How to Draw 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.

 

Article source : www.mangatutorials.com/2007/how-to-draw-wings