Some people on a discord server were asking how I draw wings, so I whipped this up really quick. Itās far from perfect, and Iāve only been awake for like, an hour, but I figured some of you could get a kick outta this!
iād first like to clarify that i sourced a lot of what i did from this post right here, but iām just adding my stuff so yāall can see a few diff ways to do it.Ā
anyway. itās going to be noahās ark day on wednesdayās dress up day at my summer camp, and since iām super extra, i decided to be a dove. but it didnāt look like a dove and my bro said i looked more like a rain angel so i guess iām that now.Ā
iām getting off track. iāll probably do this twenty more times because i tend to ramble, which isnāt good for tutorials but whatever.Ā
this is pretty much what they look like finished? i couldnāt get a good photo so if i take a better one on wednesday iāll replace it.Ā
anyway this is already getting long so tutorial under the cut.
i got me some feathers from walmart, i think it was 12 or 16 gauge wire but anything sturdy will work, felt (again from walmart), and some strips of cloth i cut from this bag my dad destroyed.Ā
i realized partway through taking process pictures that i should have taken them in landscape so bear with me.Ā
youāll want your felt, feathers, and cloth to be the same colour. itāll make your life easier.Ā
i also used a lot of hot glue.
okay okay so hear me out. you will probably want to buy 5 packages of feathers because just a few is probably not enough, right? well you see how big my wings are? like i mean theyāre not that big but still. i covered both sides with one and maybe a bit of the second package.Ā
itās honestly stupid how many feathers they put in that package. now i have 4 1/2 freaking bags of feathers. what the heck. i could make 50 wings.
i would estimate maybe 1 package to a double-sided square foot of fabric? and buy an extra package just in case. but it also might be more and you might want to use better quality ones that actually have feathers that look like flight feathers rather than this downy crap.Ā
anyway.Ā
i bent my wire into the general idea of where the bone would be to give the wing some structure. as a general guideline, there should be 2 joints, theĀ āelbowā and theĀ āwristā of the bird, but theyāre a lot closer to the shoulder (?) than on a human. if we had bird limbs we would have tiny arms and terrifyingly long fingers.Ā
then you just get out your felt-y stuff and you cut that ish up right after you trace a bit of a shape you want based on the āskeletonā you just made. apparently doves have stupidly shaped wings that only go up, but most birds will have a cooler shape, or you could make your own, i guess. i swear my punctuation is actually better this is just how i type informally because talking in tumblr tags has screwed me over.
okay okay time to concentrate for a while and not ramble. i swear i can concentrate for more than a paragraph.Ā
so yeah. itās cut up. now apparently the only way to attack wire to a piece of cloth or the like is with another strip of cloth, since hot glue wonāt adhere it. itāll just kinda fall off? so you take those strips of cloth you just cut and throw it on top of the hot glue you drizzled over that wire.Ā
it can look ugly because no one gives are crap. youāre covering this with feathers.Ā
once thatās finished, start gluing on feathers. doves seems to have 3 major layers of feathers and iām guessing that most birds do too, so kinda try to emulate that. doesnāt have to actually be 3, but idk. just have layers, dude.Ā
start with the outermost layer, furthest from the bones. this will make it so you donāt have stupid looking feather ends on the top. instead, theyāll be hidden under - surprise - more feathers. there were a lot of feathers did i mention that?
so a note on this. i tried placing all the feathers down and then putting glue behind them and while it worked, it was super messy and i had fluff all over my hot glue gun. i would suggest just laying down a line of hot glue and slapping your feather on that. pat it a few times to make sure it stays, maybe. make sure you donāt burn your fingers, but i did that about 20 times and iām fine.Ā
also, as with any time youāre doing something new, start with the side that no one cares about. in this case, itāll be the side that will be facing your back. i mean, maybe youāre making your wings stick straight out of your back and there is no semi-hidden side, in which case, thatās fine but one side will probably be uglier, just so you know.Ā
i also used a lot more hot glue than i thought i would. i think i went through maybe 5 or 6 sticks on the feathers alone? so yeah #1 the wings were a lot heavier than they looked because of the glue and #2 go buy yourself an extra pack just in case.
anyway. continue layering those feathers. when you get to the top, kind of lay them in the direction of theĀ āboneā, from inside to outside. itāll make it look more natural and also cover up those ugly feather stem things.Ā
then, kind of bend the wing to make it look more like a wing???
yeah.Ā
youāll notice that i left a bit of extra wire. i should have left more but no one cares. that will help with making the harness the way i made it, which was the stupidest way possible.Ā
so i took some cardboard from the back of a construction paper package, a t-back bra or whatever theyāre called, and, lo and behold, some more wire, cloth, and hot glue. if youāre not stupid like me and make the two wings with one wire that connects in the middle, you wonāt need more wire and hot glue. maybe.Ā
so yeah, i just took that piece of cardboard and folded it half and hot glued that together, then cut it into the shape of the t-back. which was kind of unnecessary because i ended up making a rectangle but no one cares.Ā
however, you will probably want a thinner part the width of the space you want in the middle so you can fold it over like i did. donāt be stupid and put the glue far away from the the connecting wires. instead, maybe put some hot glue and cloth over the wire and make sure itās secure before gluing the rest. itāll make it. less wobbly than mine. alternatively, you can bend the wire a bit so it wonāt turn.Ā
anyway i ended up glueing the two flaps down too and adding wire and cloth along cardboard brace andĀ āboneā of the actual wings on both sides of each wing to make sure they didnāt move around.Ā
like that, if that makes sense. just add feathers on top if you cover yours because wow i had a lot of feathers and nothing to do with them.Ā
then, after a lot of guesstimation, i cut two slits in my shirt. itās a summer camp for kids so i couldnāt just wear a tank top, which would have been a lot easier. dress code, yāknow.Ā
okay, i didnāt take any pictures of this part cause itās kinda weird, but basically, i used a t-back because itās easier to clip it together in the front than in the back, since that way your wings wonāt fall out. theyāll be kind of stuck in the arm-hole things. you just put them through the straps of the bra, then through the slits in the shirt.Ā
the slits will probably be too close together to put both wings through easily, so what i did was i just basically shoved most of the entire shebang through one slit, all the way until it was far enough to reach the other one. idk if that makes sense because i forgot to take pictures. you can ask for clarifications if needed.
yeah. then you struggle to put it on without breaking your face and go forth into the world.Ā
congrats. you have wings now, i guess.Ā
i should have made this more concise iām so sorry.
āØšŗFAIRY WING TUTORIAL is up!!āØšŗ
This was my first time making these, so if anyone has any suggestions or comments, please feel free to share them with myself and everyone else! Also, if you have any questions, I'll answer as soon as possible!
FLY, MY PRETTY FAIRIES! If you use this to make yourself some wings, please share with me, I love sharing other cosplayers work and want to see what others come up with!!
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I made myself a reference because I am constantly wondering how the hell I draw them all freehand so I wanted to give myself some rule and structure before I mess something up.
If you want to draw wings observe how certain groups of feathers move in different positions. Try to find geometrical shapes in these positions and learn connect them by looking at a few skeletal pics.
If you want me to go more in depth on the structure of wings, just ask and Iāll do my best to try to explain. And if you want me to do any other tutorials represented in my art, just ask!
Well, it might look like it changes, but the colors are always in the same order: red-yellow-green-blue. They might appear to reverse order between folded and unfolded, but thereās actually a reason for that.
When a pegasus folds their wings, we collapse and invert our pinions. When our wings are extended, you see the underside of the feathers. When theyāre folded, you see the topside of the feathers. This is what the animation looks like:
