How to Paint a Life-sized Chinese Dragon Part II

Chinese New Year was nearly a week ago and I had totally forgotten that I had promised to show you how to make a Chinese New Year dragon.

After painting the scales you will cut them like so:

Add fringe to the back using tape or glue. Next attach each section one at a time (we attached it the wall using staples) and flipping the paper so that the scallop alternates, one section with the scallop on the bottom; the next one is on top. 

You will keeping adding until it is as long as you would like, allowing the body to curve as high or low as your room allows, tapering the scale as it reaches the end of your desired lenght.

As you can see the fringe is always on the "bottom" side of the dragon. 

Next add the dragon's head and feet.

Students Singing in Chinese

We had enough sections to make two dragons that swirled around our school's multipurpose room.

Chinese Ribbon Dance

A dragon of this size was not possible without the help of many volunteers that came out to attach each piece one by one. I am so lucky to have such a supportive group of parents.