Phoenix and Something

Origami, Original Designs

My last entry this week is a couple of things I came up with. The first is a Phoenix… sort of. I once made it a long time ago with fancy printed paper and it looked really proud and phoenix-like. It’s more like a crane though. Which makes sense, as it was based on the classic crane origami model.

WKO_000 - PHOENIX (1) WKO_000 - PHOENIX (3) WKO_000 - PHOENIX (2)

Related to that, I designed this model, but it’s based off of the traditional crane model and really pretty simple. So, there’s a good chance that someone else has designed a model that’s exactly the same by coincidence. It’s not like it’s an extremely complex model that I simplified slightly and claimed I did it, like if I stole Satoshi Kamiya’s Ancient Dragon. That would be obvious.

WKO_011 - SOMETHING (1) WKO_011 - SOMETHING (4)

The last one I did is a Something. I don’t know what it is. I was trying to figure out back ridge scale things but couldn’t get it without a lot of lines on the rest of the model. So I used a pattern like the one on the skin of the Ryuzin to just make a texture out of it. This was just a test model (it would need much finer scales and bigger paper for what I had in mind), but I kind of liked it so I thought I’d put it up here.

WKO_011 - SOMETHING (5) WKO_011 - SOMETHING (2)

I like how the weird head turned out, and am wondering if those flaps should be ears or ram-like horns. I probably won’t make it again though, as he’s just something I was playing around with. Still, I think he’s endearing.

Crease Pattern Challenge 007

Crease Pattern Challenge, Origami

Challenge 7 is “Don’t Freeze” by Hiromi Ogata. It’s an adorable rockhopper penguin. It’s a really excellent design that’s 3D with a color change.

OTMCP_007 - DONT FREEZE - OGATA (3) OTMCP_007 - DONT FREEZE - OGATA (1)

Rockhopper penguins have that funny hair style. Ogata’s penguin has extra-fancy hair, even for a rockhopper. Which makes me wonder if this is based off of a movie penguin. There was a run of penguin movies a few years back. This penguin has movie personality at least.

OTMCP_007 - DONT FREEZE - OGATA (2) OTMCP_007 - DONT FREEZE - OGATA (7)

In spite of this being a very interesting and detailed design, I had trouble finding too many other designs by Hiromi Ogata.

OTM_C05 - KANGAROO - OGATA (4) OTM_C05 - KANGAROO - OGATA (1)

I did find this nice Kangaroo in Tanteidan Convention Book 5. It even has a tiny kangaroo in its pouch. Mine’s still a little spread out, but it’s a really nice model.

OTM_C05 - KANGAROO - OGATA (2) OTM_C05 - KANGAROO - OGATA (3)

Crease Pattern Challenge 006

Crease Pattern Challenge, Origami

I was gone last week, so I decided to do some extra this week. First up is Origami Tanteidan’s Crease Pattern Challenge #6, which is an eastern style Dragon by Seiji Nishikawa.

OTMCP_006 - RYUU - NISHIKAWA (2) OTMCP_006 - RYUU - NISHIKAWA (1)

Mine came out a bit different. He’s ended up more of a plant gecko. His face has a kind of leaves on a stalk feel.

OTMCP_006 - RYUU - NISHIKAWA (5) OTMCP_006 - RYUU - NISHIKAWA (3)

Seiji Nishikawa has a several books and hundreds of models, so I thought I’d include a few more of those here. His Pegasus is in his book and Tanteidan Convention Book 4.

OTM_C04 - NISHIKAWA - PEGASUS (1)  OTM_C04 - NISHIKAWA - PEGASUS (2)OTM_C04 - NISHIKAWA - PEGASUS (3)

It’s not as thin and fancy as a lot of pegasii out there, but I like it more for it. This Pegasus actually looks like he could circle the head of a sea monster as opposed to many other “I’m pretty!” pegasii you see.

His Godzilla was diagrammed in Tanteidan Magazine 39. I dolled up the back plates a bit, but I may have overthinned him to do it.

OTM_039 - GOJIRA - NISHIKAWA (1) OTM_039 - GOJIRA - NISHIKAWA (2) OTM_039 - GOJIRA - NISHIKAWA (3)

I like him a lot, but the legs are a bit small. Nishikawa’s original has straight legs (no knees) which helps with this, but the legs look thinner that way. He does seem to get taller with every movie. He’s only attacking to keep his dancer’s legs in shape.

