Dragons are some of my favourite things that people make out of paper and we recently did a post dedicated to Eastern-style origami dragons so it’s time to do a round-up of some incredible looking Western-style dragons.
When we talk about Western-style dragons we’re talking about the sorts of dragons that you see out of European myths and stories, the types of dragons that you usually think of when you think of medieval fantasy settings.
First up is this great traditional looking dragon designed by Tetsuya Gotani.
Dragon, Designed and Folded by Tetsuya Gotani
Instructions not available
Here is another great traditional sort of fantasy dragon design by Sergey Yartsev.
Dragon, Designed and Folded by Sergey Yartsev
Instructions not available
I really like the design of this next dragon, especially how it’s posed so it’s in mid flight which is something you don’t normally see with paper dragons. This is the first dragon Gen Hagiwara designed.
Dragon, Designed and Folded by Gen Hagiwara
Crease pattern available from Gen Hagiwara’s Flickr
This is an excellent photo of Satoshi Kamiya’s Ancient Dragon flying away with a horse. Normally Satoshi Kamiya’s Ancient Dragon is folded standing on the ground but here Eric Vigier tweaked it a bit to make it a bit more unique.
Ancient Dragon Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Horse Designed by John Montroll, Both Folded by Eric Vigier
Ancient Dragon diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 1995-2003
Horse diagrams available in Mythological Creatures and the Chinese Zodiac Origami
Here’s how Satoshi Kamiya’s Ancient Dragon normally looks.
Ancient Dragon, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Damian Malicki Origami
Diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 1995-2003
This next model is a wyvern which is a two legged dragon with a barbed tail. I actually didn’t know that before doing this post. This Wyvern took 4 hours to fold.
Wyvern, Designed by Nham Van San and Folded by Nguyen Nam Son
Crease pattern available in #7 VOG 2: Origami.vn
This Darkness Dragon has a similar shape to Satoshi Kamiya’s Ancient Dragon but with a different base and very different details. The photo looks fantastic too.
Darkness Dragon, Designed and Folded by Tadashi Mori
Video instructions available from Tadashi Mori’s YouTube channel
Here’s a great specifically Western dragon design by Shuki Kato. I also love how Mariano Zavala B. folded a tower for it to sit on.
Western Dragon, Designed by Shuki Kato and Folded by Mariano Zavala B.
Video instructions available from Tadashi Mori’s YouTube channel
The head of the dragon in this fantastic photo belongs to Satoshi Kamiya’s Ancient Dragon. Here you can really see all of the details that go into the head of this model.
Ancient Dragon, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Thamar van Dijk
Diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 1995-2003
This is a unique hybrid-dragon designed by Rodolfo Rizzo. You can see a pretty awesome time-lapse video of him folding the dragon here.
Hybrid Dragon, Designed and Folded by Rodolfo Rizzo
Instructions not available
Shuki Kato’s Zoanoid Dragon is one of my favourite papercraft dragons. The scales and pretty much everything else about the model is fantastic.
Zoanoid Dragon, Designed by Shuki Kato and Folded by Alexandr Pak
Crease pattern available from Shuki Kato’s Flickr
Here’s another great Ancient Dragon folded by Han-Sheng Yang.
Ancient Dragon, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Han-Sheng Yang
Diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 1995-2003
Here’s a quite tiny and very impressive version of Nham Van Son’s paper wyvern.
Wyvern, Designed by Nham Van Son and Folded by Xu Daniel
Crease pattern available in #7 VOG 2: Origami.vn
Here’s Shuki Kato’s awesome Western Dragon folded by Shuki Kato himself.
Western Dragon, Designed and Folded by Shuki Kato
Video instructions available from Tadashi Mori’s YouTube channel
This is a different and slightly more evil looking wyvern design by Philipp-Marius Kost. It took him over 5 hours to fold this.
Wyvern, Designed and Folded by Philipp-Marius Kost
Crease pattern available from Philipp-Marius Kost’s Flickr
This is another great and more “traditional” looking dragon design.
Dragon Joven, Designed and Folded by Sergio Guarachi
Instructions not available
I really love the paper design on this dragon by Kade Chan.
Fiery Dragon v2, Designed and Folded by Kade Chan
Video instructions available from Tadashi Mori’s YouTube channel
Kade Chan also has a fantastic Fiery Dragon design that’s not ridiculously hard to fold.
Fiery Dragon, Designed by Kade Chan and Folded by Rui Roda
Diagrams and video instructions available from Kade Chan’s Website
This is another incredible wyvern design by Ta Trung Dong. I absolutely love the spiky scales all over the model.
Wyvern Dragon Ver2, Designed and Folded by Ta Trung Dong
Instructions not available
Tran Trung Hieu folded this amazing Ash Wrym and unfortunately lost it after an exhibition.
Ash Wyrm, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu
Instructions not available
Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook
This little green dragon looks kind of cute I think.
Dragon, Designed and Folded by Fabian Correa
Instructions not available
Here is a fantastic desert drake by Tran Trung Hieu.
Desert Drake, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu
Instructions not available
Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook
This is another excellent traditional looking dragon with an excellent colour change if you use two coloured paper.
Red Winged Dragon, Designed and Folded by József Zsebe
Diagrams available from www.papierfalten.de
I love the pose that Petr Stuchlý designed for this rearing dragon.
Rearing Dragon, Designed and Folded by Petr Stuchlý
Instructions not available
This Lustre Dragon is another one of the best dragon designs I’ve ever seen!
Lustre Dragon, Designed and Folded by paper in dream
Instructions not available
This is one of the coolest versions of Satoshi Kamiya’s Ancient Dragon I’ve seen. Somehow Ji Woo Han used two coloured paper to somehow perfectly cut the model in half so each side is a different colour.
Ancient Dragon, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Ji Woo Han
Diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 1995-2003
Our final dragon this time comes from 驰 张 who designed an absolutely mind blowing papercraft version of the Hungarian Horntail dragon from Harry Potter.
Hungarian Horntail, Designed and Folded by 驰 张
Instructions not available
That’s it for this round of dragons and there’s still going to be lots more dragon posts in the future since there are way too many awesome paper dragons out there.
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Which one of these dragons is your favourite? Let us know in the comments.
