Crafting the Frontier Goblin: My Paper-Cut Experiment

Hello Splinterlands fans, how’s your week going? Hope you’re still excited to grind and enjoy all the new updates that keep rolling in. This time, I want to share a little story about my spontaneous attempt at joining an art challenge—specifically, making one of the Splinterlands characters using the paper-cut technique.

As someone who often hangs out in the battle menu, I still clearly remember the old look of Splinterlands before the newest update. Back then, each mode—Frontier, Modern, Wild, and even Survival—had its own unique character appearing on the academy building in the background. And for some reason, the goblin character in the Frontier menu always caught my attention. So I thought… why not try making it myself out of paper?

Coincidentally, I found some colorful origami sheets that had been sitting in my room for a long time. With a cutter, scissors, glue, and a cutting mat ready, I was set to begin this little adventure.

First step, of course, was designing the character’s body according to the original pose. Using a sheet of green origami paper, I shaped its slightly round body. The size almost filled the entire sheet, but that wasn’t a problem. After that, I moved on to making the goblin’s clothing straps, trying to follow the details of the original character.

Next, I prepared a few additional details: muscle shading and the shoulder pad.

For now, I didn’t attach them yet. I wanted to make sure the composition looked right before assembling everything. Then I decided to make the feather details on the shoulder pad more prominent.

How? By adding a layer of black origami paper underneath to create a stronger shadow effect. The result turned out surprisingly satisfying.

Once the body was done, I continued by measuring the shape of the face. This part was a bit tricky because it had to match the scale of the body I had already made.

After getting the proportions right, I started working on the facial details, beginning with the goblin’s helmet and ears.

Slowly, its facial expression started to form. Honestly, when the mouth and smile were finally done, I surprised myself a little. Not bad at all… I’d say it was pretty close to the goblin’s sinister grin from the Frontier menu.

Eventually, I put all the pieces together. The workspace was filled with paper scraps, but honestly, that was the most enjoyable part—watching tiny pieces come together to form a complete character. Even the leftover cuttings can still be used for future characters.

And… here it is: a paper-cut character inspired by the goblin from the Frontier menu. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, especially considering this was just a fun little experiment on a quiet afternoon. To be honest, I still don’t know its official name. Anyone know?

If any of you have ever tried making a Splinterlands character using another technique—maybe clay modeling, digital doodling, or even plush crafting—or if you happen to know this goblin’s real name, feel free to drop a comment. Don’t leave me curious all by myself! See you in the next post.

Talk about Splinterlands,
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