too stressed with Christmas being so close.  It is time to announce this weeks theme for my Take Five project, this week I thought it might be a good idea to do something a little bit different and I am taking a look at some Christmas themed characters from various festive movies and TV shows.  

I have really gone mad with the Photoshop with some of these sculptures this week and I have tried to pick a couple of lesser seen Characters too.

See you soon 

Rob 

Fraggle Rock - Gobo

Hey everyone, its the final Fraggle in my Fraggle fiesta today and what a day it will be because I know so many people are celebrating National Maple Syrup day. 

Meet Gobo Fraggle, He is seen as one of the leader Fraggles, he is adventurous and loves to explore new parts of the Fraggle cave system. Gobo is also very brave being the only Fraggle brave enough to venture into the Captains lighthouse (or Docs workshop depending on where you live).

My Gobo Fraggle is made from a selection of balloons in lots of random shapes and sizes. Just like some of the other Fraggles it is just the pupils of the eyes which are Photoshopped on.

As this is my last Fraggle of the week I will do a recap tomorrow and announce my next theme on Sunday, ooo I wonder what the theme could be?

Have a good weekend

Rob

Fraggle Rock - Red

Hello fellow Fraggle fans. Today is a very special occasion, its National Chocolate covered anything day, sounds like a great celebration to me. 

Today I have made Red Fraggle, she has very distinctive hair and is instantly recognisable. Red loves sports and is a swimming teacher and an expert at rock hockey.

This balloon Red Fraggle was made completely from balloons and only the eye pupils are photoshopped. I made her about 3 weeks ago along with all the other Fraggles. I've had about 3 or 4 weeks worth of balloons made in advance since I started this project which I am currently very pleased about as I'm having a very busy week of doing Christmas shows and don't have any time to add to the project. It's great to have a few weeks to fall back on. 

See you tomorrow for the final Fraggle balloon

Rob

Fraggle Rock - Wembley

Greetings fellow Fraggle fans, I hope you are all having a good week, I would like to be the first to wish you a happy national cat herders day, may all of my cat herding readers out there have a wonderful day however you celebrate it. 

Today I have made a sculpture of Wembley Fraggle, when I was a child fan of the Fraggles Wembley was always my Fraggle, I loved him. Wembley is the youngest Fraggle and is always seen wearing his banana palm shirt, he hates arguments and really can't decide on anything (that is me all over). Wembley is a hard worker and has a job as the siren of the local Fraggle Fire Department. 

This balloon Wembley was fairly simple to make from balloons however I then spent a very long time working on the extra effects in Photoshop. First of all I had to change the colour of Wembley's skin, he is actually a kind of yellow green, the next step was the banana palms on his shirt and his eye pupils, Just like with Mokey I used the same background and moved a few of the features around to make it look different. 

See you all tomorrow 

Rob

Fraggle Rock - Mokey

 

Hello everyone and happy International Monkey day, today my balloon sculpture is nothing to do with Monkeys, instead I am continuing the Fraggle Rock theme and we have the Fraggle called Mokey.

Mokey Fraggle is a bit like the mother figure of Fraggle Rock, I have always seen her as a bit of a hippy (which I love), she loves poetry, painting, meditating and writing in her diary, she also loves to mother the other Fraggles.

This Mokey is actually made up of lots of tiny bits of balloon, I struggled to find enough of the right colours so I pieced her together from all sorts of small bits. The eye pupils are the only part put on with Photoshop, plus I reworked yesterdays Boober background to create a new different background for Mokey. 

Fraggle Rock - Boober

 

    Hello Everyone and may I be the first to wish you a very happy National Violin day. Today we kick Fraggle week off with the first of five Fraggle Characters, this is Boober. 

    Boober is a very serious Fraggle, he spends most of his life worrying about doom and disease, when he is not worrying about himself he spends his spare time warning others of the impending doom and disaster. Boober does have some hobbies, he loves laundry (hence the socks) and he enjoys cooking too. 

    This Boober is made from 6 balloons (all scraps from my scrap box), I obviously spent hours drawing on the eyes which are hidden under his hair. There is literally no photoshop work on Boober himself however I did create the cave and sock background using photoshop.

    See you tomorrow folks and as the Fraggles say - Dance your cares away, worries for another day.

Rob

Fraggle Rock Week

Hello Everyone, I do hope you are having a lovely weekend. It is time to announce this weeks theme for my Take Five balloon/photoshop project, we are heading back to the 1980s and its time to take a trip down to Fraggle Rock. 
 

Mystery Inc - Scooby Doo

Happy Friday everyone and may I wish you all a very happy Lost and Found day, may everything that is lost be found and everything that's found be kept. 

To finish off the week we have the main man (or dog) himself, its Scooby Doo or to give him his full name - Scoobert Doo, yes thats right, his name is Scoobert Doo.  Scooby shares many personality traits with his best friend Shaggy including being constantly hungry for Scooby snacks and being scared of everything. 

My Scooby is made from about 5 or 6 bits of balloon and then as usual I put on the face and details using Photoshop. 

