Animals are still probably the most popular thing to fold with paper. This post we’ll be looking at a wide variety of different origami animals. There isn’t really a theme here just that they’re all animals and they look great.
First up is this absolutely adorable red panda from one of the best animal designers, Quentin Trollip.
Red Panda, Designed and Folded by Quentin Trollip
Diagrams available in Origami Works of Quentin Trollip
Here’s a fantastic rhino design by Terry Nicolas.
Bogota Rhino, Designed and Folded by Terry Nicolas
Instructions not available
This platypus looks awesome and the whole overall photo/scene looks even better.
Platypus, Designed by Nicolás Gajardo Henríquez
Crease pattern available from Nicolás Gajardo Henríquez’s Flickr
Hoang Tien Quyet designed what’s probably the most elegant looking origami horse. I quite like how you end up with different colours for the body and the mane and tail.
Horse, Designed by Hoang Tien Quyet and Folded by DebugMode
Diagrams available in VOG: 50 Hours of Origami+
Here’s a quite beautiful looking paper elephant. The colour change on the tusks is really great.
Elephant, Designed by Artur Biernacki and Folded by Pere Olivella
Diagrams available in Drawing Origami 2
This Jerboa is a really awesome and cute little design.
Jerboa, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu
Diagrams available in VOG 2: Origami.vn
Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook
I especially like the little feet on this llama.
Llama, Designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and Folded by Alexander Krupnikov
Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 19th Convention Book
This deer is especially majestic looking.
Red Deer, Designed and Folded by Edgar
Crease pattern available from Edgar’s Flickr
This Mandrill is folded from 11 sheets of paper and the different colours make it look really realistic and awesome.
Mandrill, Designed and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi
Instructions not available
Here’s an absolutely adorable little racoon dog design by Satoshi Kamiya.
Racoon Dog, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by J.W Park
Diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 2, 2002 – 2009
This is one of the best porcupines I’ve seen. I love the individual spikes and I’m pretty sure everything is folded from a single sheet of paper.
Porcupine, Designed and Folded by Eric Vigier
Instructions not available
Beth Johnson is really great at designing spiral patterns and I love how she incorporated the spiral into the tail of this squirrel.
Squirrel and Acorn both Designed and Folded by Beth Johnson
Squirrel instructions not available
Acorn tutorial available from Beth Johnson’s Flickr
Here’s a beautiful maned wolf photographed out in the wild.
Maned Wolf, Designed by Taiga Yamamoto and Folded by P. Colman
Crease pattern available from Taiga Yamamoto’s Twitter
I absolutely love this photo. The rabbit design is great and the way it’s jumping is too awesome.
Rabbit, Designed and Folded by Gen Hagiwara
Crease pattern available from Gen Hagiwara’s Flickr
This is a really simple goat design but it still looks really great.
Goat, Designed by Nguyễn Hùng Cường and Folded by Magali
Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 21st Convention Book
Otters are pretty much always cute, even when they’re made out of paper.
Sea Otter, Designed and Folded by Gen Hagiwara
Diagrams available in Origami Tanteidan Magazine #159
Here’s a pair of cute little paper sheep. I especially like the colour change here and how you have black faces and feet with a white body.
Sheep, Designed by Gen Hagiwara and Folded by Eyal
Diagrams available in Spirits of Origami
I saw this photo a long time ago and it’s still one of my favourite origami photos.
Donkey, Designed by Román Díaz and Folded by Folded Wilderness
Diagrams available in Origami Essence
This whole scene is adorable. Even though those are bamboo leaves, not eucalyptus ones.
Koalas Designed by Kunihiko Kasahara, Bamboo Leaves Designed by Hiroshi Kumasaka all Folded by Agnieska (Agne) Mackonyte
Koala diagrams available in Origami Omnibus
Bamboo diagrams available in NOA Magazine 257
This giraffe design is already really great and the custom pattern and colouring on the paper makes it look even better.
Giraffe, Designed by Komatsu Hideo and Folded by CaptainMoon
Diagrams available in Works of Hideo Komatsu
I really like this bison design, something about it looks extra hairy if that makes any sense.
Bison 2015 B, Designed and Folded by Shuki Kato
Crease pattern available from Shuki Kato’s Flickr
This pig is a relatively simple design but it just might be the most realistic looking origami pig I’ve ever seen.
Pig, Designed by Ronald Koh and Folded by Thong Nguyen Nguyen
Diagrams available in the AEP convention 2011 book
Our final model for this post is this adorable little paper hedgehog. It uses an origami tessellation to make it look kind of spikey.
Hedgehog, Designed by Javier Dominguez Perez and Folded by Blanka P (blunek)
Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 20th Convention Book
That’s it for this post. If you like origami animals then be sure to check out all these amazing origami artists for more of their fantastic work.
