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Skudde — Skudde's Wing Tutorial
Published: 2010-12-12 16:26:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 12550; Favourites: 493; Downloads: 174
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Check out my other wing tutorial as well!I'D LIKE TO ADD THAT:
- My "bad examples" mostly have only one layer of feathers, even though many try to fix their mistakes by drawing more layers. But the truth is anatomy and structure mistakes canNOT be hidden with details.
(Do I need to give a warning - like - of course it's a BIG FILE!)
Wohoo, it's done, IT'S DONE!!
First of all I need to say that the most difficult part was to decide what should I talk about in the tutorial. xD Some detailed information about structure of feathers blah blah... So boring, and tutorials about feathers already exist. So my tutorial is about:
FUNCTIONAL WINGS FOR YOUR CHARACTER!
I tried to keep it simple and clear. I know there are some mistakes, like the text isn't right in the middle or something, but I didn't try to be too perfect.
About those example pictures... They were a lot of fun but a pain in my @$$. It's hard to make the mistakes you don't do anymore.
I have to apologize for the typing mistakes I've possibly made. <'D So if there's some part you don't understand, please ask.
Enjoy! Comments are very welcome!
EDIT 18.10.2011
Thank you all for the 100 faves!
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Comments: 67
Thank you so much! I've been thinking of revamping these two old tutorials entirely but haven't gotten around to it. There are some things I've learned more recently that would be good additions. It's great that you found it useful though, and glad to hear you like the rest of my work as well. :3
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I'm currently working on an updated, better version of this. 
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Actually, a hexapod WOULD have three sets of joints. Doubling does not work.
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I was talking about vertebrates here - arthropods are entirely different and their joints are formed of an outer shell instead of inside skeleton. And if by doubling you mean trying out the poses with your own arms, then I do agree that you can't do that with arthropods, but what does that have to do with my tutorial? :')
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So was I. Bugs have four wings that are entirely additional to their limbs.
Most vertebrates are tetrapods, four limbed, adding wings means you're designing a six limbed animal. (Fish have fins in odd places.) Two limbs coming out of the same joint would render both unusable, they do not come out of the neck either.
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Ooh okay, I think understand what you mean now. You're talking about the third to last pair of pictures where I placed the wings on the canine's shoulders, right?
Well, the point of that section was just to show that the wings can't be placed anywhere you like. I didn't mean they'd have the same joint as the front legs, but that it's better to have the wings up front instead of placing them in the middle of the dog's back. Of course the wings would have their own joints.
And I don't know if you're trying to mock the simplified pictures I drew 4 years ago for that tutorial, but no, the wings don't come out of the dog's neck either and I never said they would. The picture is only to say "don't put the wings just anywhere - put them where they would most likely function normally and give the creature the ability to fly" and all anatomical details of how the wings would be attached in the shoulder/upper back area is up to the artist.
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I've read this tutorial and your other rant about wings one. I have always lived with doves in my house and presently have 4 of them + a parrot, so that's a lot of wing to look at. I'm not one to have drawn many wings but looking at your tutorial I'm pretty sure that somewhere along the way I have done some of the mistakes you point out here, just as I've recently notice mistakes in a drawing I made where the hand position was completely inappropriate for a bird to land (and I should know! I have enough of them landing on my hands everyday!) It just makes me feel completely stupid not having noticed these way sooner and bang my head on the way...
Thank you very much for having opened my eyes, I'll be sure to use this tutorial to keep myself in check. ^^
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Thank you for the long comment!
When I was a kid, my grandma had chickens and I was always looking at their wings, even though they didn't fly with them. Now I study my parrots' wings and I'd say that having birds of my own has really helped me to understand wings better. It can be hard to understand something one has never seen. But it works the other way around too: even if you have watched birds all your life it doesn't mean you can draw them, if you have never really studied them.
I'm glad you found my tutotiral useful. ^^
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Wow! This is great. I'm gonna put this and all the other wing tutorials in a special folder in my favorites for reference.
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Let's say you draw a bird-like creature with extended wings (like a phoenix taking off in a great wall of fire, for example), the wings have to be as long as (or longer then, you decide) the body. Do you consider the head and the tail as part of the body of the creature?
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I think it's about the skeleton. So I mean the torso, neck and head combined (for a bird) and for a dog it would be torso, neck, head and tail combined.
I wouldn't add a bird's tail to the lenght of the body, because feathers are like fur or scales so they aren't really part of the body in that meaning.
I hope I clarified it a bit. :3
But yeah, it really varies. On marine birds, like seagulls, the wings are slim and long - a lot longer than what I tend to draw. And on chicken-like but still flying birds (like ptarmigans), the wings are much shorter.
Seagull: [link] Ptarmigan: [link]
What comes to phoenixes, I'd choose broad wings such as eagle's or crane's wings.
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Thank you for answering!
Still, I'd have chosen small, "sharp", more falcon-like wings for a phoenix. But, yeah, after thinking of it, eagle-like wings would be better.
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It's about taste of course. : ) No one can tell what they would really be like.
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Hmm have to disagree with you on this tutorial. There is no correct or incorrect placement on wings on your non-existant wolf (for one they don't exist, so there is no "correct" but that's a different argument). I often see artists put the wings aft of the shoulder blade because then the muscles can then connect to a keelbone (and also drive the lungs during flight). If the wings are connected over the scapula or fore of the scapula, there is nothing for the large connective muscles that drive the wings to connect to, or even exist. Anatomically, wings connecting behind the shoulder makes much more sense.
Here's an example done by Xenothere (a vet student): [link]
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Oh, I see what you mean. : ) And I know that there's just no correct placement of wings for creatures which don't have them normally.
The picture you linked also made me consider different aspects. Though my personal opinion remainst the same. I'm not an expert of anatomy and I'm not trying to claim that I'd be right, but I think it looks more aerodynamic to place wings closer to the shoulders than in the middle of a creature's back. There may also be a little misinterpretation considering Xenothere's picture, since the creature seems to have oddly short body and back making it look like the wing is placed in the middle of the back, when I believe it is ment to be just behind the shoulders. : P
Thanks for your comment! It's always a pleasure to hear different opinions on things.
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I work really closely with birds of prey and I love all wild birds, so you'd think I could draw wings- but no. 
Thankyou for your very helpful tutorial.
Random fact- My male harris hawk came to us missing most of the outer-covert feathers on either wing. Then, following the LONGEST MOULT IN HISTORY (he's still going now), some of them grew back and some didn't. We still have no idea why.
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Yeah, it's always good to have worked with birds. Something as weird as my experience in chickens has helped me understand wings better (even though chicken doesn't even use its wings to fly xD). Drawing them often is the main point anyway.
Haha, that's weird. :'D
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I may practice in some of those 'Independent Study Sessions' they force on us at school.
(Yeah, Milo's a dork. He tweets too, when he's excited or scared, or both.
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Thank you :3 I would've liked to include traditional sketches as well but I was too lazy x.x
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Vau mikä tutoriaali. Todella, todella tarpeellinen! Kiitos. 
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Oi kiitoksia! :3 No, jonkun pitää sitten vain ehdottaa sille DDtä. Yksi hyvä siipitutoriaali onkin jo sellaisen saanut.
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Juu, eikös se ollut se missä oli niitä siivekkäitä ihmisiä? Se oli hyvin inspiroiva (:
Ja ole hyvä!
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Hmmm tarkoitin kyllä AntimonyElementin linnunsiipi-tutoa ([link] ) mutta taisi se mainitsemasikin saada DDn tässä joskus. : D
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Ai, tuo! o3o
Oon joskus vuonna nakki ja sikari tuon nähnyt.
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I will keep these pointers in mind, or at least when it comes to the frames and feather structure. Thanks!
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Wooow glad you liked it! *truly loves Rare Candy Treatment
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Jääny vähän tuo viron kieli päälle, kaikki hyvä on aina heaa
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No hyvä että tulee tarpeeseen
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No itseasiassa ei, mutta tätä selasin mielenkiinnolla muuten vain.
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Ehkä siitä sitten jää jotain mieleen. :')
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Siitä ei ole pelkoa, olen jo unohtanut kaiken mitä luin tuosta.
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