Inktober Day 19 - Japanese Doll

Every once in awhile, the girls and I get our origami papers and try to learn something new. I don't remember when I learned origami. I must have been at least in kindergarten as this process requires fine motor skills. Every Japanese child grows up learning how to fold a paper crane or a frog or a ball. Those are the three I remember and probably never will forget.

The frog and the ball are fairly easy to make but the crane and most flowered require much more patience and delicate hands. I know my girls get frustrated sometimes because it's difficult to follow intrusions and it seems that you need more than two hands. But now that my girls are 14 and 12, they seem to have more patience to try more difficult folds. So we tackled these flowers.

Only once did my youngest crumple the paper in frustration. Lol. If you are interested in learning how to fold these, here are the YouTube videos we watched.

If you don't have any origami papers, you need a square sheet of paper.  If you have any magazines, you can tear a sheet and square the 

sheet. The glossy magazine papers are thin but tough. They are great for origami!

So when I was looking for something to draw this morning, I decided to draw a Japanese doll that my mother's best friend made for me when we still lived in Japan. 

It's a beautiful Hina doll (traditional Japanese dolls made for Girl's Day). This is a quality made doll (you can tell by the hair line. If it's a wig glued on the head, it's cheap. But if the hair line is sewn, it's quality). 

I used my Platinum Carbon pen to draw, the Pentel Pocket brush pen to add heavier lines and some Japanese watercolors to paint.

I hope you give origami a try.