Coelacanth - Issei Yoshino
and here it is painted(using nail polish)
my intent was to create a stylized representation of the coloration of the West Indian Coelacanth, which i think turned out quite well, aside from the lack of scale detail
finally got around to posting about this design, even though i folded it months ago
it's a really fun design and folding process, though i do recommend using durable paper in the largest size you have available, since it's quite folded up inside there(for reference, iirc the paper was 16-17 inches/40-43 cm to begin with and the final result is about 8 inches/21 cm, but really dense internally)
i tried folding it with store-bought kami and foil-backed paper, but both of those ended up tearing from the amount of layers, so i ended up having to work with my standard double-sided tissue foil
that said, the folding process is rather lovely! i think the diagrams i was able to find were pretty rough, blurry, and hard to read, even taking into account the fact them being in japanese, which i cannot read(thank goodness for the yoshizawa diagramming system!)
that said, once i knew what i was doing it was quite pleasant, especially with the slightly unorthodox box-pleating you do early on
i think the fins are not quite accurate to some images of real coelacanths i've seen, with the pectoral fins being a bit overly large, although some images did seem to have similar proportions
it's certainly better than the other origami coelacanth designs i could find, although some of that is my distaste for multi-sheet origami(fumiaki kawahata has one that looks quite good if you happen to not mind this) and video tutorials(there seem to be a few that are pretty good for this, some even having scales, although i think even if i liked video tutorials those would be beyond my skill level)
anyway i'm really happy with this model, to the point that i want to make a second one for me to admire, since this one has been given away as a gift
sadly it's pretty cold out lately, so it's hard for me to make tissue foil, since making it involves spray adhesive and using that inside is a bad idea
plus i already have too many other planned origami projects tbh(and hopefully drawing too eventually!!!)
the upside is that lately on weeks when my shifts are reasonable my exhaustion is pretty manageable, so i may be able to get those done more easily nowadays
by the way, if you enjoyed my post about this lovely lobe-finned fish, please consider donating to the Sameer Project!!! they have an ongoing campaign to purchase and distribute resources in North Gaza, which is still of significant importance, even during the current ceasefire, especially since it is increasingly tenuous and at risk of breaking down soon. they are a bit under 3/5 of the way to their goal currently, and every bit helps!
thank you for any donations you make :)