humanoid

285: National Ride To Work Day

| wonko

I heard on teh radio this morning that it was National “Ride to Work” Day and narrowly avoided running over a flock of cyclists near the freeway entrance – it got me thinking what riding to work might be like:

I had a model I was looking for an excuse to try, and initially tried it on paper smaller than recommended (a 2×1 rectangle cut from an A3 sheet) only to find it sort of worked in miniature scale, but decided it needed to be bigger. Our school art department has this paper designed for lithography, thin, light, lovely.

I cut a rectangle 1m x 50cm and this is the resulting fold, quite magnificent if tiny given the huge bit of paper it started as. Quite wonderful if I must say so myself. Designed by David Brill, this masterpiece has much to love – the horse (or more correctly pony) is very horsey, and the integrated rider looks like he is riding – very clever indeed.

I was trapped at work, waiting for a meeting so had a little time to kill – so glad I killed it with this. this scale model lets me build character into the elements, the rider’s knees and elbows, alert horse ears and a mouth. The designer apologized for the thin front legs but I am prepared to overlook that minor detail – bravo Mr Brill!

281: The Jester

| wonko

Throughout history, people have acted “the fool” for many and varied reasons. In medieval court, Jesters acted the fool in a bid for self-preservation and increased favour:

All too often the jester is actually pretty bright, but uses that intelligence to work out ways of appearing foolish, doing comically silly things and overtly hiding in plain sight. The often painful “notice me” behavior is more of an indication of their own insecurity often than the bravado it exemplifies.

We all know jesters (more correctly, people who “act the fool”) – one can only wonder, when the retrospect finally kicks in (or when someone in the real world finally has had enough and punches them in the face and finally tells them to STFU), how they contemplate the time wasted avoiding behaving like everyone else and realise they actually had to work harder to appear so silly.

This is a wonderful character piece designed by Spanish origamist Fernando Gilgado. A hideous exercise in box pleating, made more so by the use of copy paper, which I struggled to prevent from disintegrating along commonly folded creases. After the initial pre-creasing, nearly no new folds are introduced in this brilliant design. He looks happy, a little silly, and has detailed face, a wonderful pointed hat with bells on. With duo paper, the face, hands and feet end up one colour, the rest (clothes and hat) are the other colour – again, genius in design.

I am very happy with this as a first fold – even if it seem to take an age it was a great way to weather a morning thunderstorm, and I will fold this again.

Because this model is flat, and great on one side (less so on the other), it suits card mounting, like this:

266: Master Yoda

| wonko

Now I know I have, early on in this project, folded a figurative yoda but I thought it about time I did real justice to this loveable muppet (well, before he became pure CGI in the prequel abominations):

This lovely model is by Fumiaki Kawahata and is deliciously detailed.

I like that he has a 3 fingered hand, walking stick, lovely facial expression replete with crinkled brow and flowing robe. He also free-stands which is a bonus.

I am very pleased with this as a first fold – the diagramming was a bit of a mystery at many junctures so I found I had to improvise, but the model did not suffer for it I think.

The force is strong with this one, could do with a dose of the force actually to propel me over the 365 finish line, it has been a long haul so far.

Little Red – Revisited

| wonko

Little Red was off to visit Kit:

Oh Jake, what big eyes you have, what big ears you have, what big teeth you have…

These are revisits of Stephen Weiss’ “Girl in a dress” and Kade Chan’s “Werewolf” for Kit and Jake.

Lunch with friends, nice. Lunch with friends and their kids, even nicer 🙂

258: Rodin’s Thinker

| wonko

When I think of my mate Mike, I think of Rodin’s “The Thinker”:

There are many reasons, including his stunning good looks, poise but most of all because he is a thinker – he considers everything deeply, his responses are considered, balanced, always truthful and often factual 😛

This is a Neal Elias designed model, interesting use of an off-centre waterbomb base and trademark elias stretches to make the arms, I think it is particularly clever that the pose is fairly accurate, it is self-standing (well, ok, sitting), complete with all the body bits and perched on a pedistal to finish.

This is the second model I have folded from “Neal Elias – Selected Works 1964-1973” compiled by Dave Venables, purchased through the British Origami Society. As a founder in the box-pleating techniques that have been more popular in recent years, the shape is figurative yet evokes the object it was mimicking well I think.

I Think, therefore .. umm … what was the question?

