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Ciameth — Ciameth's Wing Tutorial
Published: 2011-09-22 03:42:20 +0000 UTC; Views: 92627; Favourites: 3848; Downloads: 1857
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I finally finished my wings and flight tutorial! Feel free to download it for personal use, but please do not repost this tutorial without my permission.One thing to keep in mind is that my drawing of the flight muscles has been modified to allow you to see the supracoracoideus. In real life, it would be packed under the pectoralis, which would touch the furcula. The furcula is springy and absorbs energy as the flight muscles push against it; it also serves as a brace to support the thoracic skeleton during flight.
In the reference folder of my gallery, you'll find a few other tutorials and lots of bird reference, including one on raptor feet, which might be of interest to people drawing hawks, gryphons, etc: ciameth.deviantart.com/art/Cia… The rest of my photography is not stock. If you want to sketch from my pictures, that's fine--just credit the original photo if you upload your drawing online.
The Feather Atlas is a growing resource of high quality feather scans by the US Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory. It is a great place to learn about feather shapes, particularly if you want to compare the difference in shape between the feathers on two very different types of birds (like a seagull and sparrow). www.lab.fws.gov/featheratlas/i…
Some slow-motion videos of birds can be found at these links. Youtube uploader Ultraslo is an especially good resource: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAz1L8… www.youtube.com/watch?v=hecXup… www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPQ1vn… www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q97Nn… www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWNOUA… www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RvRO-…
My raptor foot reference:
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Comments: 181
Fantastic. I'm an avid birder and know all the basics, and still have trouble with wings when it comes to putting them on paper. This is amazingly helpful and I am so grateful that you took the time to do this!
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Fellow birder here 
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Oh bless your face. This is amazing, thank you.
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Extremely helpful! Thanks! And I thought I knew all that I needed to know about wings. XD
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Very useful tutorial. Thank you for doing this. Especially the wing shape and size part was good.
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That was one of the requests that I got when I was polling my watches about what to include. I think that's an aspect that gets overlooked a bit too
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Yes it is. Good thing to add to it.
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This is absolutely wonderful! And yes, I know I'm affected by the uniform featers ilness sometimes! But I'm soooo lazy lol
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An interesting wing tutorial though I've been told the only anatomy that might work would look sth like this:
[link]
They say the problem is that the shoulders of your wings get in conflict with the shoulders of your front legs like that, which is a common mistake made on behalf of aesthetics.
Well other than that this tutorial is really helpful especially considering wing shapes, movement and
folding, so no offense
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I think the likeliest way for a hexapod to fly would be to have the wings in front of the forelegs, which would be positioned well out of their way. If you place them behind, you have no furcula/wishbone, which is an important element for flight. The pectoralis actually comes into contact with it, which I did not draw in my picture since I was attempted to also show the supracoracoideus beneath it. Since neither that dragon nor my gryphon would actually be able to fly with their body types but they look like they can, I say they're equally realistic and that--when not trying to design a functioning fantasy creature--the artist should go with what they think looks best & believable. If I were to design a gryphon that could really fly, it would probably look more like Quisum's [link] here. No offense taken; it's an interesting argument.
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Ah, sorry I just noticed it isn't the right picture,
I was searching for a picture taken from a book which
-if I remember correctly- is called 'Dragonology'.
We had a lecture about biomechanic and my prof said,
the most believable design if it were to function would
be having the wings placed in the middle of the body with
the wishbone placed around the ribcage. I have to admit my own
understanding of anatomy is mediocre but I don't think one shoulder
blade for two limbs is working either and if you'd place two shoulder blades above one another the muscles would get into conflict. I mean if I move my arm my shoulder blade moves, too
so having one shoulder blade for wing and arm would mean having
to move both simultaneously... or am I wrong?
Don't know if you get my point it's a little difficult to be as
convincing as my prof who's a lot more familiar with the whole
topic as well as anatomical features.
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I still think the rib cage would get in the way too much, but like you, I'm not an expert. I'm a wildlife behavior/avian sciences student and do not specialize in the mechanics of flight. Though I've taken a few courses on avian physiology, my main focus has been on stress in birds, as well as digestion (useful for rehabilitation) and reproduction. By putting the arm on my gryphon beneath/within the flight muscles, I've greatly weakened his foreleg (which is fine, since he is a vulturine gryphon) by limiting the muscular bulk of the upper arm and not giving it a firm attachment to the bird scapular. Here's a nice example of a gryphon with the musculature your professor favors: [link] I haven't seen any with the wing muscle in front of the leg, mostly because it looks silly (as much as I think it would work best) and these creatures are completely fantastical anyways.
