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Don't Draw WINGS Like This!
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- Опубліковано 12 сер 2024
- How do you draw wings that look anatomically correct? Where do the feathers go? Where on the body do the wings connect? In this short art tutorial, you’ll learn the DOs and DON’Ts of drawing wings, including wing anatomy, wing proportions, feather types, and the different kinds of wings on birds, bats, dragons, angels and other fantasy human-like characters!
Winged Canvas art instructor Jessie Chang teaches us all her tips, tricks and techniques on drawing wings, as well as the most common mistakes beginner artists make when attempting to draw them.
🕓 Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
0:09 - How to draw BIRD wings
1:41 - Realistic Wing Proportions
2:00 - Drawing Wing Anatomy
3:04 - How to draw FEATHERS on wings
4:42 - How to draw DRAGON / BAT wings
5:40 - How to draw ANGEL wings
6:16 - Where to place wings on human characters
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if I gave you my hight and wight could you tell me my hypothetical wing span?
@Puppylyn23 Omg that's awesome, we'd love to see it! Can't wait.
As someone who has the word "angel" in their username, wings have been something I've been wanting to perfect in my drawings ever since I got interested in art, and these tips cleared up so many things for me! Definitely gonna try them out when they can; thanks so much!
You're welcome! You can do it ✌
I can be your angle or yuor devil
@@AwesomeYena Ayo bro 🤨📸
@ElemAngell I second that notion
@@kool1939 they got caught in 4k
Another tip if you want to expand your horizons on the subject of wings. You can explore diferent wing shapes for your characters, observe how seagull wings (made for hovering) are less bulky than peacock wings (made for brief but fast flights to escape predators) for example.
Diferent wing shapes are associated with the species flying style. 🕊
And where the character would live-! Like seagul wings are slim and shaped for soaring like you said- but they're also quite thick and made to keep as much water out as possible-
One of the first drawing studies I did was on this exact subject, and it’s incredible the diversity and functions different wing shapes can have! Pigeon wings for example are much broader and rounder, allowing for quick takeoffs
@@demolisherinfinite8606 hell yeah-! And how Ravens and crows are both very similar birds but ravens can soar but crows cannot- they simply glide.
@@tobyhjerte6235 And the way hawk wings have a specific shape to their primaries that create slits for air, letting them take advantage of updrafts!
@@demolisherinfinite8606 hell yeah!
i like to think that bird hybrids or avian characters who have wings also have the thing where their bones are hollow to make them weigh less along with other traits birds have that make them lighter so they'd need less wing surface to be able to fly, thus making the not super huge wings a bit more realistic.
Welp, if the bones aren't hollow then i will make the wings weigh almost like a jelly bean despite being that big
max ride?
@@MilesToGo_ i was thinking the same thing haha
Yeah, I agree
they wouldnt be that much smaller. but for some characters like some dragons or fae you can also just say its "magic" xD
The feather placement is something I often struggle with, so it's really helpful to see how they all come together. (I have looked at bird wings in the past to get a better visual, but my brain just can't seem to figure out what goes where.)
Same
I often have to use my birds wings for reference
I absolutely love that you don’t over complicate your explanations like many other artists I see on UA-cam. Your explanations are short sweet and simple, they are incredibly easy to understand. Thank you so much!!
So, I feel like it's important to note that you actually drew the bat wings wrong. The first two fingers are used for the furthest part of the wing, while the two remaining fingers are used for the inner membrane holding.
Hey do you think you could elaborate this some more? I'm really curious as to what your saying but I just don't understand; if you have a link that works too thank you
I have been studying bat anatomy a lot and basically the wing is like a human arm with 5 fingers, the thumb becomes the little claw at the top and the next two finger are on the edge of the wing to provide the shape and stability. The other two fingers support the membrane. I hope this helped but you can just look up bat skeleton if you are confused.
Also it's often a good idea to add a tail to bat characters so the membrane has something to attach to further down (really helps with shape) and the character can still wear clothes as anatomically thd membrane should attach to their ankles
yeah bat wings are basically very long hands with skinny fingers having skin between them
That bat wing was also missing the skin that stretches between the wrist and shoulder of the wing.
I would recommend practicing dragon wings before feathers! They’re much easier to get the basic shapes because the bones and stuff are visible, then adding feathers can be much easier :)
Just the way I did it
Thanks for the tip!
Dragon wings are very similar to bat wings, so if you're in need of something that really exists irl to study their anatomy,,, bats.
Edit: just finished the video. i really shouldnt comment before watching the whole thing ._.
Dragon wings = Easy as heck
That is what I do, dragon wings are much easier to perfect, and I mastered the wing using pterodactyls. The pterodactyl was around 250 or so kg, and their anatomy makes things a lot easier for those avian styles.
