The Origami Forum

I am going to buy an origami book and am willing to spend anything from 0-50 dollars, what is the best MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURE ORIGAMI BOOK there is out there? Thanks.

A good mythological creature book is yet to be written. The ones I know so far that are completely devoted to this genre, Jay Ansil's and John Montroll's, are far from good

Brimstone wrote:far from good

Do you mean that in a bad or good way?

Mario Andrados Netto and J. Anibal Voyer have a book published in (I think Spanish) and now also in Englisn I have the Spanish version and it is one of my favorite books of all time. I think OrigamiUSA sells the English version.
It has a 3 headed dragon with wings, Cerberus, Unicorn, Pegasus, Witch, Centaur, Sphinx, Satyr and many other splendid models.
Definitely worth while!

A random folder wrote:

Brimstone wrote:far from good

Do you mean that in a bad or good way?

Jay Ansill's book is well known for it's not very good diagramming- but saying that I really like the book and the models, they just don't often come out the way they look in the pictures- and you need to work out a bit yourself.
You can pick it up in various forms and names usually at a bargain price. Do a search on him in the origami database.

Montroll's (Dover 1996 0-486-28971-0) diagramming is superbe , nothing overly complex- but some very nice models using john's wonderful folding techniques.

The Voyer book is a lot more complex many of the diagrams are freely available on the web, it is published in English by Dover 2005 ISBN 0-486-44212-8
My main critisim of this book is the poor printing, often the contrast on the black and white diagrams is too dark- making it hard to see some of the fold lines. Also many of the models end up far too thick and cumbersome- yes maybe I could use thinner and larger paper but- ?

I am sure you could pick all three on Amazon for under $50 even 2nd hand maybe?

If you like Fernando Gilgado's stuff, he has two such books out: Monstruos de Papel (long out of print) and Pairoflexia Magica (which is pretty new).

I'd have to suggest John Montroll's "Mythological Creatures and the Chinese Zodiac in Origami" its $10.95 usd or so and contains models of all the Chinese Zodiac animals, the card suits symbols (heart, diamond, spade, club), as well as a winged serpent, unicorn, centaur, griffin, pegasus, cerberus, dragon, wyvern, three headed dragon, and chimera. All of which have clear diagrams and are easy to fold as well as modify for other creatures. Some say his models feel wooden, but they're excellent in design and easily recognized by non-folders.

Kawahata has a book called Origami Fantasy of Dinosaurs, with a pegasus and unicorn in back.

Thank You to whomever responded, I will consider buying "Mythological Creatures and the Chinese Zodiac", as well as that spanish book

HankSimon wrote:Kawahata has a book called Origami Fantasy of Dinosaurs, with a pegasus and unicorn in back.

This book came to mind when I was replying, but I do not consider it a complete Fantasy Creature book. Excellent book though.

And I stay on my opinion that a good book has not been published yet on this subject.

I would say Works of Kamiya Satoshi (if you can get it for less than $50). The ancient Dragon and unicorn are works of wonders!

I liked very much Origami Monsters & Mythical Beings by Jay Ansil.
This book is out of print now.

This how I folded the models from this book:
http://www.origadi.com/book_origami_mon ... eings.html

For more information read the review by Gilad Aharoni:
http://www.giladorigami.com/BO_Monsters.html

You can still get basically the same book under the title "Origami Sourcebook"

Daydreamer wrote:You can still get basically the same book under the title "Origami Sourcebook"

I highly recommend this book, it's among my favourites. I've never found the diagrams that problematic, and the models are worthwhile. I've just ordered a copy last week, since the one I used in my teen years belonged to the local library, which I've now moved away from.