dino/dragon

323: Satoshi’s Smilodon

| wonko

The smilodon is often called the “Saber-toothed Tiger” but is not a tiger at all:

This lovely (extinct) beastie is a Satoshi Kamiya masterpiece, a real exercise in restraint – resisting the urge to set creases early to get nice, rounder shapes later.

I had no idea what was what with this model – as my first fold I learnt a lot from this – I found the lower jaw very fiddly and in the end it did not look a lot like a jaw in my opinion, but the head, saber-like front teeth, haunches and rest of body are beautifully proportioned.

This took me an age (well, in truth 3.5 hours) and although the pattern suggested a 25cm square, I went bigger – 38cm square of lithograph paper and that was fiddly enough.

I like this a lot, it is very cat-like but emanates raw power and ferocity (regardless of how cuddly characters like “Diego” in the Iceage franchise was, these guys must have been snarly and fearsome up close and  personal).

317: Fiery Dragon

| wonko

As a DnD fanatacist, I am always on the look out for a good Dragon – Kade Chan’s Fiery Dragon is one such beastie:

Having loved folding Chan’s “Werewolf” I have had this model in the “must do” pile for months.

WOW – to take an A3-cut square and twist it to this degree and get such a lovely result with no paper fatigue demonstrates the brilliant design here – the body is so thick, wings so tortured, tail so tight, head so detailed that any of these features could have meant the paper split asunder but no.

Coaxing copy paper through tricksey folds is beginning to be an obsession of mine – I have no doubt that many of these folds would be easier with more robust paper but … well … where is the challenge, right?

From all angles, this little beauty is 100% dragon and I will fold this again. If you look carefully he even has eyes. Potter fans will probably label this a “Horntail” or “Ridgeback” dragon, because we are knowledgeable about such things also 😛

Mastery of the square is something Kade Chan is known for, economy of fold and attention to media are the hallmarks of a talented designer. I feel honoured to have folded this one.

293: Kawahata’s TRex

| wonko

It was late, I was tired, and this model did not come easily from a baffling set of instructions:

I will fold this again, but for now this is my first fold – rough but the vestiges of a row of teeth, sort of arms, nearly toes and a good tail/body – plenty of scope to improve.

Folded from “Origami Fantasy” by Fumiaki Kawahata, this model is tough at this scale.

289: Satoshi’s Mammoth

| wonko

I decided today would be another Satoshi Kamiya model (working my way up to the ancient dragon you see) and so selected his Mammoth, figuring “how hard could that be?”:

LOL

Wow, no I mean WOW! So much technique packed into such a tiny package, resulting in a lovely little pachyderm.

There is much to love about this model – the curly tusks (think Manny from Iceage), hairy fringe above the eyes, the eyes, the woolly tummy, the cutsey tail, the strong 3d shoulders, toes etc.

This took an age – the exacting pre-creasing alone taking over 1.5 hours. there are some torturous collapses and a bunch of accordion pleats but in the end it looks like a mammoth, which is always a good thing.

I learnt a lot folding this, and am really relieved my first fold worked at all – seriously there were 3 junctures where I got up and walked away from it assuming I had stuffed it up – those terrifying moments in a diagrammed sequence when you get to an impossibly complicated stage and it then says now unfold it all and re-fold it a different way.

245: You Shall NOT Pass!!

| wonko

Now I am an out and proud “Lord of the Rings” fan – loved the books, liked the movies – the standoff betwixt Gandalf the Grey and the Balrog was such an amazing bit of cinema:

This here is a (sort of) Balrog – pity the photos do not do it justice. Nice leathery wings, a grimace on his face and sort of snarly hands and a lovely tail.

I am writing exams at the moment and the phrase “you shall not pass” is something I try to keep furthest from my mind whilst doing it – I am sure my students would hope that is the case also.

Some interesting teasing of a blintzed preliminary base that is crimped and petal folded in interesting ways – the base that results I can see huge potential in as it has 8 symmetrical flaps asking to be bent into something else – must have a play with it. I found the instructions for this critter on the interwebs and have NO idea whose model it is – anyone help me out? … anyone out there?