This is super helpful! I love drawing angels and I will be referring to this whenever I feel stuck on drawing wings.
Heavenly(humans w/wings) vs biblically correct angels? :>
@@Jggrs yes.
Winged anatomy is such a fascinating discussion! If anybody is curious enough to hear my two cents, I'll be geeking out below. You've been warned.
TL;DR: You can put the wings above or below arms to have them properly anchored and other details of how that would affect the body.
The thing I've struggled the most about trying to get proper anatomy for flight on a human is that there is no way that character or species would look appealing or human enough for my tastes and still have the bones and muscle arrangements that could probably actually support flight.
Like when we place wings on the scapula, visually it looks cool but could never functionally work (speaking in bones and muscles). We can just handwave it and say "magic", or come up with a different idea from mine that would force the placement to work, but I've been thinking about this question for over a decade and this is the solution that I like. Birds have something called a "keel", which, like the keel of a boat is kind of a powerful static bone going down along the chest and where all the wing muscles tie off to, to be able to pull the wings down against the air. This muscle is the same as the ever-popular chicken breast btw.
The top part of the keel is the sternum, so that could meld with the human sternum to make one big bone capable of supporting wings. There are somewhat complicated bones around the area where the wings connect, but just keep in mind they need a solid base the same way our clavicles are the flexible but solidly tied off bones that tie our arms to our main bodies. The rest is all muscles and the scapula (shoulder blades). Wings _also_ have their own scapula but they're more like long thin bones that run parallel to the spine.
So, seeing how wings and arms need to do different things with different muscles it makes sense to have them anchored at different places (this is my opinion, you can have them sharing the same stuff, just know its double the burden, weight, and needs a bunch more shared muscles to do different things. Also, moving one limb _will_ mean moving the other significantly since they're sharing the same point of rotation.) This means that you've got one set that will be above the other one, but also that one set of muscles will be sitting above the other ones. Not a big problem, muscles come in layers in real life too, but it will change the topography of their body if you look at them without a shirt.
If you've got the wings sitting on top that means a couple of important things. 1. Goodbye sexy pectorals, we've split the chest into a largely smooth surface with an indent down the middle. You might still be able to see a slight change where the arm pectorals would be sitting under the wing pectorals, but they won't be taking the same space and it'll look very alien to our human minds. 2. Flight is going to be unbalanced because you have all the arms, back and legs hanging off one side and a relatively small head on the other. This is fantasy, we don't care, humans are never going to be balanced for flight, but its worth mentioning. 3. Arm movement is going to be very restricted. Lifting your arms above your head isn't that easy when you've got a tire as wide as your shoulders sitting on your neck. Probably still possible though. If you handwave muscle mass away saying that its super technology or magic or just crazy good biology making super powerful but thin muscles, then that won't really be a problem. 4. The silhouette is going to look wonky since the shoulders will be a lot lower than we're used to and also because we're not used to seeing this kind of alien art in common media either.
If you've got the wings sitting under the arms this means a few other different things. 1. You get to keep the human pectorals, but they're sitting over two large muscles that will still make an indent down the middle of the chest and cover the ribs far more than if they were above. Don't expect to ever draw your character's ribs, if you do, its because they're essentially incapable of moving their wings (or magically thin muscles of course). 2. Flight is going to be unbalanced, human legs are still very thick and heavy compared to flying birds no matter how you cut it, but it'll be less bad with the arms and head balancing the top a bit better. 3. Arms will probably be able to lift and carry less weight than normal humans, since the scapula will be above more muscle, sitting less flat, probably being fairly smaller and not as close to the spine. This is pseudoscience (all of this is, I'm imagining a human with wings), but I'm assuming that's how scapula and their many muscles work. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong! Reach and flexibility downwards with their arms will also probably be harder, what with wings and their muscles being in the way. But the arms would probably be able to easily reach backwards between the wings to preen, scratch or relax. 4. The silhouette will also look wonky, but in the chest area instead of the shoulders. The wings will be a bit lower down than people expect and the general proportions of the chest, spine and belly before reaching the hips might be proportioned differently with less flexible lower back. You don't have to do this obviously.
Also, _tail feathers_ . Birds can fly without them, but they're great for giving extra control in turns. Their length and shape do all sorts of cool things, but a general rule is longer makes more drag = slower more energy-spending flight, shorter means less drag but also less minute control. Your character can and probably should use their legs to make up for control like this, but you might want to give them feathers too to help offset their weight. (Think Toothless' tail in how to train your dragon. It lets the wind counterbalance the weight of the tail, at least in our imaginations.)
All in all there's a million things we could change in a human body to make them more bird-like or bat-like to be able to fly, but here are some of my ideas, hope it sparks some creativity with anyone who would bother to read the wall of text I just wrote. Have a nice day!
