Instructions - Sealion

[Fitzwilly]

A very cute Sealion design by Patrick on Balloon Designs. Also a great example of using 160s and 260s together. Clever and inspiring.

This model could also be scaled up using 350s and 260s.
Material needed:
- Grey 260
- Grey 160
- Blush 160 (or scrap)
- Black 260 (or scrap)

1. Body base

Make two pinchtwists, a looptwist, a neck bubble, a pinchtwist, and finally two bubbles; one slightly longer than the other. Discard any remainder. This will form the base of your sea lion.

2. Face
From a blush 160 (or scrap) make two 1.5” bubbles, locktwist them.
Make two 2.25” bubbles and locktwist them.

Now push the two smaller bubbles into the grey looptwist of the head. The bigger bubbles will point forward making the base of the snout. Note that the blush part lies on top of the grey pinchtwists – one acting as mouth, the other as reinforcement at the back

3. Nose
Inflate a 0.75” bubble from a (scrap) black 260. Leave a small under inflated part for tying.

Tie it in at the point where the blush snout and grey mouth come together.

Now pull the nose around and over the blush snout. Arrived on top of the snout it will be easy to make it into a black pinchtwist while the torsion of the under inflated part will make the snout a bit pinched, which is good.

4. Fins and body reinforcement
Tie the grey 160 at the grey pinchtwist on the chest area.
Make a looptwist with a bubble about 6-7” for the front fin. Make a similar looptwist for the second front fin.

Lay the grey 160 alongside the body. To connect the 160 at the back simply deal with it as being the 3rd bubble of the 3-bubble roll through. So measure a same sized bubble and roll it through the 260 bubbles. Another method is pulling the entire 160 through the 260 bubbles. What ever you prefer.

Now continue with the 160, making a looptwist for the rear fin. This one should be slightly smaller than the front fins. For the tail, make an even smaller looptwist which will be positioned at the very back. Another rear looptwist makes the second rear fin. Make another bubble alongside the body and tie the 160 at the front. Discard any remainder.
Now pull both the rear fins a bit around the tail to improve the shape.

5. Artwork
Draw on pupils and some spots around the nose.
Note that in this final picture I used two locktwisted bubbles as the rear fins, instead of the above mentioned looptwist.

Enjoy!

[pixcoco]

You got busy today.

[Fitzwilly]

Today's posts are not my designs. Although I am working this sealion for my restaurant tonight. As I am surfing the web if I see some simple, well explained instructions I try to cross post them for everyone to enjoy.

[magicgeorge]

Thank you for viewing my instructions, folks. This design is from guest artist Patrick van de Ven from my instructions site Custom Balloon Designs-Free balloon twisting,model,sculpture instructions.