Wings  Basics
of a Wing
Drawing wings on a human is similar to drawing wings for
a bird. The example on the left is the basic construct of
how wings are drawn. Keep this in mind when drawing your
own wings for your characters.
Wings has soft, smaller feathers towards the top of the
wing and longer feathers towards the edges, particularly
the tip. Note the difference when the wing is extended versus
folded and how the feathers are placed.
 Shown
to the right is how wings work when folded and extended.
There are three bones with two joints. The third joint is
connected to the back of torso. If you need something to
physically look at, check out a chicken wing next time you
come across one... :)
To the left is an example of wings from the back. These are
chibi-wings but they work the same way as bigger ones. Besides
feathered wings, there is also the leathery kind or "bat
wings" as demonstrated on the left side. It works the
same as a normal wing except the bones potrude and it has
no wings. Speaking of the normal wing, when attached to
the back, some artists add additional feathers from the
joint connecting the wing and the back. This is optional,
though, and is your decision to add or not.
 Feathers
are fairly easy to draw. The ends can vary from thin to
wide. Ending at a point like a double-edged sword or a
single-edged katana. There are three types of feathers.
The long, the medium, and the smallest with the fluffy
top (aka "down" feather).
 Adding
details to a feather is a simple as drawing several angleed
lines from the center. Add breaks or splits on the feather
at certain areas to add more of a realistic look.
Going back to bat wings, what's shown on
the left is the basic general construct. The bones acts
as a wire frame with the leathery skin over it creating
a webbing that works as well as feathers. The bottom of
the web are like drawing hills. How flat or "hilly"
it is depends on how the wing is - extended or folded.
An extended wing creates a more "flattened"
hill than a folded wing.
Also notice the pointy bone at the top of
the joint. This is usually just a bone poking out of the
skin. At times, this is illustrated as a claw or hand-like
bone shown in the middle. Make sure you add the detail
of the skin wrapping around the bone!
Winged Examples
Here are a couple of examples of wings in use.
|
Home