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Well, guess it's dependant on whether the creature
is mostly moving on the ground or in the air, I think since
my creatures are doing the former most of the time and have
slightly stronger legs I'll stick with my favourite
So are you going to be a veterinarian?
Vulturine in the sense of 'doesn't hunt'?
Thx for the link
Haha, not sure but I think this might move the balance point a
little far to the front, wouldn't it, though...
it's truly interesting stuff to play around with
Sure, that's why they need to be invented in the first place
Thx for the discussion
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Oh, he's based on a teratorn [link] (he's the one on the right) so he is completely a scavenger and his wings are mostly good for gliding, not powered flight. You got me curious to look at your fantasy hexapods, so I went over to your gallery. I like them! I wish I had time to learn more 3-d stuff.
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Still not quite sure what mine are based on but
the wing shape of my 3D Character may remind a little of a seagull or an albatross..
Haha, mine are mostly predators
In fact I don't think I even got a scavenger just yet O__O
If it's e hexapod I guess I'll try it your way considering the anatomy
Thx a lot
Well, he looks pretty fancy (okay in fact he is fancy)
but he's a lazy ass that needs a dozen controls to even do so
much as stand up or move forward :´D
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Thank you so much for this! I thought I was the only one who looked up things like wing size and shape for designing griffins. Sadly, I am still no good at drawing wings, but I am practicing!
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Ah, another great reference guide to save and look at when drawing wings. Total insta-save&fav
My greatest trouble is the length/width/size/shape part, and trying to find good refs for wing shapes. Your links in the comments are very helpful, as well as the tip to look for slow motion vids on the net - never thought of that one, but now I'm definitely going to try that out!
Now I know this is crazy to ask, but I would love (LOVE) to see a *folded* wing tutorial from someone, some time. Any takers? c_c My biggest challenge has always been understanding folded wings. It's tough to figure out from bird photos at times; the feathers hide so much when the wing is folded, especially where to start the remiges and how to lay them out. Like, drawing a folded duck wing. Auuuugh. : (
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Well, duck wings are tricky since they sit high on the body when folded instead of lower on the side (like vultures) and the feathers on their rounded bodies cover part of the wing! Nambroth has a good section on folded wings in her tutorial [link] Are you looking for information on drawing folded bird wings from different perspectives, like the picture of the pigeon from behind? If so, I would just google and draw as many perched birds from as many different angles as possible. Visualize where the wing bones are and remember that secondaries (attached to the ulna) are above the primaries (attached to the hand) when the wing is folded. One trait birders often look at is primary extension--this is how far the primaries poke out beneath the secondaries. In birds with short, round wings they may not appear at all, which can make things confusing if you're looking at photographic ref and wondering what you're seeing. In birds with long, thin wings, the primaries extend far beyond the folded secondaries. On this warbler [link] the primaries have paler tips than the secondaries, so you can see this is one of the birds that looks confusing. Only about 4-5 secondaries are visible and the primaries are all layered on top of each other. Every wing type is going to look different folded.
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That is a tough part about a layman to figure out wing anatomy - not knowing the things, or rather not even knowing to look for something like wing position in relation to the body or how far primaries stick out from secondaries or how the secondaries lay on one species versus another, and other such intricacies about such a fascinating part about bird anatomy is always such a challenge. Visually looking at photographs or film, of course, won't beat going to a zoo or park to see them in action either. Alas, it will have to do though, for now! Combined with Nam's wing tutorial, yours will be most helpful for future artistic endeavors. I particularly appreciate the tidbit about mythological beasts, and it did open my mind and eyes some more to the point of paying attention a little more to bird wings
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Whoa, that is really, really weird. I am just about to upload my wing tutorial I just finished O.o
Yours is better, though! xD
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this. always. happens. to. me. too! LOL
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Thank you so much for posting this!
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Brillant and, unlike a lot of wing tutorials, the illustrations are continently detailed and realistic which helps a lot
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Any excuse to draw a bunch of birds!
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this is very helpful! thank you for sharing
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