256: Don’t Taze Me Bro

| wonko

Akira Yoshizawa continues to surprise and delight – his folds are simple, elegant and have much modelling potential:

This is one of a series of person studies, and is a novel use of the frog base.

Busy day, lots to do, much being put off, you get that.

250: Child Protection Week

| wonko

This week is designated “Child Protection Week” so I looked for a model that was for me the essence of the message:

Education is where I went – kids educated by older people is one of the best forms of protection around and this group of figures shows the careing and respectful relationship betwixt teacher and student to me.

I like how the elder teacher is balding (but in denial as he has comb-over side tusts of hair on an otherwise bald head), the student looks up hopeful from a book for guidance – just wonderful.

Folded based on a David Brill pair “Gippetto and Pinocchio”  from the aptly named “Brillian Origami” book, I like this grouping and hope you do to. The teacher is folded from a 2×1 and the student from a 2×1 that is 3/4 the size of the teacher. The book is a Brill book also (a spelling book, that only has 3 pages between a lovely bound cover), adding to the scene I think – the student’s hands looked empty without it.

Some lovely figurative folding, suggesting detail without folding every last nose-hair of it; the teacher’s head is a staggeringly complex box pleating trick and the student features a torturous collapse, but overall I can see the models are related, their bases were similar and the folding style of one compliments the other nicely I think.

240: The Stork Brings Babies

| wonko

That’s right children, when the mummy and the daddy love each other very much, the stork visits them and brings them a baby:

Such a strange lie so often promulgated in years gone by to obviate an awkward conversation about the details of how birds and bees … well, you know … actually, that is even more confusing than the facts when you think about it – and what have birds and bees got to do with the process anyway?

This  is a simple and cute origami model to celebrate the many recent births (Dianne, Amanda, Brendan) – now the adventure really begins for these parents.

This is an old-school origami model that would probably be labelled “Kirigami” (a model that involves a cut sheet of paper) from Neal Elias – essentially it is 2 bird-bases grafted together via s split, allowing the 2 parts of the model to be folded carefully with each other.

Taken from Robert Harbin’s “Secrets of Origami”, a book in much need of repair nowadays as it’s binding is failing. Today’s folders would look to see if they could achieve this model from one sheet, with some clever box pleating to boot i suspect – interestingly no one has tried as of yet (well, that I can find at least).

New parentage – I remember those years with great fondness – that exhilarating (and daunting) moment when you realise that pink, wrinkled alien is relying on you totally for love and attention. Cherish the time you have with your kids – they grow up all too fast.

239: Little Red Riding Hood

| wonko

Someone gave me a copy of foreign version of “Red Riding Hood” that I missed in the cinema that I thought was artistically interesting. A modern slant on a village terrorised by a werewolf, so I thought I would fold “Red”:

“Oh Grandma, what big eyes you have, ears, teeth …”, yeah, it was never going to end well. This model is designed by Stephen Weiss and reminds me a lot of the box pleating figure work of Neal Elias.

From a single A3-cut square we tease out a ruffled skirt, arms, head and feet and it results in a poseable model – very neat indeed. The instructions stop at the basic figure, so I added elbows, knees and tried to fashion feet (the thickness of the paper there made anything but “club feet” problematic – with thinner paper I think I could have fashioned shoes and socks for her.

When I first saw this model I thought that I would have to use tissue foil for it – indeed the recommended paper was much bigger and thinner but I decided to try and nurse copy paper through the fold and am delighted with the results. This would be a perfect little “dolly” for a well behaved little girl (Kit, are you listening? )

“Super Heroes”

| wonko

In a moment of madness, amongst an hilarious conversation about the Marvel comic universe, my mate Winston (Michael Brent) and I began brainstorming crap superheroes.

It surfaced that I have low blood pressure and tend to faint (used to regularly) so a new “super hero” was born: CAPTAIN FAINTY

We decided that this superhero would have a sidekick, and that it should be an narcoleptic cat … yeah, don’t ask!


For shits and giggles (and not to add to the already folded collection, but vaguely related to it) I decided to try to fold one.  Using a variation of the Hoodie I was able, with a single 2×1 rectangle to bring life to this occasionally unconscious super hero by adding the all too necessary cape.

It has been pointed out to me however that capes are no longer fashionable amongst the super-set as although they flap magnificently in the breeze, they tend to get you sucked into jet engines whilst waving at the passengers during a flyby which is at worst fatal and at least embarrassing.

