I will not claim to be an expert at real wing anatomy by any means, but here’s a quick lil tutorial on how I draw wings.
Most wings can be divided into sections, which helps when drawing them. I call these sections of feathers the ultra-technical terms Top, Short, and Long. (I know there are real anatomical terms for these, folks…this is more of a shorthand to stylize type of deal.)
Sometimes people draw the Short feathers section going all the way up over the tops of the Long section, but there are generally always Top, Short, and Long sections even in stylized wing art.
Once you have a process for drawing wings down, you can just sketch them out, but when you’re just learning it helps a lot to think about what the shape is under the feathers. Here’s a good process to try:
Draw a stick figure wing with circles where the joints are.
Pretend it’s a bald wing (spicy chicken wing?) and draw the shape you think the fleshy parts are under feathers.
Draw the basic outline of the wing. It’s good to think of where the edges of the Top, Short, and Long sections are as you draw the outline.
Add more feather details, keeping them short except for in the Long section.
You can apply this same kind of process to wings with different numbers of joints, chibi wings, bigger more elaborate wings…
Try making the feathers pointy or round on the ends.
Draw the feathers going from the top edge downward. All of the tips point down unless you’re drawing wings that are really fluffy on top.
Remember the feathers overlap – draw the edges of the Top section first. so the Short and Long look like they are coming from underneath the Top.
Knowing how to separate the wing into sections will help you draw wings from different angles and in different poses, too.
Curving lines will make feathers look soft, and very straight lines will make them look stiff. Both can be interesting looks for wings, especially sharp or armored wings!
Reference pictures are the right way to learn to draw something! I encourage you to type “wings” into Google Images and look at not just photos of real wings, but how many other artists have stylized wings in their art.
Since you are stylizing, don’t stress about being perfectly anatomically correct. Of course there’s nothing WRONG with drawing accurate-to-life wings, but it’s not a requirement.
Mess around with proportions – make the Long feathers reaaaally long, or make the Top feathers fluffy and the rest smooth, etc. Have fun with it!
I’ll leave you with a few more wing styles:
blakekathryn
annaxmalina
areudirty
pixelskylines
vaporwave
andulkaphoto