This was poetry I’ve been wanting to hear something like this for ages 🤩😊🥰
i love you /p
Thank you for this, I'm now imagining all kinds of human-bird/bat hybrid anatomy, from wing feathers, to sugar glider legs, to the shape and functionality of their necks for flight. Like, would they need thick eyebrows or bangs to protect their eyes? If they have a combination of hair and feathers, would the neck feathers lead into the wings for protection and speed?
Also, have y'all seen an eagle or vulture walk? They got some thicc thicc, like they are caked up fr, and their leg feathers go down to, or past their knees.
Most people reference smaller birds or more aesthetic birds for their references but I think it's a good idea to look at some of the bigger, "uglier", and weirder birds for inspiration on how feather patterns might align. Like, a lot of the birds that people consider ugly, it's because their feathers don't cover their whole body, leaving bald patches, or are made to lift much larger or differently shaped forms.
Look at turkeys. Faces? Naked. Just like us. Bodies? Swole. Built. Stronk. Yet still manage to fly south for the winter. Their wings are built to carry a heftier weight than a seagull.
Also, all these birds tuck their legs in while flying so now I'm rethinking all the possible flying postures. We always draw people flying like we're swimming, but even the largest predatory birds have to be more careful than that. When eagles walk they got legs for days but when they fly all you can see are the lil claws sticking out waiting to suddenly pop out and hammer punch it's prey to death. Maybe we should be referencing martial artists in mid flying kick for our flight postures or smth.
If we have anatomically sensible bird people, they need to be flexible enough to completely tuck their legs into their torso, either sitting down or in flight. Predator or prey, they keep them legs tucked away. Either up in their bodies or in their long tail feathers in flight. But basically every bird tucks their "knees" in to perch.
Most can then wrap their feathers around almost their entire body and either scrunch their neck down or hide it under a wing. Most birds, even patchy feathered ones, have some kinda chest ruff, since that the bit that's most exposed between the wings, lets them tuck their neck in when it's cold, then stretch their bare neck out when it's warm, and fluffs out to cool down. A lot of them have thinner fluffier feathers, or no feathers on their "underarm", "hip", and other areas around the torso where the feathers would rub too much, or be to warm, or prone to molding in the humidity.
Parrots look very silly with their wings all the way up and their skinny little bodies exposed. But it gives you a very practical view if how and why they evolved their feathers to be exactly where they are.
I can't even get into the bird beaks, that's such an important thing in the bird world but rarely even exist on a bird-person. Bat-people are much easier due to the similarities in physiology.
You really have to design your body shapes around the kind of birds you're imitating if you want it to make any kind of sense. Like when people are designing elves, dwarves, orcs, and halflings, they proportion them for the species, but tend to just slap bird anatomy on any random human body (guilty, but I've never considered anything past "it's magic" and "it looks cooler this way").
I've put a lot of thought into the anatomy of centaurs and mermaids and all kinda fantasy creatures but this has opened a whole new door for me. So much to consider.
As someone who draws wings a lot, this video is a big help. I recently practiced drawing realistic wings. It really helps to just draw them. Don't be afraid to try. And dont be afraid to use refferences and bases. You don't need to draw them perfectly on your first try.
To the people makings characters who are meant to be able to fly in the most realistic way possible:
Remember birds can only fly because of hollow bones! It might be best to make it so your oc breaks bones easily because, well, realistically they’d have to be hollow to be able to fly. Oh, and remember to do loads of research on the breed of bird you’re mimicking!! It always helps! I love to pick up little things, like one of my OCs that’s mimicking a Great Eared Night Jar gets distracted by shiny things and is on the shorter side because Night Jars are smaller and will occasionally get distracted by shinies :)
I have a species that is kind of like a humanized bird and can be any species of bird, and a tiny detail I decided to add is that their nose shape correlates to the beak shape of their respective bird. For example, seagulls would have smaller, pointy noses while something like a parrot would have a bigger, more downturned nose.
@@junacreates oooo that’s a good idea :D
Hi besties when I looked this up I completely misinterpreted the information, ignore me. But I'm leaving the comment, for context.
You know that human beings actually have an amount of hollow bones right? The larger bones in the body are all hollow, such as the femur, tibula, and fibula and they are actually more durable than the dense bones in our bodies. It wouldn't be inconceivable for a humanoid character to be able to fly while retaining the structure of a human being. The only things that would need to be changed is likely to be muscle mass and production of fat cells.
Hollow bones actually are not fragile, or light. They're very dense to make up for being fragile, which makes them hard. As someone said, humans also have a lot of hollow bones already, and if I'm not mistaken, not every bone in a bird's body is hollow. The reason birds have hollow bones is to get enough oxygen to supply flight. Their bones are basically an extension of their lungs. So as long as your OC has a suitable method of obtaining oxygen, they don't necessarily need to have their bones changed much. Even if they are changed, we may already have enough hollow bones to just rewire them and use them as lungs like birds do.
