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arourallis β Dragon Wing Tutorial -edit-
Published: 2009-04-05 00:09:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 35734; Favourites: 1114; Downloads: 975
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Description
One of the many tutorials I cooked up, a bird wing tut will be up in a few.This tutorial is aimed more at refining than teaching, I just don't do the circle-triangle-square thing, so this is for the people like me. And if you can't read anything, just say so!
-edit- Just looks better in general, and slightly more informative. Sorry if the text is tiny!
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Comments: 70
Good explanation about the wings, it is practical and very clear. Β Β Finally I find someone who criticizes the pua on the elbow and other design errors (one of which is worth mentioning is when the patagium or membrane is connected to the torso instead of the base of the tail).
Only I critic that the prescenciade a palm like human in the wing: because the metacarpos also lengthen, that causes that the palm is lost, as it happens with the bats.
By the way, I would like to mention the number of fingers according to the taxonomy of the dragon (wyvern): If it is a lizard, it has 5 fingers; and if it is a theropod, it has 3 (and maybe a fourth false digit like the yi qi).
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Nice 
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Before I give you my idea on a realistic dragon, a little share-for-share, let me ask you this:Β Are you familiar with the azhdharchids?
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I hadn't heard of them by that name, but of course I know quetzalcoatlus! They are unbelievably huge, and I often keep them in mind when I'm designing. Heck, if their design was less awkward, they probably could have gotten even bigger! Smaller head and neck with a tail for more wing surface area, plus a slightly larger torso for more muscle, lungs and heart, and you've got a recipe for a titan!
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An interesting observation.Β I had described a dragon in a similar sort of fashion:
"At first, I thought they were eagles, but as they dove down, the moonlight revealed their huge, bat-like wings, long, serpentine bodies and robust heads with deep snouts.Β When one landed, the surrounding grasses ruffled and only then could I judge its size and more.
"Imagine a perfect sphere of solid muscle attached by the long, thin body of a weasel, the stilt-like legs of a giraffe, the graceful neck of a swan and the whip-like tail of a lizard.Β Then imagine the front two legs having five talons, two of which long enough to reach a height above the head and put together by solid skin.Β That was how it looked.
"It was tall enough to look Dad in the eye [eight feet], but the feathers covering its whole body made it look bigger, and as it opened its wings, I lost balance and fell on the porch.Β The skin stretched from the longest finger to the ankles, creating a gigantic wingspan, longer perhaps than the whole house.Β Its teeth looked like the sort of tusks youβd see from a pig and its tail ended in a bladed whip."
And that was just the basic dragon.Β The boss dragon I'm keeping my initial description at eight meters high with a wingspan of the perfect 100 feet.
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Would an elbow spike beΒ appropriateΒ on a dragon like Peter Jackson's Smaug,where you've got an enormous dragon, but only three out of six fingers support the wing membrane? With wings as huge as Smaug's, it seems like you'd need an extra bit of support between the fingers and where the membrane meets the body. Just asking
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I actually have some issues with Smaug's newest design, mostly that the wings are so long and unwieldy. The elbow spike is basically required because of the length and spacing of the wing fingers. If the last wing finger was shorter and angled more sharply toward the body, then that extra spike is unnecessary. Four wing fingers is my usual minimum for a dragon, instead of Smaug's three. Heck, if you pay attention in the story of the fall of Erabor in the first movie, you can see he has normal walking forelimbs instead of the wings like in DoS.
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Possible justification for the elbow spike: say you have a dragon with large wings and a short, bird-like torso. How do you give the plagiopatagium (the part of the wing membrane that extends from the last finger to the body) enough surface area without hindering movement in the legs or tail? An elbow spikeΒ could theoretically provide the same function asΒ theΒ secondaries on a bird's feathered wing.
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True, it's mostly my preference. I do use elbow spikes on occasion.
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Nice tutorial, however, do you happen to know of one that shows how the dragons' wings would be placed when folded onto/close to the body?Β
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This is really cool! Thanks for sharing it!
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Finally someone who agrees with me on elbow spikes! I cant stand when people add those. It just looks so off and I have almost never seen them done right.
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In relations to arm and finger length in dragons, I see it like a bird's wing? Some wings are meant to do certain things, so on some of my dragons the arm is longer, and in others the 'fingers' make up the majority of the wing... just like you have a huge difference between songbird and say, vulture wings, because they're meant to do different things! But you definitely address some major issues that I see a lot with in dragonlike drawings these days
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I draw the elbow spike because:
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Great stuff, fun reading. My only criticism is your diagrams could make the forward membrane a little more obvious in your comparisions.
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I have absolutely no experience with dragons so this was a great read. Thanks!
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oh...and you should have shown a whole dragon to show the wing in relation to the body.
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I say the 'rules' are silly when it comes to fantasy. One of the concept artists for LoTR tried to explain away the reasoning behind the design of the Fel Beast, which is close to a dragon. Sorry, but a dragon designed like your typical dragon COULD never fly. And that's not the point. Style and look are more important than function...because dragons can't exist. Birds have hollow bones and small bodies. Pterosaurs could only glide on thermals. I get your 'surface area' argument, but the body of most dragons would be too big to support--even for gliding--and they'd have to have thick bones for battle. Thus...this is fantasy and physics don't count.
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Even if you don't need the math, you can tell when wings are too damn small to hold something up in the air. Part of making something that dosen't exist is making it as believeable as possible. On top of that, studies have pretty much concluded that pterosaurs could flap, and glided to conserve energy. Like a couple hundred species of birds do. There have been pterosaurs with wingspans of 40 feet and birds with 25, so who says a small dragon couldn't fly?
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I never said pterosaurs didn't glide. I've seen programs on them. But your typical big fantasy dragon could never fly and fight. It's a fact of nature. But that's not the point. The reason you keep porprotion is for APPEARANCE, not MECHANICS. A dragon with too short a wing would look stupid. People who fret about physics and science when it comes to fantasy can never truly feel the magic, because they cannae see the forest for the trees.
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ooh..this is helpful! but one question, what abt folded wings from a side view?? i always have probs with that
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What I always end up doing is sketch out the wing parts and draw in the outermost bits first, so you don't confuse yourself with too many lines. The wing fingers curl inwards, so the last finger is on 'top'. The wing membrane will also cover a lot of the arm part, which is kinda a shortcut to getting things to look right XD
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ooo...oks...a little confusing but i think i'll get a better hang of it after some practice 
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Sorry, its hard to explain without pics. I hope you can find something that works!
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You forgot to add the issue of Hangbutt.
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Oh yes, that. Probably the number one mistake I see. I was just going for basic design here, attaching a wing to a beastie is a whole tutorial in and of itself.
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Very helpful. 
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Well, I'm glad it helped!
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I still come back to it for help.
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This is so helpful, especially in that it gives specific examples of what not to do. Thanks for adding this!
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Well I'm glad it helped! I may be improving this again at some point, so keep an eye out!
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Oh, wow. I never noticed I was making the arm way too long in relation to the hand. I have the rest right, but lots of membrane between pinkie and body I didn't know which way to fold... ty!
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Well, I'm glad this helped! Good luck with your art!
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Where are the thumbs. Where are the thuuumbs. D:>
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I don't think i noticed that while I was making this XD This is supposed to be a basic tutorial, just to get the basic shape down. I always add thumbs to my wings :3
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