How to Make a Balloon Lion

Today I would like to revisit for you, one of my oldest models,bto which we are going to make very simple slight modifications, but which will completely transform it. I'll show you how to make a lion, taking inspiration from the tiger, and you'll see it's very easy!

So of course, if you haven't already recently, before following this new tutorial, it might be a good idea for you to review the tiger one again, so I've put the link for you in the video description below.

And as always, in the description of the video, you will find the PDF link with the detailed photos of each step. Take advantage of it, it's free access! And if you are ever new to balloon sculpture, I invite you to follow my older tutorials which are also the simplest because they are aimed at the perfect beginner. Start with number 1, then number 2, number 3, and so on. That said, without further ado, let's go for the lion!

We will need at least two balloons. 1 yellow balloon, a rather dark yellow, for the body, and 1 brown, rather light, for the mane. And optionally, a piece of a white balloon for the eyes.

The yellow balloon should be inflated to the same size as the orange tiger balloon, i.e. leaving at least an uninflated margin of a little more than the width of the hand. The brown balloon will be much less inflated. Like that ... that's enough ... half the ball. And the white balloon, which I remind you, is not compulsory, will hardly be inflated. Just a small bubble will be sufficient ... There ... Like that. So then, we tie together the yellow balloon and the brown balloon at their base.

We will first work with the yellow balloon, and as with the tiger, we're going to make a first fairly large bubble, followed by another bubble a bit smaller about half as much, then a larger bubble than the second, exactly the same. size than the first.

And let me remind you to hold the two sides of the balloons... if we hold the beginning and the end, the bubbles in the middle will not come undone.

So then another little smaller bubble, the same size as the second. And finally, a larger bubble, the same size as the first, and the one in the middle. Like that ! Next, we're going to block this series of bubbles at their base. So you've got a big bubble, a little, a big, a little, a big. The bubbles facing each other are exactly the same size, except for the middle one of course, which has nothing in front.

Once the bubbles have been stabilized and hold well on their own, we will form a new small bubble with the yellow balloon, then a larger bubble. So, we are roughly in the same proportions as the first bubbles: small bubble, large bubble, small bubble, large bubble. Then we're going to force these two bubbles through the others, in the middle of the hole, in this way, so that they get stuck on the other side, like that.

We're then going to take one of the two small bubbles we made, and we're going to pinch it and turn it into a pinch-twist. The same goes for the second small bubble. Pinch-twist which we call "ear bubble" in French. And that's quite appropriate, since we have just made the ears for the lion,  which for the moment looks a lot like the head of the tiger.

And I take this opportunity to take a little parenthesis. If you are not yet familiar with all the basic techniques of balloon sculpture, such as the "pinch-twist", I have created a playlist on this subject, the link of which is also in the descriptions under the video. OK, I'll close the parenthesis.

At this point we get a head that looks like two drops of water like that of a tiger, and you will agree that this is a bit normal since so far we have followed exactly the same procedure as if we had wanted to do a tiger, except for the color of the balloon.

In fact, it's the mane that will make all the difference. So let's take the brown balloon to make the mane. We are going to start with a very small bubble, which we are going to transform into an pinch-twist. Here ... like that! We will then press on the brown balloon, and push the air to its end, to prevent it from being too tight. I refer you to my video on air pressure management.

We line up the brown balloon with one of the tiger's cheeks, and we form a bubble about the same size as the tiger's cheek, and this bubble, we're going to wedge it behind the lion's ear. Here it is! We will continue ... Same ... we press on the brown balloon to expel the air towards the end, so that it is not too tight here.

We align the brown balloon against the lion's forehead, in order to form a bubble which is about the same size, which we will also wrap around the lion's ear, in this way ... so that it is well attached. We rearrange the ears... Same... we press on the brown balloon to expel the air towards its end. You can see that there is not much uninflated margin left at the end of the ball, on the other hand we can handle the ball without bursting it because it is not too tight.