Soo.... for angels too? I mean angels aren’t really real so I suppose they don’t exactly follow the laws of physics but... yk what idek what I’m trying to say anymore xD
I taught myself how to draw wings, so I never really knew the right way to position them or where the feathers should go. I always struggled with the main structure too, and now knowing that it's like an arm has helped me so much! The wings I draw look way better now, thank you :>
When I draw wings I often look at the skeletal wings/arms of birds and raptors. Personally, raptor arms have helped a lot with the structure of a wing.
I'm working on a character that's inspired by a bat and these wings tips were really helpful. Your video with animal ears also helped a ton with some placement issues I was having, thanks!
tip: one wings doesnt have to be twice your bidy height, it has to be at least the same or a bit bigger, two wings double it. so if you say 5'3 one wing would be at least say 6' and that means the wings would be at least 12'.
What about to a horse?
@@AlicornHana for Pegasus right? Well,,, horses are big, so they’ll have to be big too
Black swift proportions are really bizarre.
@@AlicornHana 8.8m for a thin little 320 kg horse simply scaled by weight.
@@AlicornHana 9 m if we forget that weight is proportional to cubic size and aerodynamic force to square and simply scale it by weight from a well-flying bird such as black swift or falcon to a 320 kg little horse.
The *Winged* Canvas teaching us how to draw wings. Seems legit.
I actually did the math ( equivalent to a red tailed hawk) my wingspan would be 18 ft I would have over 200 feathers on each wing, I had 10 primary 15 secondary and so on and such forth. I make costumes and I wanted to make a realistic set of wings so I worked it out. In order to fly your wings must be (about) 2.5-3 times your hight depending on type of flight, that also affects wing shape. Also song birds and birds of prey have different numbers of primaries because they need different types of flying. Basically I’m a wing nut really happy to see this video
Also idk if it’s covered in video or not because I got excited and started commenting, but there is a different organization of feathers on each wing side, because one side is used for lift and moving the air around them, the other side is smooth so the air glides over reducing drag
Man…… 15 ft long wings… I’m 5’2 holy sh1t
About the placement of the wings, anatomically speaking, they are the arms of the birds, so for a human to have wings they would have to be on the side of the rib-cage instead of on the back. So wings wouldn't really come out of the shoulder-plates, but actually out of the armpits. Therefore the human would need a longe rib-cage, and a second set of shoulder-plates for the "wing's shoulders".
Think of it like Garmadon, his second set of arms would be where the wings come from.
Yes - and add a kiel for a huge breast.
Yes, correct
*but I don’t like it*
No, the "top arms" would be the wings, because they need the room and anchoring to the musculature, meaning they take the shoulders with them as they move up and back. And the "lower pair" of arms would be the arms growing out of your wingpits. Which since the wings moved where that was has them coming out of mostly the same place as now.
Oh god I didn't need this comment in my life
If anyone can make this into an oc and make it look good, post it on ur YT and reply to me bc id be very, very, very impressed. 🥲
This is why fantasy is better than science fiction. No, I dont want armpit wings. 😆😆
I don’t usually draw wings unless they’re faerie wings, but this was actually really helpful!
I have a whole """species""" of characters who are essentially just humans with wings based on birds (called "birdfolk", mm yes very creative). The way I get around the whole too-small-to-fly thing is just by making them magic lmao- I mean, they already live in an alternate dimension you have to believe exists in order to enter, so the magic wings aren't out of nowhere, but still...
This is also how i justify normal clothes without holes and sometime drawing them without wings- they're magic, they can act however i say they do!
Sounds interesting! I love it when people create their own species and universes!
i love this mindset!!! like you dont need an entire 105 page explanation for why you draw them like that.. theyre your characters! in your mind! nobody else's! it's not like its real physics or anything
Id have just lowered gravity on their world so everyone could jump around like anime characters
@@ansuz5903 i mean, that is kinda true too! Their world is accessed through the sky and consists of floating islands (most of them are the size of actual islands or bigger, not those tiny ones you usually see in media that have like one tree and a picnic table) and the gravity is a little lower than on earth. Birdfolk that go down to earth usually need to adapt a little before being able to fly properly, and when they come back up they can fly like champs!
I absolutely loved this! This will definitely help thousands of artists, I’m definitely sharing this around. Tho, just to defend the wings being lower on the back, the idea is to add another set of shoulderblades dedicated to the wings, as opposed to making wing and arm share one set.
Hey, this was really cool! Covered the basics really well and I was engaged the whole time. However, I think you missed the bit with the propatagium. That's the flap of skin spanning between the hand and roughly near the shoulder. I had a very hard time finding it on a search engine, so I get it. But wings don't extend out completely like human arms. They always have a slight bend. But the outer edge _looks_ straight because of that incredibly necessary bit of skin.
Otherwise, I really enjoyed the video! Good job!
good point!! i was also wondering if she'd bring that up tbh
Get a whole raw chicken or duck at the grocery store and you can admire the anatomy, layer by layer before cooking it. Messy, but educational. It's how the artists of old did it.
From what I've seen, having wings on the shoulder blades makes a character able to best fly vertically rather than horizontally, which is less aerodynamic. Having the wings start closer to the hips allows them to fly horizontally better, and is thus more realistic but it doesn't look as good, so I guess it's whether you prioritize realism or aesthetics.
why not both? Cherubim gang 👼🦁🐂🦅👀👁️👀👀🔥🔥🔥
i mean wings on human characters are inherently unrealistic soo
omg thank you ..I am drawing angelic things these days and my wings look really stiff ! This helps me ,thanks a bunch
Im so happy i found this channel 😭😭-
ive learnt so much already and ive only watched 3 videos
i also love how logical the explanations are, like they make so much sense its barely possible to think of reasons for arguments to happens about certain parts- it just makes it so much easier to understand
have a great day
Oh, I loved this video! As someone who technically already knows how to draw wings, but loves watching other people do it, this was amazing. Also adored the note about how big wings gotta be!
Though, I will note one thing I feel you might have missed on both wings. The propatagium is the membrane that connects the wrist and the shoulder of the wing. It helps the airfoil of the wing, and in my opinion makes them look nicer by smoothing out those sharp joints.
Of course, this is fantasy, so it doesn't matter too, too much, but I don't find it mentioned often.
So glad you made a video on this. I often find that this is where people struggle when drawing birds or characters with wings. I personally found that looking at bone structure helped quite a lot.
Honestly that was really helpful! Thank you!
Great, very informative video!
There's also the cute "chibi hover wings" that don't connect to the character which are like a ball + 3 ovals of gradually shortening length and usually a symbol in the ball of the wing (closest to the back).
TYSM for these tips to making fantasy ideas more physically realistic and easier to draw for me and probably many others!
I love how you described wings as being the same shape of an arm! This cleared so much up for me! Thank you!
Every time I draw- anything- I try to get basic proportions and body shapes into the basic sketch, and it’s important to get the sections or joints that move, and in wings I usually put three sections that move separate from each other. I really like this tutorial and concept! I gotta love a good artist. NEW SUB!
As a small kid I use to obsess over fantasy art and thought, hey, I can do that. But when I realized I couldn't I stopped doing for a few years and when I got back to try again, I got better because I fixed up the way I drew people and proportions. Which is what I guess how im able to do it now considering the video
This is so so useful- tysm for posting this and helping out younger artists!!
A quick question though- when drawing characters that have winged ears, how would they function? Would they work as a miniature version of what you showed? Curious to see what you think!!
minature version with a longer stem, thats how i do it! :)
I taught myself to draw mostly but after I started watching your vids ( like 1y ago) my art has improved 1000% thank y’all so much for what y’all do
I’m pretty happy with myself being an extremely young artist able to draw anatomically correct wings and feathers. I’m good at making things look random and natural and messy- but in a pleasing way! I love drawing wings and this definitely did give me some tips to make the wings better- thank you for a wonderful video!
I wish I found this before spending hours on ugly wings and learning through more hours of trial and error. Thank you for saving other people, though.
It was a fun video.
2:03 we talked about homologous structures in school. I can’t believe I never thought to apply it like this.
Omg as someone who literally just found your channel a few seconds ago I am absolutely IN LOVE WITH YOUR ART STYLE it’s so fluid and smooth and consistent and I LOVE THIS CHANNEL ALREADY 😭😭💖✨
These tips are so helpful for people (including me) who want to draw wings, both feather and skin, but I've recently wanted to draw insect-like wings on characters, as well. If you could provide some advice on drawing bee wings, dragon-fly wings, butterfly wings, etc. that'd be really helpful!
Now this is helpful for drawing phoenix and their winged human form
Thank you! I swear every single tutorial image I searched just didn't explain any of this and just went straight up to "yeah, this is a feather, and this is another feather"
Finally. This is how I draw wings. Good to know an artist does so
Currently I’ve started drawing them with joints, and starting with the smallest feathers and then going to the larger ones. I still haven’t “perfected” my style for them, but they’re looking a lot better to me now.
I have this neat lil story where a character becomes a bird hybrid but after the first transformation their wings basically take over their arms so they literally cannot leave their room. Awesome to have a solid visual for how that would look!
Ooooo sounds interesting!
This is probably my favorite channel for art tips, easy to understand and follow!
I was actually about to start sketching out a diagram for a dragon-human character, this popped up in my feed at the correct time.
