humanoid

970: Siren

| wonko

…so I decided it was time to play a game of WTF (What’s That Fold?) on fakebook, and discovered from my archives this was the 29th such game:

Chen Xiou's Mermaid test fold

Through a series of gradual fold sequence reveals, punters guess, and eventually they got it. This is “Sirene” (or Mermaid) from the soon to be published book by Chen Xiao.

This is my first “anime” style character work (stylised faces, detailed hair, cartoony pose) and it was a bit torturous at this scale, with this paper. Folding the shoulders and central body is tough work on small paper (I used 35cm duo white/natural Ikea Kraft paper).

In the end it is a charming model with lots of details, a diva in a “D” cup with bangs, lovely long hair and a beautiful tail. The fold sequence relies on really accurate pre-folding as errors tend to amplify the further through the fold you get. As a result of a 0.5mm inaccuracy in the first 10 steps, her bra is asymmetrical, and the more I tried to fix it, the odder the breast appeared.

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960: Make Origami Great Again

| wonko

Playing with a CP designed by Flynn Jackson, this little cappy chappy is a fun fold:

little cap man

It reminds me of those people, who wear their red MAGA caps waaaaay too tight (and hence restrict blood flow to their brains?), and this little guy is also wearing sunnies.

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959: Jackson’s Goblin Mask

| wonko

Continuing my quest to master the face, I decided to explore the facial widgets of CP#15, one of many generous public designs by Flynn Jackson:

Goblin - black and white

From a single uncut square, emerges the angular features of a lovely goblin.

goblin - scale

I am particularly interested in the formation of the nose, and it’s linkage to the nose bridge – something I want to master for another long-term project.

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957: Tragic Clown

| wonko

There is a story of a deeply depressed man who, when seeking help from a psychiatrist, was given the advice that he should cheer himself up by seeing the visiting clown, the great “Joseph Grimaldi”. With the suggestion, the man wept more intensely. “I am Grimaldi”, he said.

clown mask

I am terrified of clowns, just putting that out there. That said, I saw this little CP of a “Pierrot” with a silly hat and decided to procrastinate even further and attempt to fold it.

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956: Children of the Forest

| wonko

So GOT has started again, the final season and it is a promised shitstorm between people and the undead (sorry, if that is a spoiler).

children of the forest - Flynn Jackson's CP

It seems ALL of the trouble of the resident ice-zombies was caused by an experiment between a man and a race called “the children of the forest”, and some dragon glass, but that plot point will be explored further I guess as the series winds up. This mask reminds me of what I imagined the children of the forest looked like when I read the books.

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Santa/Satan – Ho Ho bloody Ho!

| wonko

Curious things parents, we present certain things as fact and then later we say that they were little white lies, but truth is a slippery thing indeed:

Easter bunny, collector of kiddies teeth, stranger in a red suit causing toddlers to scream in terror when they are perched on their knee in supermarkets – what an odd tradition.

Lovely “santa” re-fold, faux 3D, designed with some lovely colour changes by Steven Casey – ’tis the season.

930: Ground Control to Major Tom …

| wonko

…take your protein pills and put your helmet on.

I have waited an age to fold this model – I was waiting on finding some large format duo paper. When visiting IKEA, I came upon delicious 70cm wide rolls of duo Kraft paper (black on natural and white on natural), and bought a bunch of rolls. 

Folding a 24×24 grid on a virgin square of white/natural Kraft, the collapse lines laid in, the collapse proceeds to the first stage then you re-work each stickey-outey bit. Continue reading →

927: It’s All About the Base

| wonko

One approach to paper folding starts with a “base” – a form with flaps and general morphology that suits an end goal.

A well-designed base is a thing of beauty, and a flexible tool.

This base, a mutated fish base has really useful properties as demonstrated by these two wildly different folds, both designed by Jose Ma Chaquet from Spain. Continue reading →

907: (357/365) Mr Origami

| wonko

Always on the look out for a model that somehow incorporates traditional cranes (Tsuru), I stumbled across this design and knew I had to try it:

A clever pre-folding sequence caches paper that later emerges as “bird-baseable” end points you can locate at the ends of arms. Continue reading →

905: (355/365) Emperor Palpatine

| wonko

I am sure you remember the good old days, when things were better. In the Star Wars Universe this meant Luke, Leia and Han battling the dark side of the force wearing cheesy costumes, in squeeky clean spaceships, among a rain of pew pew pew:

The truth is there were no “good old days”, they were just days, and at the time they seemed amazing but you know, they were just days. This is Lee Armstrong’s “Emperor Palpatine” – you know that evil prune who bar-b-qued people with lightning by channelling the dark side of the force. Continue reading →

902: (352/365) Satan

| wonko

So apparently a symbol of the festive season is a portly old beardy man in a red suit that gives presents to kids who have been nice (and not naughty):

This is Steven Casey’s “Santa”, a lovely exercise in colour change and layer management. Continue reading →

895: (345/365) Tightrope

| wonko

Life is a delicate balance, kind of like being on a tightrope way above the ground in the bigtop. Balance is important, lots of things effect balance:

Work, life, play, people, things that all take their toll on our balance, and we all struggle to walk the line sometimes, tipping this way and that as various forces pull at us. Continue reading →

887: (337/365) Tree Topper

| wonko

Always looking for a nice Xmas tree topper, this little angel is designed by Leonardo Pulido Martinez and was presented in one of my BOS journals:

Had accuracy (and my Spanish) been better, I would also have hands (fingers) on this little model but I started with an almost square and crease drift occurred towards the end. Continue reading →

881: (331/365) Nativity Scene

| wonko

People I work with know my OCD tendencies. When it was casually suggested that I might consider folding a Nativity scene for the end of year celebrations, it was a forgone conclusion that I would:

The assembled figures (each nearly 30cm tall) form quite a striking display – hopefully one that works for the display space – we shall see. Clearly Christmas is just around the corner, with this scene, it is beginning to look a lot like … well … christmas.

We have on the left, 3 kings, bringing gifts (bronze waterbombs are quite the thing this year). Centre there is an angel, looking over a mother, father and child. Bringing up the rear is a random shepherd … because … the scene needed balance.

880: (330/365) Seated Mother

| wonko

So the challenge to render a more feminine figure, seated, as if tending something was on:

Using a variation of the generic judaian I managed to change the head, add knees and change the posture so sitting is suggested. Continue reading →