Kermit: This Time, It's Easier Being Green

Remember how I said I didn't like my first try at the Miss Piggy balloon? I liked my first Kermit even less.

Here's the next incarnation. I'm digging this one a whole lot more.

Despite appearances, this picture was not taken in a Sears Portait Studio.

Miss Piggy, Part Deux

I worked on this while watching the Glee season finale and I think Miss Piggy will now forever remind me just a little bit of Rachel Berry.

I did a Miss Piggy balloon way back in the beginning of this project and was never really happy with it. Tonight, I was suddenly struck with ideas for refining the design and I finally understood that Miss Piggy has to have her evening gown, gloves and, yes, a tasteful amount of pig cleavage.

I'm pretty happy with this one and also kind of looking forward to seeing how many people stumble upon my blog by googling "pig cleavage."

The New Guy

After seeing the Green With Envy trailer for the new Muppet movie, I got to thinking about the new guy in the Muppetverse, Walter.

According to my always trusty source Muppet Wiki, Walter is roommates with Jason Segel's character in the movie. I'm always a bit leery of new Muppets but if this dude's good enough for Jason Segel, he's good enough for me. After all, the guy's like Ghandi, but better. He likes puppets!

Oscar the Grouch




Oscar always makes me think about Garbage's "I'm Only Happy When it Rains"

 
I've been feeling sort of uninspired lately--blah, cranky and generally unproductive. After giving in and wallowing in my lousy mood for a while, I finally got to work and ended up with one of my favorite Muppet/Sesame Street balloons so far and am feeling much perkier.

I guess it's ironic that this story about Oscar's miserable origins (from the Muppet Wiki) makes me really, really happy:

According to Sesame Street Unpaved, "The character of Oscar was inspired by a nasty waiter from a restaurant called Oscar's Tavern in Manhattan. Jim Henson and Jon Stone were waited on by a man who was so rude and grouchy that he surpassed annoying and started to actually amuse both Jim and Jon. They were so entertained that going to Oscar's Tavern became a sort of masochistic form of luncheon entertainment for them, and their waiter forever became immortalized as the world's most famous Grouch." In the Ask Henson.com web column, Jim Henson Company Archivist Karen Falk said that the restaurant was named Oscar's Salt of the Sea -- and went on to say, "Some of the designs that we have in the Archives were done by Jim Henson on Oscar's paper placemats!"

Now SCRAM! (And, uh, come back soon. I'm thinking of trying Oscar's buddy Slimey next.)

5/16

If you're here, you're a Muppet fan and you probably already know that today is the 21st anniversary of Jim Henson's death.

I don't have any new Muppet balloon designs today, but here's this, guaranteed to make you cry or at least give you that punched-in-the-gut feeling (via @CakeWrecks and @ThinkGeek):

The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson.

Clearly, it's time to get cracking on some new Muppet balloons. Coming soon!