I wanted to redraw some *really* old drawings, and one in particular is an Angel, and I can’t draw wings- so this actually helped a lot, thanks
A more realistic wing placement for the back would actually be attached to a second set of shoulder blades, you need an extra set of pectoral muscles to move an additional set of arms, though this also means a second chest so that would effect character design, at very least it would make them taller.
Perhaps you could fix this by making this fantasy race have much proportionally stronger muscles and layer the wing pecs over the arm pecs to make them less bulky, this would have the side effect of making their legs more powerful so they could do an easier jumping takeoff.
Omg thank u SOOOOO FVCKEN MUCH!! I never really knew how to draw angel/bird wings and this helep soo much cause you didn't just said 'well look thats how they're supposed to look' you showed us WHY they're supposed to look like this. AND IT EVEN MAKES SENSE. And the dragon/bat wings are also so fast explained and I understood everything AAAAA THANK U!
OMG I CANT BELIVE I FIND THIS CHANNEL ONLY NOW. I love creatures with wings sm and all your videos are exactly the same type of things im interested in learning and your videos are so fun to watch and your voice is so beatiful too.
I struggled drawing wings for years but eventually I learned the arm method with the study of bird wings.
I never thought of how similar wings were to arms but looking back at my science class and thinking about it, of course they would be similar!
I like how there was a note about "Hey, it's fantasy so it really doesn't matter, but if you want to make it realistic this is how"
You forgot the propatagium in every single guide xD
That's the membrane that stretches from shoulder to wrist, and allows extra surface area
Pros and cons of lower placed wings on humanoid characters:
Pros: Makes the upper body anatomy a little less crowded if we're aiming to have muscles that properly drive those wings-- Since a character with arms has pectoral muscles that drive the arms, and those would normally drive the wings, we essentially need to wrap a second pair of major muscles around the front of the torso to accomodate the second pair of limbs. Wrapping a second pair of pecs for wings over the serrata muscles can do the trick with shoulderblade-level wings, but can also make the upper body seem pretty bulky-- It's hard to distribute that muscle gracefully. It could be easier to distribute that muscle over the less crowded midriff
Cons: I have no idea how the skeletal support for wings at the midriff would work, and it seems to me like it would result in a center of mass that's higher than the center of lift, which means that characters would always want to tumble over in the air if we were thinking about the physics of that kind of build.
i agree with the waist wings thing. i always see that and i’m like no way you’re flying with those and not overbalancing forward and falling
I wasn't even looking for this, but I randomly just was scrolling through Music of all things to practice drawing hands, thinking about needing wings in the future, and BEHOLD, THE FUTURE IS NOW THANKS TO ARTISTS. This is SO HELPFUL
as a bit of a note, the placement style for wings you dislike would actually have to be the spot they are placed in order for the wings to properly function. weight distribution and all that
You mean midriff wings? Can't say I agree at all, especially with the lack of skeletal support there. That's a lot of stress you're putting on the weakest point of your lower back at the bottom of your ribs basically.
Humanoid winged characters tend to value the ability to hover roughly in place while upright, and midriff wings wouldn't work for that-- the center of lift would be beneath the center of mass, so you'd have topheavy characters tumbling trying to do that.
In terms of proper function, the fact that we don't have tails to provide additional lift and control at the back also pretty heavily degrades our ability if we're talking about flying more or less lying forward, superman pose style which is the type of posture I figure you're imagining
@@Nudgarrobot hm. this does make more sense.
@@Nudgarrobot put some feathers on the legs like a microraptor
I’ve started watching your videos and taking notes! For the bird wings, I broke up each section into simple rectangles, and I can bend and manipulate them to make bird wings! These are so helpful, thanks!
i have always avoided drawing full sizes wings but this video let me draw them more confedeintly
I really like the way you make your videos. I always hated how school [or at least the schools ive been to] teach art. Its always telling you to follow tutorials and never allow for creativity. I feel like this should be how art is taught. Teaching you how things work, how anatomy works, the basics, and not just "draw this of die". We were told to follow a video tutorial for a dragon for art class once. I drew a dragon, but it didn't follow the tutorial. I wasnt allowed to submit that peice and had to re draw it.
Oh that sucks. Something similar happened to me, but not in art class. There was a writing contest at my school and since I've been writing for almost my whole life I submitted a short story. Turns out, I DidNt FOlLoW tHE sTuPID RUleS Of tHe cONteST. Just because my story was a little different from what we were supposed to write! (The story was abt climate change and other problems and I was trying to send a message to the jury who would read it)
I was just thinking about making an animatic with my character having wings and this popped up
Thank you so much 😊
glad to say that i never drew those wings demonstrated in the early start, younger me was really irked at how they looked so i managed to notice that the wings look more structured as an arm bone structure.