This weekend I will do a recap of this weeks balloons and let you know the theme for next week, expect some real 80s nostalgia. 

Have a great weekend everyone.

Scooby dooby doooooooooo

Rob

Mystery Inc - Norville 'Shaggy' Rogers

Hello folks and Happy National Pastry day. To celebrate this occasion I have made a very popular Scooby Doo Character, Its a balloon version of Norville Rogers.

"who?" I hear you ask.

Yes it's Norville Rogers, better known as Shaggy.

Shaggy was once an athlete and gymnast, this talent has stuck with him and he now used those skills to evade the various ghosts and monsters the team encounter. Being constantly scared also means that Shaggy is always hungry,  his favourite food being an extra cheese pizza with pickles. 

This balloon Shaggy is made mainly from 5 or 6 bits of balloon from my scrap box. The beard, eyes and other facial features are all put on in Photoshop.  

Just one more character to go, I wonder who it could be? See you tomorrow. 

Rob

Mystery Inc - Daphne Blake

 

Hello Everyone , Today I would like to wish you a very happy Lard day, I do hope you celebrate lard in the best way possible. We continue through the week of Scooby Doo with our third character Daphne Blake. Daphne is the daughter of wealthy parents and when she was young she wanted to be a Supermodel and a detective. It was Daphne's parents who donated the money to start up the Mystery Inc business, I do love that there is so much history built in to the Scooby Doo world.

Just like Velma and Fred, this sculpture of Daphne has very little photoshop work on it, it is just the face details which I did in Photoshop. This week has proven to be relatively light on the photoshop work. Just 2 more days to go and I bet you are all wondering which characters I will do? maybe it will be the Ghost of Creepster Canyon? Or is that just Old Mr Robinson in a scary mask?

Until tomorrow

Rob

Mystery Inc - Fred Jones

Hello everyone and Happy National Candy Floss day (or Cotton Candy in the USA). I had conversations yesterday with several people about the full names of Mystery Inc characters, it seems that many people don't realise the characters have full names, yesterday we met Velma Dinkley, today however I would like to introduce Fred Jones. 

Fred usually takes the lead in solving the Mystery Inc cases, He often teams up with Daphne when searching for clues and he is quite bossy, he is often seen telling Scooby and Shaggy what to do to nab the criminal.

This Fred sculpture is made with a 2 different sized balloons in several different colours, the only photoshop work I have done are the features on his face. If you are wondering about how I am fitting all this twisting and editing in and keeping up to date with everything then to give you an idea I am currently posting week 4 of my project BUT I am currently working on week 8 and 9, so I am at least 4 weeks ahead which gives me a nice few weeks to fall back on if I get busy. 

See you tomorrow

Rob

Mystery Inc - Velma Dinkley

 

Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new week of balloon characters in my Take Five project, this week I have made 5 members of Mystery Incorporated, AKA the Scooby Doo gang.

First up we have Velma Dinkley, usually seen as the brains of the group and is often the one who solves the various cases. Velma has a habit of losing her glasses and the glasses you see in the photo are indeed made from an uninflated balloon and are shaped with the help of a wire.

Velma's facial features are put on with photoshop along with the coloured lenses to her glasses. All that leaves me to do is to wish you a very happy Mitten Tree day (whatever that is), I do hope you celebrate this remarkable day in the company of your best mittens . . . . . and favourite trees.

See you tomorrow
Rob

Scooby Doo week

Hello everyone, I am now coming into week 4 of my Take Five project and this week I am making characters from Scooby Doo.

Batman Villains - Mr. Freeze

Hello everyone and Happy National Bartender day, I hope any bartenders out there are having a wonderful day. We have reached the end of week 3 and the last of my Batman Villain balloons which is Mr. Freeze.

This Mr. Freeze is based mainly on the one from the original Batman TV series but I think he looks a little bit like the movie version too. 

There is not a lot of photoshopping going on in this photo, all i did was tidy up the eyebrows and mouth.

Have a good weekend everyone. 

Rob

Batman Villains - Scarecrow

Hello everyone, today it is time for the Scarecrow and I have gone dark and scary with the balloon sculpture for the simple reason that I see this character as being a very dark and scary one. 

I have gone more for a comic book version of the Scarecrow rather than the movie version. I made the sculpture and then used photoshop to do the face and darken the sculpture down to suit the background. 

Don't worry, we will finish off the week tomorrow with a more colourful villain. This just leaves me to wish you a very happy National Fritter Day. 

Rob. 

Batman Villains - Harley Quinn

Hello my friendly neighbourhood balloon fans, happy December. It is time for Wednesdays balloon and today we have Harley Quinn. I have gone for the original cartoon version of Harley rather than the more recent movie version simply because it proved to be an easier option.

I am currently a good few weeks ahead on this project having already made the next 4 weeks worth of balloons, and I am already half way through creating weeks 5 and 6. The reason for being so far ahead is because Christmas is a busy time of year for everyone and having the photos ready takes the stress out of it a bit.

See you tomorrow

Rob