229: Satoshi’s TRex

| wonko

Now it is a pubic holiday here in Brisbane for the RNA, and rather than do something show-related, I thought I wold “treat” myself to a Satoshi Kamiya model:

Mistake # 1 – ignoring the suggested paper size – I Folded this from an 18cm square, suggested minimum was 35cm – lol. It became increasingly obvious as I got further and further into this torturous fold that scale was an issue, but I soldiered on with my fat and clumsy fingers.

Budding Scientists: What is wrong with the picture above? )Answer follows*.

So much paper torture but the result, from the outside is actually fairly simple in appearance. I like the body proportions, and the modelability of the eyes and head (difficult to see at this scale). It is a pity this model is not free standing (I had to use a blob of blutac and a bent paper clip as support).

This fold was great for a bunch of reasons, including the exacting nature of the pre-creasing (half millimeters count … mistake #2), a stonkingly difficult sink half way in which baffled me for nearly an hour as I unfolded, refolded and wondered how the layers would ever sort themselves out.

I am happy with this as a first fold, and will fold this model again with a larger format paper. I did not use copy paper but figured with 120 steps, tissue foil was probably the way to go as some of the primary creases get major fatigue.

*Worked out what was wrong with the second picture? It is a WELL recognised fact that TRexes NEVER ate paper, silly.

226: It’s a Mammoth

| wonko

I have always loved oddball humour, and when I discovered the panels by Gary Larson I became an addict, buying everything he published. His acerbic observations of scientific concepts amused me greatly, combined with his caveman humour and we come close to my fav Larson comic of all time – the experiments in early microscopy shown in this panel. This is doubly accurate as, unlike dinosaurs, Mammoths are a relatively recent extinction, with frozen specimens found still to have plant material in their gut and butchery marks on their bones – I guess Mammoth burgers were tasty to early hominids.

Looking for elephantine, I came across a Woolly mammoth in “Origami Zoo” by Robert Lang thus completing a “hat-trick” of models by him:

this figurative mammoth is lovely – seemingly correct morphologically, the hunched and raised shoulders and relatively demure hind quarters, lovely curly tusks, placid expression and gently curling trunk

This model was nearly a fail, using copy paper – some very thick layers inside make shaping the body very difficult an the paper fatigue nearly split at the shoulders – gently gently was necessary at the collapse stage.

Very happy with this as a first fold, and will fold it again I think with some nice textured paper – this would probably work in large format also as you could model toes and a more complete facial expression. I used a square cut from A3 copy paper and the final model was small and tight – thinner paper would have helped I guess.

212: Brill’s Dragon

| wonko

End of another month, thought I would wrestle with a dragon to celebrate and found David Brill’s interpretation of the theme:

I like this a lot, for a bunch of reasons – it has a lovely head and tail, well placed wings and when photographed flat (hey, another model suited to a card) it looks like the Welsh Flag.

Some fiddly flap rearrangement and some folding by eye (rather than to landmark) makes this model interesting, my guess is each time it is folded it’s posture is subtly different.

Tidy use of plain paper, I was concerned the media would let me down but it was fine, meaning the model is well designed in my opinion (models that demand tissue foil are less so). There is an accompanying figure (Saint George – you know,  “George and the dragon” fame) but it is a composite figure, so might hold off on him for the mo.

Folded from the aptly names “Brilliant Origami” by David Brill, I really like that book, and there are still LOTS of things in there for me to fold.

176: Triceratops

| wonko

Now I am not sure if a Triceratops actually looks like this, not having actually seen one myself:

Even fossil records are a little bit hazy on these things, but this is a lovely model none the less. Nicely detailed head, reasonable body proportions and some real solidity to it – a rhinocerous would be afraid of this beastie.

A fascinating application of the offset preliminary base, with some neat swivel folds and one or two interesting sinks, I am very happy with the first fold of this model.

Not sure who the designer of this model was, collected it as a PDF ages back, but it is a keeper.

