Faces!

I was drawing with some people recently and one of them mentioned the likelihood of a art show featuring paintings and drawings of Lady Gaga. I said that there may be a way to fold a likeness of her, instead of draw it, so I got to thinking.

I began experimenting with faces, hoping to develop some skills.


This first mask is a model by Jun Maekawa that I dissected to better understand faces.


This is an attempt to create a face wearing a masquerade mask. I tried to make the eyes apparent without a color change.


This is another attempt at the masquerade, but with the added element of tiling on the mask to give it texture. The resolution of the tiling is low, so it is not all that apparent.


This is the masquerade again, but out of a much larger sheet of paper (from a presentation) and I was able to get a higher resolution on the tiling. Unfortunately, the paper was really springy and it did not have the effect I wanted.


This is an orc wearing a helmet that I designed.

 

I don't know what this is, but since it is blue and elongated, it reminds me of a Navi from Avatar....

 

This is an experiment, and I kind of really like the eyes.


This is something of a samurai with his eyes hidden. I really like this look, I think I'll make it my profile picture.

Origami Ball Game!

So, I woke up this morning and checked my origami day calendar. Most of the stuff in it is pretty mundane, and I often use the paper for projects of my own choosing, but I seriously consider each day's suggested project. Thursday's project was a Catcher's mit (presumably a traditional fold since I've seen it a few places before). What's so cool about that? Well, I had tickets for the Twins game today. Baseball origami the one day that I go to a baseball game? Awesome.

So, we went to the game via bus because we wanted to avoid the downtown traffic and gazillion dollar event parking fees.

Best part: since it was Earth Day, all Twins ticket holders rode for free!

The new stadium is outdoor, mainly because people forgot that they were building it in Minnesota, but the sun was really nice today and the structure had a good feel to it (though, I must admit, I am philosophically opposed to tax money paying for it).

The coolest part (for me) was when I was half-way through folding a turtle in the 4th inning and decided to finish it later. The woman sitting behind us asked me what it was going to be, so I did finish it and let her have it. It made my day that she was so excited about origami, if only briefly.

The Twins lost by 7 runs and who cares (I don't).

After the game we decided to grab some ice cream! A good day.

I like the idea of origami that finds it's own home. Each of the models pictured was left near where the picture was taken, and hopefully someone will discover it. Then they will decide what happens to it!

[The model on the bus is a dolphin designed by Jun Maekawa, the model in the cup is a swan designed by John Montroll, and the standing crane is a modified version of Jun Maekawa's three-headed crane]

Origami Everywhere

I have a habit of abandoning origami in public places and decided that I will document some of these instances.

This is a samurai helmet designed by Jun Maekawa, folded by me and abandoned in a store.