Few months back I was at a party where I came across small origami art pieces and absolutely loved this art (or craft, not sure of the genre). So I started practicing origami and got to know about quite a few interesting models. Right now, I am attempting to make an origami dragon but I just can't get it right. While I ended up making the structure, it lacked the neatness and detailing.
It would be really great if you guys could suggest some ways or give some tips that would help me get the basic skills right to make the perfect origami dragon.
Origami is actually quite an innovative craft and a fun hobby to pick up. While you can use pretty much any paper to make an origami, certain structures require strength which means you might need a thick paper. Apart from the thickness, the fold forms the foundation for your entire structure, so I would suggest that first you concentrate on getting the folds right. Mountain and Valley folds are the two basic folds and a majority of the origami structures are made using these two folds only.
Start by practicing and getting these different folds right, and then move on to the other difficult procedures like formations.
I couldn't agree more with OrigamiJenny. Practice is the key to get the right skills for origami. I myself got into this art only a few months back and struggled to a great extent initially. I started working on complex designs without first understanding the basics. This did not do me any good and all my designs came out flawed. It bothered me to the extent that I almost quit this art.
It is important that you give yourself some time to learn the basics, learn how to fold the paper right, get your hand in sync with the skills required as a beginner, and once you have acquired the rudimentary knowledge, the ability to form complex designs will also fall into place sooner or later.
Origami is an art that needs time and nurturing to develop.
Learning how to make origami dragon will require a lot of effort from your side. You have to understand the different folds and that means you have to put in a lot of practice. Learning how to fold the paper means to understand how to apply just the right kind of pressure that allows you to fold in a quick and precise manner.
Generally origami models are explained by a diagram, which is a drawing sequence showing each step of the folding process. These diagrams are highly standardized and can be very useful for beginners. There are many books as well that can be very useful in your case, some that come to mind are Everyone Can Learn Origami, Origami Jewelry, Easy Origami, etc.
I have realized the importance of basics in origami and the amount of efforts I need to put into getting hold of the basics first. And, thank you for your valuable suggestions and list of book names. In fact, I am ordering a book today itself. Could you name one book that you would suggest out of the lot for me to purchase?
While I agree with MagicWard on the fact that practice is the key to get your origami skills right, I strongly feel that videos are more helpful than books. As books lack the detailing and precision that videos offer and even if you're stuck up at any point, you can always put a query in the comments to the video which will help you with a quicker solution to your problems. At the start, I too read quite a few origami books and they were helpful to some extent. However, I found videos to be more interactive and in the end, more effective.
Here is an tutorial link that you could try out at your end -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm_4hFPFAOU. Let me know if this works out well for you.
Thank You for your suggestion the video does make the job simpler and easier for a beginner to get a grip on this skill set. I would definitely try it and let you know how it worked out for me.
Hi AlexTurner, I would suggest you go for "Everyone Can Learn Origami".
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