Fantastic Origami Farm Animals to Fold When You’re Cooped Up

In this post we’re going to take a look at a group of excellent paper farm animals. These are the standard sorts of animals you’d expect to see on a farm such as cows, pigs, sheep, etc.

We’ll start off with these two adorable sheep from Gen Hagiwara. He folded these for Chinese New Year in the year of the sheep. I love how the perfect parts are black and white when you use two-sided paper.

Gen Hagiwara's Sheep — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gen_hagiwara/16192133335/

Sheep, Designed and Folded by Gen Hagiwara

Instructions not available

There are lots of great origami horse designs out there but Hoang Tien Quyet’s design is definitely the most elegant looking. If you use two-sided paper the mane and tail end up a different colour than the body.

Hoang Tien Quyet's Horse — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/62652453@N08/8461716780/

Horse, Designed by Hoang Tien Quyet and Folded by Mariano

Diagrams available in VOG: 50 Hours of Origami+

If you have a farm you definitely need a cat to take care of the mice. I really like the shape of this one.

Giang Dinh's Cat — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22959605@N08/4913398988/

Cat, Designed by Giang Dinh and Folded by Antoine S. (origoku)

Diagrams available in License to Fold

Every farm also needs a rooster and here’s an excellent one designed by Jaeil Jeong. The colour changes with the white and red are perfect.

Papercraft Rooster — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143234267@N08/31622164240/

Rooster, Designed and Folded by Jaeil Jeong

Instructions not available

Here’s one of the coolest looking goats that I’ve seen.

Origami Goat — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/85992714@N07/31265526772/

Goat, Designed and Folded by Ta Trung Dong

Instructions not available

This is a really awesome bull. The photograph is great and you can really feel the strength of the bull even though it’s just made out of paper.

Gonzalo's Bull — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/79001419@N06/30858068804/

Bull, Designed by Dong Viet Thien and Folded by Gonzalo

Video instructions available from Breath of Paper’s YouTube channel

Here’s an excellent cow to go along with this bull. I love all the details on the head.

Paper Cattle by J.W. Park — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/128874294@N04/31548943142/

Cattle, Designed by Yoo Tae Yong and Folded by J.W Park

Diagrams available in Origami Works of Yoo Tae Yong

Here’s an adorable family of paper ducks.

Paper Duck Family — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/95620469@N02/25760353780/

Ducks, Designed by Hoàng Tiến Quyết and Folded by Andrea Borsa

Diagrams available in VOG: 50 Hours of Origami+

Jaeil Jeong designed this really excellent pig.

Pig by Jaeil Jeong — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143234267@N08/31886284196/

Pig, Designed and Folded by Jaeil Jeong

Diagrams available from Jaeil Jeong’s Flickr

Quentin Trollip has what’s easily one of the best origami horse designs out there. If you use brown and white paper like you see here there are some excellent colour changes in the legs and on the head.

Clydesdale Horse by Quentin Trollip — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/40889074@N07/12272475834/

Clydesdale Horse, Designed by Quentin Trollip and Folded by Willie G. Crespo

Diagrams available in Origami Sequence

This next model is Seth Friedman’s Finnish Lapphund. Normally when people fold and photograph this model they always show it from the side. This is the first time I’ve seen it from this angle and there are a lot of really great details on the face.

Here Ju Hyeong Kim folded the model a little bit differently so it’s sitting down instead of standing like it normally is.

Finnish Laphund by Seth Friedman — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/145618899@N02/31473951940/

Finnish Lapphund, Designed by Seth Friedman and Folded by Ju Hyeong Kim

Video instructions available from Seth Friedman’s YouTube channel

Here are two more excellent paper chickens.

Paper Chicken and Rooster — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yesutis1/31739597521/

Chicken and Rooster, Designed and Folded by Choi Ju Young

Instructions not available

Satoshi Kamiya has one of the most realistic looking sheep designs I’ve seen out there. This one is folded from one 35cm x 35cm square of paper and it took 2 and a half hours to fold!

If you try folding this model be sure to use very thin paper otherwise the horns get very hard to fold.

Satoshi Kamiya's Sheep — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/philogami/32794865804/

Sheep, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Philipp-Marius Kost

Diagrams available in the Tanteidan 21st Convention Book

Hoàng Tiến Quyết is still one of my all time favourite origami artists. He has a very unique curved style in all his designs and uses wet folding a lot. Here’s one of his fantastic pig designs. This is a more “Grown-up” version of his famous pig.

Hoàng Tiến Quyết's Pig — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ori_q/24352657680/

Pig (October 2015), Designed and Folded by Hoàng Tiến Quyết

Instructions not available

Kei Watanabe has designed some incredible and complex models. Here he’s designed a kuchinoshima-ushi or a Japanese cattle.

Japanese Cattle by Kei Watanabe — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/145614922@N07/30110540235/

Japanese Cattle, Designed and Folded by Kei Watanabe

Instructions not available

Lots of farms have rabbits and here are two adorable ones folded by Rainer Berg.

Rabbits by Ronald Koh — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/92285150@N02/21942822150/

Rabbits, Designed by Ronald Koh and Folded by Rainer Berg

Diagrams available in the Bogota 2013 Origami Convention book

This isn’t a super complex looking goat but it’s still got a really fantastic design.

Goat by Nguyên Hùng Cu'ò'ng — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/56723190@N02/25466329721/

Goat, Designed by Nguyên Hùng Cu’ò’ng and Folded by Andrés

Diagrams available in the Tanteidan 21st Convention Book

Here’s another really excellent horse design. I especially like that prancing leg.

Horse by Hideo Komatsu — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronatka/14222321435/

Horse, Designed by Hideo Komatsu and Folded by Natalia Romanenko

Diagrams available in Works of Hideo Komatsu

Beth Johnson has a really cute sheep design that uses a tessellation pattern for the fur.

Sheep by Beth Johnson — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/25604109@N05/16049304171/

Sheep, Designed by Beth Johnson and Folded by Philippe Landrein

Diagrams available in Tanteidan Magazine #148

I really like the 3D square design of Fernando Castellanos’s cow. It almost reminds me of a milk carton which is perfect since it’s a cow.

Cow by Fernando Castellanos — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ferorigami/29134946880/

Cow, Designed and Folded by Fernando Castellanos

Instructions not available

Here’s one more excellent rooster for this post. It’s folded from one 60cm x 60cm sheet of paper with some excellent colour changes on the head and legs.

Rooster by origami-M-H-G :) — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/origami_mhg/31749286021/

Rooster, Designed and Folded by origami-M-H-G

Instructions not available

This is another really unique looking pig design.

Pig by Cyrille Masseys — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/guillermo_rodriguez/13089078905/

Pig, Designed by Cyrille Masseys and Folded by Guillermo R. Parrondo

Diagrams available in the Bogota 2014 Origami Convention book

This might be the most realistic paper goat design I’ve ever seen. The details here are awesome and it’s nice to see the model from multiple angles.

Goat by Taiga Yamamoto — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/140597444@N03/34590205421/

Goat, Designed by Taiga Yamamoto and Folded by Tkak Sakai

Instructions not available

Here’s one last cow photographed from a really dynamic angle.

Cattle by Satoshi Kamiya — Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/129124623@N05/27371777415/

Cattle, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Kyoung Su Kim

Diagrams available in Tanteidan Magazine #141

Our final model in this post is this great origami bull. I really like the lines, shapes and angles in the design. The pose of the bull is excellent too, it looks quite strong.