We now line up the ball against the last cheek, the lion's second cheek, to make a bubble that is about the same size and we are going to wrap it around the little brown "pinch-twist" that we made at the beginning of the series of brown bubbles. Here we can do another turn to make sure it is solid. And look ... it's starting to look more like a little lion.

We will now take the yellow balloon. I check the end of the balloon and find that I don't have a lot of headroom, so I'm not going to push the air towards the end, I'm going to keep some, to have enough headroom to finish. If you have a more than me, you can continue pressing on the balloon so that it doesn't get too tight.

Okay, now a little bubble for the neck, and there ... Attention ... I will block the bubble of the neck between two of my fingers to prevent it from coming undone during the next step, and while maintaining the yellow bubble between my two fingers, I form with the brown balloon a bubble, about the same size, but smaller. Like that! I then position the two bubbles against each other, and I block them together securely.

I now take the brown balloon back, and I see that at the end, I don't have much room. So I will now save the air and keep it at its base. I line up the balloon towards one of the lion's ears, to calibrate it to the right length so that I can wrap it around that ear again. I now line up the brown balloon along the forehead to reach the other ear, I calibrate my bubble accordingly and wrap it around the second ear. I now line up the brown balloon towards the base of the yellow balloon, to calibrate it in the right place, to be able to lock it with the yellow balloon.

And here is the lion's head and his mane!

I now position my balloon at the back of the lion's head, and I form a last bubble which should be about the size of the empty space between the three bubbles which are at the back of the lion's head. And I'm going to keep that part there and deflate that one. So, as I no longer have any slack, I will create some myself by pressing on the end of the balloon so that I can cut it without bursting it. I'm going to let the air escape softly... I tie a knot... and I will nudge this bubble in that empty space. I take the remaining end of the uninflated balloon and wrap around one of the ears, if I have enough, I can even go to the other side, but that is not really necessary.

And here is the head of my lion. So if you want, you can stop there. You can simply draw the eyes on the forehead, exactly as we drew the eyes on the head of the tiger.

On the other hand, if you want to change a little, you take the little piece of white balloon that we had inflated, to make white eyes, which we will position here. We start by making a tiny little white bubble. And you see, compared to what you inflated, it is really very tiny, followed by a second exactly the same... Like that! So, it's not that simple, and it might not be something you will get to do, but if you don't, that's okay... you can simply draw the eyes.

Once you've managed to make your two tiny little bubbles, you put them together. With the left hand I will hold the knot of the balloon and with the right hand I will take the bubble and I will pass it between the two bubbles and roll up several times. If you can't see it well, remember that there is the PDF with all the details. You might see a lot better.

We cut the balloon ... the end part of the balloon ... and tie a knot with the two bits, to secure it. The goal is to make two small white bubbles which are held by a knot between them. We are now going to take the lion's head back and we are going to introduce one of the bubbles ... only one ... and we will pass it below, between the lower jaw and the lion's nose: between these two bubbles. the small and the large.

So we push the bubble inside. This one will stay on this side, and the other will pass on this side... There you go! So, to make it really look like eyes... now we'll have to make them pass all the way through, and go up there. So we do it slowly... little by little.

And here is the lion's head with its two small white eyes, which we are now going to embellish with a small black dot. So, I remind you ... it is better to have a few details than too much when drawing on the balloons. So the little nose... the little dots... like that... a little mustache on each side... and it's good!

So now, what remains for us to do, well it is the simplest, it's the two front legs, the belly and the two rear legs, just like for the tiger, or for the small dog.

So here I see that I don't have a lot of headroom, so I'm going to save air, I'm not going to push it towards the end of the ball. One front leg, two front legs, the same size. A fairly long body, maybe longer than the legs... It all depends... for the proportions, it all depends on the rest of the balls you have. You have to do something harmonious.

And the tail must not be too big, nor too inflated for that matter. So keep the air on the legs, and not too far behind. Like this ! We do not want the tail to be too inflated, in order to be able to give it a small wavy shape, as we have done for the tiger.

A well rounded little belly ... and here is our little lion!

This lesson is over for today. See you soon, I hope... for another lesson, with Môssieur Ballon!