Scaled Works of Satoshi Kamiya 11-13

Origami, Scaled Works of Satoshi Kamiya

This week, I have the next three models from Works of Satoshi Kamiya folded using the same size paper. First up is the Unicorn.

WOSK_111 - UNICORN (1) WOSK_111 - UNICORN (3)

He has a color change between the body and horn which I went overboard on by using dark purple and electric yellow. He has some kind of horse fuzzy parts before the hooves, which is neat. He kind of feels a little short, but I figure the complexity leads to a small model compared to some of the others.

WOSK_112 - YELLOW BIRD (2) WOSK_112 - YELLOW BIRD (6) - Copy WOSK_112 - YELLOW BIRD (1)

The twelfth model is The Yellow Bird! I don’t know why he’s not just called the Chocobo, which is the Final Fantasy bird that this model is about (he has a page of Final Fantasy inspired models if you don’t believe me). I get it may be to avoid copyright infringement, but you’d think Square Enix would just give it for free for this free publicity. I have nothing to scale him against. He is the scale.

WOSK_113 - BLUE WHALE (1) WOSK_113 - BLUE WHALE (2) WOSK_113 - BLUE WHALE (4)

The last model this week is #13, the Blue Whale. It has a lot of cool details, like eyes and blue whale stomach lines. It’s also interesting in that it has an open back. It does feel like a bit of work if you’re not the biggest blue whale fan but is still really neat to make at least once.

Old One Pixie and Marquis de Léon/キングレオ

Origami, Original Designs

These are some pretty recent ones. I was trying to come up a Marquis de Léon (more on him below) and came up with a quirky monster that I like. It’s not actually from a square, though. I thought I could get a clearer handle on what I was trying to do by removing excess paper. It actually removed way too much, but I kind of doodled with what I had and got this.

WKO_009 - OLD ONE PIXIE (1) WKO_009 - OLD ONE PIXIE (2) WKO_009 - OLD ONE PIXIE (3)

I think it looks like a Cthulhu style old one monster with the tentacles combined with one of those angels from that show due to all the eyes. Or maybe a video game monster, like a Starman. Anyway, for some reason, I really like it.

WKO_009 - OLD ONE PIXIE (5) WKO_009 - OLD ONE PIXIE (7)

The one I was trying to make was Marquis de Léon/キングレオ from Dragon Quest. All the Dragon Quest monsters are fun and inventive (they’re all designed by Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama; he seems to make an entirely new set of monsters for each game). The King Leo monster is a lion with eight arms. I guess, technically, he was a dude who turned into a lion with eight arms, but I only made the origami for the lion.

WKO_010 - KING LEO (2) WKO_010 - KING LEO (6) WKO_010 - KING LEO (5) WKO_010 - KING LEO (4)

I think he came out ok. The final design has paws with three claws on the upper four legs, a wide, open mouth, and a very ostentatious mane. He also has a good nose. The muzzle gave me some trouble because it kept moving too close to the dog zone. It’s probably still a little too long on this one.

WKO_010 - KING LEO (7) WKO_010 - KING LEO (9)

The pixel lion is a little hard to see. I have the original art in the Dragon Quest Encyclopedia of Monsters, which has all the monsters’ art from Dragon Quest 1 through 9. I love that freaking book. If you want it, here are a couple of links that have it available (at the time of writing this).

Scaled Works of Satoshi Kamiya 09-10

Origami, Scaled Works of Satoshi Kamiya

It’s been awhile since I did another couple of models from Works of Satoshi Kamiya. Again, all these models are made from 27.9 cm squares and shown alongside the Yellow Bird model to show scale between them.

WOSK_109 - INOSHISHIGAMI (1) WOSK_109 - INOSHISHIGAMI WOSK_109 - INOSHISHIGAMI (4)

The Inoshishigami, which means “Boar God”, is a pretty cool dude. Its legs are a little flimsy though. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be the one from that movie, or just a non-specific boar god.

WOSK_110 - BAROSAURUS (1) WOSK_110 - BAROSAURUS (2) WOSK_110 - BAROSAURUS (3) WOSK_110 - BAROSAURUS (4)

A Barosaurus is one of those long-type Jurassic dinosaurs. It’s a more simple design to accommodate the length, but the face is still pretty nice.

I never can think of a good way to end one of these.