It’s not the Heat of the Moment, These Origami Dragons really are Awesome
We’re finally back with another post and I’m going to do my best to get somewhat regular posts happening again!
If you’ve been following this site for a while then you know that origami dragons are some of my favourite things.
Dragons are super popular and there is no shortage of amazing designs from all kinds of unique styles.
We’ll start off with probably one of the most famous dragon designs out there, Satoshi Kamiya’s Ancient Dragon. This one is expertly folded and photographed by J.W. Park.
Ancient Dragon, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by J.W. Park
Diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 1995-2003
Here’s something of a more Eastern style. Most origami is usually folded from an uncut square of paper but this guy is folded from an uncut hexagon shaped piece of paper.
Designed and Folded by Robert Salazar
Instructions not available – Check out Robert Salazar’s website
This great little dragon is designed after the Nazgul from the Lord of the Rings.
Nazgul, Designed and Folded by Andrés
Robert J. Lang’s KNL Dragon is another very popular design and it’s not too difficult to fold. This one looks especially great with that green and blue patterned paper.
KNL Dragon, Designed by Robert J. Lang and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi
Diagrams available in Origami Design Secrets: Second Edition
Here’s an absolutely incredible Chinese style dragon that’s kind of similar to another famous dragon model. I can’t even imagine how long it must take to fold all those scales… This is a modular model, the body is folded from a rectangle shaped piece of paper and the head and limbs are each folded from a square.
Chinese Dragon 4.5, Designed by Mikiller and Folded by Jaran Darra
Instructions not available
This is a more traditional Western sort of dragon. It’s folded from a single square of paper.
Ductsh Dragon, Designed and Folded by Lê Huỳnh Đức
Instructions not available
I’ve always really liked this next little dragon. If you look closely you’ll see a colour change in the design so the horns, belly and legs are all the different colour.
Dragon, Designed and Folded by Hsi-Min Tai
Instructions not available
I especially like the pose of this next dragon. One of the best things about origami is you can fold the final model slightly to put it in different poses.
Tri-Horned Dragon, Designed by Chuya Miyamoto and Folded by Andrea Borsa
Diagrams available in the Beauty of Origami
This next “Wyrm” is still one of my favourite dragon designs. I really like how it looks like it’s prancing around thinking it’s better than everyone else. I’m kind of surprised that I haven’t seen more people fold this model actually.
Wyrm 1.2, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu (Photo by Jon Tucker)
Diagrams available in VOG: 50 Hours of Origami+
Here’s another incredible Eastern style dragon. Kim Ju Hyun designed this back in 2012.
Eastern Dragon, Designed and Folded by Kim Ju Hyun
Instructions not available
This next dragon was designed as part of a challenge on a French paper folding forum. The challenge was to fold something based on Hoàng Tiến Quyết’s Dove Base.
Dragon, Designed and Folded by Sebastien Limet
Instructions not available
You don’t always have to fold a dragon just standing there. Here’s one in flight.
Dragon in Flight, Designed by Charles Esseltine and Folded by Charles Smith
Diagrams available from Happy Folding
The details and expression of this Wyvern are incredible! This is all folded from one square of paper too.
Wyvern, Designed by Nham Van Son and Folded by Nguyen Nam Son
Crease pattern available in VOG 2: Origami.vn
Here’s a close-up look at another fantastic Western style dragon. It’s folded from glassine paper so I bet you could shine light through it and that would look pretty cool.
Western Dragon, Designed by Shuki Kato and Folded by Matthieu Georger
Video instructions available from Mariano Zavala B.’s YouTube channel – Follow Matthieu Georger on Flickr
Not too long ago Satoshi Kamiya designed this incredible paper version of Alduin, the World Eating dragon from the video game Skyrim. It’s an amazing design that uses a single square sheet of paper. This one is folded from a square of paper that’s 100cm x 100cm.
Alduin, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Artur Biernacki
Crease pattern available from folders.jp
Kei Watanabe has designed some absolutely incredible models including this dragon. The level of detail and the amount of time this must have taken to fold is mind blowing!
2011 Dragon, Designed and Folded by Kei Watanabe
Instructions not available
Satoshi Kamiya’s Ryujin is another very popular dragon model that has been folded by a large number of people. The whole thing is folded from a single sheet of paper. It’s not a square though.
Ryujin 2.5, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Artur Biernacki
Crease pattern available in World of Super Complex Origami
Here’s another very unique design. This whole thing is folded from a single rectangle of paper. The paper has different colours on each side so you end up with a different colour for the dragon and a different colour for the ground. I always love it when designers do something like this.
Dragon, Designed and Folded by Finward
Instructions not available
This is another design that makes excellent use of two-coloured paper. I especially love the pose and feeling of movement here.
Dragon, Designed by Sergey Yartsev and Folded by Luc Marnat
Diagrams available in Olympiad 2013
This beautiful dragon was photographed at the 22nd Tanteidan Convention. This is actually a dragon called Kushala Daora from the video game series Monster Hunter.
Kushala Daora, Designed and Folded by Haruka Hashimoto (Photo by Hiroaki Kobayashi)
Crease pattern available from Haruka Hashimoto’s Flickr
Kade Chan’s Fiery Dragon is another great little dragon design and this one is expertly folded and photographed. The black paper with the gold flecks used here looks fantastic.
Fiery Dragon Version 2, Designed by Kade Chan and Folded by Philipp-Marius Kost
Diagrams available from the Hong Kong Origami Academy
I love how simple and clean this next dragon looks and of course I love that colour change in the design.
Northern Dragon, Designed by Takashi Hoijo and Folded by origami-M-H-G 🙂
Instructions not available
This is another really cool dragon. I love the expression on the face and the over all 3 dimensional shape of the model.
Flame Wing, Designed by Kang Han Wool and Folded by Kyoung Su Kim
Instructions not available
Tomasz Krawczyk designed this fantastic paper version of the Welsh Dragon from the national flag of Wales. Do a search for the Welsh flag and you’ll see this dragon matches the flag perfectly. It’s folded from a single 70cm x 70cm square of paper.
Welsh Dragon, Designed and Folded by Tomasz Krawczyk
Instructions not available
Satoshi Kamiya designed this Divine Dragon Bahamut, a summon from the Final Fantasy video games. It’s another very popular origami dragon. This one folded by Vít Masopust looks a little cuter and less ferocious than normal I think.
Divine Dragon Bahamut, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Vít Masopust
Diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 1995-2003
Fernando Castellanos folded Gen Hagiwara’s excellent dragon, posed it in mid flight and used a small sheet of red paper to make it breathe some fire.
Dragon, Designed by Gen Hagiwara and Folded by Fernando Castellanos
Crease pattern available from Gen Hagiwara’s Flickr
Finally we have what may just be my all time favourite dragon of all time. This is an origami version of Smaug, the dragon from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. This is folded from a single sheet of paper. The amount of detail here, all the scales, the face, everything is mind blowing.
Kei Watanabe is definitely an origami master. I can’t imagine how someone could design something like this or how long it must have taken to fold.
Smaug, Designed and Folded by Kei Watanabe
Instructions not available
What did you think about all these incredible origami dragons? Let us know in the comments!
