Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Wing Tutorial Art

Here is a splendid tutorial on rendering wings on a humanoid body.

This is how I handle extrapolative biology.  I look for something similar to start with, if anything relevant can be found.  I try to imagine the details as precisely as possible.  I look for potential conflicts and consider how to resolve them.  I aim for something both plausible and appealing.  And I try to follow natural rules such as "use what you have" and "whatever will do the job is okay."  Usually I end up with functional monsters, aliens, etc.  The original tutorial was aiming for angel but I never think of them as exclusively corporeal, so mine can do things like adjust the size of their wings.
Tags: art, fantasy, how to, networking
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  • 10 comments
fayanora

fayanora

February 14 2012, 01:15:34 UTC 9 years ago

I like this.

If you're really going for realism, feathered wings on a mammal are silly.

I like the touch about extra chest muscles.

I don't know about humanoids, but I have some dragons with four regular limbs AND wings. The smaller dragons have large wings. Some larger dragons have an extra set of wings to help lift them up. Others are too big to fly without the aid of magic, and so only have the two wings.

I haven't really considered my lyftmara (winged horses), but it occurs to me they either fly by magic, or would need an extra pair of wings. I think I'll go with "aid of magic."
ysabetwordsmith

Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

February 14 2012, 02:04:57 UTC 9 years ago

>>If you're really going for realism, feathered wings on a mammal are silly.<<

It depends on the context. After all, reptiles evolved prior to mammals. Some conditions cause humans to develop scale-like features. Moving to feathers is feasible with a stretch. But admittedly, feathered wings on a mammal are more likely to come from technological or mystical sources than evolution, because it's easier to make skin wings from a mammal.

>>I haven't really considered my lyftmara (winged horses), but it occurs to me they either fly by magic, or would need an extra pair of wings.<<

Huh, let's see ... Hailen skyponies get up to the size of small horses but they are much lighter, with large powerful wings. I think they're natural, allowing for the fact that magic boosts evolution. The pony-raptors are not natural, but an example of what happens when some imbecile fools around with genetic engineering magic and the stopgap to prevent further changes pops off. They're sort of like griffins but come in all combinations horse and raptor, in varying sizes up to large dog size, and they're voracious pack hunters. Sort of like flying, feathered piranha.
fayanora

Re: Thoughts

fayanora

February 14 2012, 02:11:09 UTC 9 years ago Edited:  February 14 2012, 02:12:12 UTC

True. It also occurs to me that there are other planets where life evolved differently. On Traipah, there are mammalian creatures, and reptilians, but then there are creatures like the ny'ah'lah, which are like alligators or crocodiles but look like birds. (Warm blooded crocs, basically.) And warm-blooded reptilians. Then you get weird things like the mammalian humanoid Ah'Koi Bahnis sharing a common ancestor with the warm-blooded reptilian Shao'kennah. And the planimal kingdom is full of peculiarity.

Hmm, griffins. I don't think I have any of those yet.