Fortuanately, Cap’n Fainty is mostly land-based but it is yet to be decided how effective merely fainting on your foe is as a method of thwarting him.

220: Saint Mary Mackillop

| wonko

Apparently today is the feast for St Mary Mackillop – the first Australian who has been verified to do enough miracles to qualify as a saint.

Interestingly, I drive past the church school she used to teach in in South Brisbane. I would love to say I actually knew this, but a staff member mentioned it during a meeting so I fired up my collection of nuns for a suitable model to provide the tribute.

A relatively simple box pleating exercise designed by Fred Rhom called “Vera Cruz” this works well for the purpose.

there are a few things you can vary here as most is folded without landmark – the height of the cross, the tallness of the nun etc, nice figurative model.

196: A Werewolf

| wonko

Now I have been a great fan of “Being Human” – particularly the character that plays the werewolf George:

I found this astonishing model by Kade Chan purely by accident – I was googling the telly show to see if there were more episodes planned and found reference to this neato origami model of a werewolf, complete with staring eyes, pricked up ears, ferocious claws and a lovely tail and I knew I had to try it.

This is such a well designed model – entirely doable with copy paper (I used a square cut from an A3 sheet) – with some precision and patience the body comes together without fatiguing the paper too much and astonishing detail is possible because each part is only a few thicknesses of paper, except the arms with are a little bulky towards the end when shaping the shoulders.

I particularly like the claws – scary things they are, with each finger posable and a snarly opposed thumb.

I could only find a vague photo sequence so had to guess in some stages by looking backwards and forwards towards the finished fold to work out what to do at times. This IS amazing, yes, you are right to be impressed – I am.

I will accept a round of applause, and cash to accompany any orders you have for me to fold you one of these.

190: Yoshizawa’s Sumo

| wonko

Considered by most to be the “father of modern origami“, Akira Yoshizawa created many artistic models and invented the system of diagramming we now use as standard. He also, it seems had a wonderful sense of humour:

This model is as much a character study as a comment on Japanese society, and I must admit to a giggle when I first found this model nestled near the back of Yoshizawa’s seminal work “Creative Origami”.

Initially, the model is folded asymmetrically, then as features emerge it is obvious this character is “fully equipped” and ready to rumble (although I was sure sumo usually wore some form of ceremonial “nappy” – for some reason Yoshizawa decided to omit that detail).

A simple fold that would benefit from thinner paper (the shoulders and neck were very difficult to fold with an A4 copy paper square). Quite cute however and I would imagine shocking in the day (but these days we would probably suggest steroid abuse will do that to a man 😛 )

178: Scuba Steve

| wonko

Now I was watching this stop motion animation by Sipho Mabona, and saw a humanoid emerge from a sheet of paper, so began doodling with a square of parchment not really having any plan. Oddly a figure emerged with what looked (to me at least initially) like a shell on his back.

Immediately I thought of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” but my son said version 1 looked a lot like a skindiver (he has diving qualifications so I was not going to argue).

Surprisingly, I was able to fold it a second time and discovered a bunch of paper that was useable for a facemask, a nice 3d head, was able to fashion a pair of airtanks of his back and some lovely flippers and…

“Scuba Steve” now lives – I have NO IDEA where i got the name from, but depressingly when I googled it it seems associated with an Adam Sandler movle – my bad. The name stuck.

I am actually pretty proud of this model – i knew where I was going and, without reference to anything else I have folded (well, maybe the arms and legs are influenced by the Hoodie) I think this is pretty neat.

A PADI AOW diver in Florida offered to professionally diagram it for me (which is kind of cool, we shall see if that results in anything – he is a renowned origami author, fingers crossed).

Here is an interim set of instructions: scubasteve (PDF)

Addendum: Version 4 has been submitted to OrigamiUSA and 4Esquinas (the Latin American Origami Society) also seem interested in publishing it – we shall see. Interestingly because it has already been mentioned online, Creased magazine does not want to touch it – curious but fair enough.

172: Life, But Not As We Know It

| wonko

Spock from Roddenberry’s Star Trek is famous for many things – wooden acting, pudding bowl haircut, extreme eyebrow waxing, pointy ears and green blood:

But his lines of dialogue are what does it for me: “It’s a type of space madness we have not seen before”, “Fascinating, Captain”, “It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it” …

A fairly effective caricature of Nimoy as Spock – may you live long and prosper.

You should have a go at this one yourself – http://www.spiraclemusic.com/webwalk/spock1.htm