This is really useful! And turns out I was closer than I thought, I usually drew them as dragon wings with feathers lol
The wings are a problem when it comes to layering, i can't understand layering as much until i see this, ima apply to my drawing and remember to draw bigger (so my alicorn and pegasus ocs (plus a flying human) don't need magic to fly)
It's a Great Tip. Anatomcally correctly Styles are one thing that i Love to do, Because the Desing looks like more Cool and Profissional.
This helped me SO MUCH, thank u!!!!!
I have to admit Jessie is my favorite teacher
Since I have a character who is quite literally the human embodiment of a raven, this is very helpful
I started practicing drawing wings like a week ago and I was really good at it.
The only things that I was struggling with were drawing them while the bird is flying and how to draw the feathers near the body when the bird is landing.
As a begginer artist for wings i just draw curves and it will just look good
btw about wing size! a tip I've found is that wingspan is usually double or triple ones height (or the length of a birds body). so take whatever height the character is and double or triple that!
As a person who usually draws people with dragon(bat)/angel wings i will definitely try these tips! Thank you so much for these tips. ❤️
I love how informal this is, going into biology with talk of vestigial wings and primary/secondary/tertiary feathers. Maybe that doesn't mean much to a normal audience, but I liked it lol
As a paleoartist, I draw dinosaurs a lot. When I draw dromaeosaurs (raptors), for example, I obviously have to give them wings, but I sometimes struggle with them. I don’t understand how sometimes I draw the wings and they look perfect, but other times they just look like hot garbage. I have improved but still struggle with my wings sometimes. I hope I can one day master the art of wings lol
realistic wings are just so nice to look at
For my winged humanoid characters I have found that having each wing be a bit more than the characters height as a reasonable compromise between appearance and function.
As a self taught artist who is mildly advanced. So not beginner and not pro but in a good standing, I love these. I can already feel improved. This is such a good tutorial. I do like the shoulder blade method. It looks nice to me. That or when they draw the extra muscles we'd need to move the wings, which is super nice.
You’re videos are always clear, concise, to the point, and relatively fast and easy to understand and I so very much appreciate it! You’re tips are accurate and helpful, the video isn’t too long and you don’t take long to explain why what is done this way instead of that. Love your videos, always gets me excited to redraw and try new things
Your videos are some of the few video where I don't regularly end up skipping past something :3
I have a character that is an evil angel, and these tips really help! Although i have trouble fitting a lot of stuff into the canvas, the idea of him having huge wings sounds so menacing and cool so yeah, definitely giving him bigger wings
Ironically this is also very helpful for figuring out how to make wings for cosplay 😅 thanks for the amazing vid!
I used to think that the other styles would work. But what made me see that it's more vestigial is Maleficent. They have a slight gap from the back, maybe an inch or two. But the rest is fully flexible and exactly how you drew them
One of the best tips that I took for drawing animal features and figures, was to study a little about Evolutive Convergence, that shows how diferent animals have similar organs for diferent funcions and similar structures. Trying to understand how that body parts works, and how similar to the human body they are. This tip is really, really, helpful!
This was very nice!
Tips for people who dont wanna make GIGANTIC wing spans or feel you'd have too many problems with wings that big (becuase anything bigger then 20ft-ish wingspan, which is 10ft EACH WING can be alot), its okay to use a little magic/unrealistic standards sometimes, people like to complain but not EVERYTHIN has to be super realistic and make sense, nothing wrong with some sudo-realism if you still want some realistic structure but dont wanna limit yourself with it. This also goes for other things, like how people argue that if somebody would have wings they would need an extra pectoral region and while I agree that's likely, I dont like to use it so i dont. Dont get Trapped in realistic standards if you feel its limiting you, and its all fantasy anyways so might as well do what you want!
Personally I tend to range wings based on wing type (Elliptical, high soaring, hovering, ect ect), and your height proportions instead of realistic weight standards. This way, even if its a bit unrealistic, it can still look good. (There's some calculators for this online! I use a mix of a wingspan calculator that I found online, but I ended up deciding it was too small for most wingspans, and a equation people used to calculate your height times 4-ish and I felt that was a bit too big? so I ended up finding their midpoint ((add them together and divide them by 2)) to get my ideal wingspan give or take.) This is how I do mine, which based on the bird i want and my height would be roughly 17tf give or take, but if you work around you'll find a way to calculate what you like!
A good rule of thumb is anywhere between 16 ft and 22 ft for most average wing types and anyone between 5'0 and 6'0, a bit shorter for short wings, a bit longer for long wings, and your height ofc.
I absolutely love drawing wings and creating winged characters, they're so interesting to create and very fun to mess around with. I've looked up a lot of wing anatomy, and this video makes several great points and definitely helps!
