Here is a progression of my most recent dragon designs:
It all started with a blintz fold. Then I thought why have only one blintz fold if you can have two?
More experiments with the double blintzed version, the variant on the left has long hindlegs and shorter tail, the right on has short hindlegs and longer tail.
I liked the long-tailed version with even leg lengths better, so I folded it from large paper and added grafts for the toes.
I thought the wings are too short on the green version, so I added a diagonal graft for extra wingspan. Folded from a 100 cm square. It ended up being a bit too large to be carried to conventions and exhibitions though.
I liked that version very much and decided to fold it again. 70cm square this time, almost black with a blue shine. I've also made some minor adjustments to some details which are not readily obvious from these photos.
I've streamlined the design here and figured out new reference points to keep the grafts and layers at the same width to make the model look nicer. (hopefully) A very slight bit of wingspan had to be sacrificed to make this possible.
I gave the model a different pose to keep things interesting, figured out a cleaner folding sequence for the head and I've also figured out a way of locking the body layers together, so it doesn't open on the top like the previous long-winged versions, which I secured with glue (shivers) out of desperation earlier.
The the short (and light) wings of the green "final" attempt didn't force the model open by much, so I didn't have to use glue that time and could add the locking mechanism into it after the fact. Now it stays together even better and gives an illusion of a sealed back.
I have created a more complex version of this latest variant and added the toes back into the model, I still have yet to fold this last version, which I intend to call "final" for the time being. I am working on CPs for these models so I can publish an article where I describe my designing method.
Most of the needed CPs are done by now, I only need to finish the "final" one and need to make two of the simplest ones, one of which will be just an edit of a CP I have finished already, so it shouldn't take more than a few days to complete the article.
I have also been experimenting with the dragon theme on the side:
I have created half a dozen head doodles over the past few weeks, this is a "final" evolution of the draft above:
I only need to find out how to attach this head to the existing dragon body I have worked out
Now a throwback to an old model of mine, simplified and completely improvised:
Finally, here is the model that inspired me to go on a creative dragon spree, Zing dragon by John Szinger:
Hope you like these!