Why a triceratops? Well, most people who know me think I am a bit of a dinosaur myself at times – you get that, fair call.

161: A Dragon

| wonko

Now I have been looking for nicely shaped Dragons:

and stumbled across a Hungarian fold that reminded me of a cartoon one.

Lovely wings, thick and powerful tail, nice head – a fairly simple fold actually but sometimes simplicity is good too.  

I am working towards a Satoshi dragon, so I need all the dragon-practice I can get. I would like to pretend this one was my first-fold, but I scored a Year 11 Maths C stuporvision at school, and got bored with matrices and vectors so tried it then – so sue me.

Was going to give it to Josh, who has not shut up about dragons since he heard I was going to try the ancient dragon, but then he did not stop talking so took it back – you win some  lose some I guess.

68: Stegosaurus

| wonko

Looking for something simple for a change, I stumbled across this little stegosaurus:There is much to like about this little fellow – plates across the back, head with enough paper (if the moder were bigger) to get eye expressions, and cutey little feet.

Built like a Sherman tank, these guys sadly had a brain the size of a walnut – I know that feeling sometimes.

You can have a go at this one also: stegosaurus

64: KNL Dragon

| wonko

wow, no again I mean WOW! This little beauty is another elegant example of Robert Lang’s extreme paper torture:

I should have realised it was going to be tough when the head folding required fingernails and a magnifying glass to complete (yes, my A4 -cut square of photocopy paper was much smaller and I think thicker than recommended, but I was determined not to let the media fail this time) – such a nice looking model:

I am so impressed that I actually achieved it, patience and accuracy were important here as details emerged from places unexpected. I like that it has pleated wings (with little claspers at the top – can you see?), a horned and snappy head, twisty tail and is free-standing.

I added feet bends because I thought they looked better, getting the head posture and expression right on such a small scale was interesting to say the least.

Very happy with this as a first-fold, next time I will know what to look out for and I think I will make it with a bigger sheet as the amount of scrunching down made the neck and legs pucker a bit – ingenious nonetheless.

Have a go yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5JhIL-THGU

46: Tyrannosaurus Rex

| wonko

…now I was watching a show on SBS2 last night on T-Rex, and there were a bunch of academics arguing whether it was a predator or a scavenger:

It was curious, because they were arguing so passionately about such flimsy incomplete fossil records.

I would like to settle it once and for all: T-Rex was snarly enough to eat WHAT EVER IT WANTED. OK? Scientific communities can now relax, because if the mood takes it it can snap at a passing morsel, but I am sure if it stumbled accross another animals kill no one was going to argue when it pushed to the front of the dinner queue.

I like this model (think Jurassic Park just before the first victim, a lawyer, was taken, angry rexy) – it is fairly simple, but the posture is lovely, and the appendages are in the right place and relatively correct in proportion.You can have a go at it yourself: tyrannosaurus

22: Gilad’s Dragon

| wonko

…there are many variations of dragon (indeed, most experienced folders have their own variation it seems), some that do not look dragon-like at all, I like this one although it is a tough fold – so much paper gets gathered in the body that the final detailing is hard work using photocopy paper (discovering all sorts of limitations of the media).

I think I did a reasonable job (having never tried this model before), an A4 sheet reduces to a figure that is only 5cm tall, but the tail and hands/legs are ok and I quite like the wings that can be folded back or extendedYou can have a go at this one yourself, it is great practise for “rabbit ear” folds, as this model uses a lot of them. The folding diagrams are mostly understandable but I found myself looking ahead to see where a fold would lead to to better complete it. It is of intermediate skill level (not a good introductory/newbie model)

Dragon Fold Pattern

5: Veloceraptor

| wonko

I like this, the posture/stance is sort of what I expect (after watching Jurassic Park) and I like how you get the vestigial arms seemingly from nowhere. I like how the shadow makes it more menacing as well, accidental photos using obscure light sources can result in nice happenstances sometimes.

Nice model, interesting manipulation of the bird-base, first time I tried it – you can try it too at http://www.fishgoth.com/origami/diagrams/velociraptor.pdfveloceraptor