The way I draw wings is by using 2 reference photos of the wings I’m trying to create, a winged or alive picture and one where it’s just the skeleton. The original way I was taught to draw wings was by studying bat wings so that has helped a lot in understanding size and weight distribution for wings, based on the skeleton.
I don't usually follow art tutorials cause they make me depressed but this one was kind of fun, I learned a lot. Thank you.
5:30 it’s also helpful if you make the fingers in length order and have the middle finger the longest etc
I do an in-between of the more cartoonish one and the straightedge. Very accurate, as I am a young artist and I do it a lot.
Something that bugs me a lot when people make wings in general i that when theres a dragon, they make the wings (1)not only waaay too small, but also (2) draw no muscle where the wing would start (like, way to little muscle on the shoulder, to think of arm reference ) and sometimes not enough wing membrane/skin in between each finger on the wing on and the body . I have seen many dragons done in fairytale themed things done with wing anatomy like that along with other bits of media.i’ve found that sometimes when i draw wings on dragons i start by drawing a triangle or circle where the shoulder would start to get an idea on how much muscle i would include so that it looks right.
as a artist and biologist, i have figured out my ways on bird wing anatomy on my own. i'd always get mad when i saw someone draw wings like one of your 'don't' examples. i have learned quite quickly since i am into the dinosaur to bird evolution process. (and gryphons)
I once heard someone say that our pectoral muscles are what allow us to pull our shoulders forward, so then, logically, if we were to have a second set of arms or wings, in order to be anatomically correct, they would either have to be positioned behind and between our main arms and the shoulders would move in tandem, or they would be situated below our main arms and we would have to have another set of pectoral muscles in order to move them. Thoughts?
Ohh I've always struggled with the bat/dragon wings (like I understood that they were fingers, but I just couldnt figure out how to connect them) so this actually gives me a much better idea, thank you!
I have the hardest time drawing wings in certain poses such as folding
I have come back to this video for spread out wings references many times
I am literally watching every single one of your videos so that when i finally get all of my art supplies I can just go into, So thank you for posting these videos this will be really helpful in the near future.
A helpful thing to keep in mind when drawing wings is the Cube-and-Square law. In physics, it dictates that in order to fly, an creatures wings must be 4x the length of the body. This rule doesn't apply to things like small insects, since they are so light that that they don't need as much lift to fly.
It applies to insects too: The rule is you need about a square inch of wing for every cubic inch of animal. Bugs don't have many cubic inches of animal, so they don't need many square inches of wing. Feathers and wing membranes don't count as any cubic inches because they're flat, which is how you can use them to cheat to make bigger wings for birds or bats.
That's not how the square-cube law works, at all.
As William said, it's about how you need a certain surface area to lift a certain weight and weight increases faster than surface area ever can (plus, wings have their own weight) so at some point you reach the point where even massive wings won't get you airborne because the weight of the wings added by making them bigger would cancel out any further surface area.
That being said, it's fantasy so 100% accuracy on muscle sizes and weights and the heaviest fliers are commonly estimated at at least 150 kg so that's a bigger issue for creating dragons and such than for humans.
@@teaartist6455 While it's true that there are limits to how big something can be and still fly, those limits are giraffe-sized and roc-sized, as proved by quetzelcoatlus and argentavus. A humanoid with a flight-capable wingspan is not unreasonable. It just takes more bigness than those dinky little things most angels are depicted with.
@@williambarnes5023 That's literally what I said though?
That the biggest flyer was really heavy (in case you can't do conversion, 150 kg is about 330 pounds) and that this was a thing but not likely to be THE main issue with humans, especially with a little artistic license on the musculature needed to use the wings, but that it would be a considerations if you start looking at traditionally sized dragons and such.
(Also, it's likely that the biggest existing flier was not the biggest flyer that could hypothetically exit)
@@teaartist6455 That's why in a somewhat related comment elsewhere I raised the notion of there being four wings, with the muscles distributed on anchorings across the abs and hips where the human body has some kinda hollow spots. And no, we're not really disagreeing with each other so much as carrying on the conversation.
This came at an ironic time where I was trying to draw wings. This was very helpful, thank you very much!
random thing, the alula feathers are connected to that thumb so if you want like on the dragon wings you can replace them with an actual thumb, also in bird like wings you dont need all 4 of those fingers fused you can just have 1 or 2 so your character can use their wings and secondary hands as well.
ages ago on deviantart i saw a winged human anatomy exploratory sketches where they placed the base of the wings around but not on the shoulder blades, and the muscles attached to the trunk just under the pectorals to create two sets of pecs and a slightly longer/wider torso! it starts off looking a little silly but honestly i've been drawing my winged humanoids w/ that particular arrangement ever since i saw the post. i wish i could link it but i've completely forgotten who made it! 😭😭