Wings are for flight stamp

Because it's a shame.

Every other day I see another beautiful artwork of a fantasy winged creature and then wings that make no sense at all.
Wings are not just a pretty shoulder decoration. Most of the time they are used for flying. Flying however, is quite a heavy exercise, it requires a lot of muscle power and a certain technique. Evolution has modified the limb muscles and shaped the wing contours to facilitate flying and make the wings as effective as possible because that's what evolution does - optimizing morphology and anatomy in accordance to function. Creature design however usually does not take any of that into account. That's fine - not everyone can be into flight physics and muscle physiology. However, in some cases designers and artists get carried away so far that the absurdity of the wings they draw hit me in the head at high speed. You know I've recently gained the irritating habit of voicing my opinion and every once in a while even arrogantly attempt to educate random people on things they haven't thought through that however happen to annoy me.


Common mistakes in drawing wings:

  Wing muscles too small or absent.
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Like every other limb, the wings are moved by muscles. As stated already, flying, i.e. their main function, is an activity that requires a lot of muscle power. That leads to wings having large, powerful muscles. However, often times wings are being drawn with very thin arms and evidently weak musculature. Even when the arm itself is muscular, the muscles that play the biggest role in flying are often small or even completely absent. Contrary to popular belief, the most important flight muscles are not those on the wing arms, but the chest muscles - pectoralis major, which flaps the wing downward, and pectoralis minor, which pulls the wing back upward. Since many people don't seem to realize that, in too many drawings to mention these two main muscles are far not sufficiently strong or they are skipped completely because their positioning is made problematic by the other pair of front limbs. However without them, flying cannot happen at all. So devote some time to study wing anatomy in birds, the basic muscles are not so difficult to understand. Of course, most of the time in fantasy you will want to draw wings as an additional pair of limbs on the shoulders and as mentioned already that complicates things. Because of that you will have to combine reference with imagination - but that is also what masterful artists do. Having studied and understood the wing structure in birds and the shoulder structure in mammals helps big time.

  Wings too small.
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Sadly, wing size does not evolve in accordance to what looks better or cuter to you. It is a strictly defined morphological property which is directly relevant to body size and structure, i.e. the weight that has to be lifted. Neither too small nor too large wings would work in real conditions. Obviously, if the wings are too small, they won't do their job because they will be too weak to lift the body. However, if they are too large, they won't be any good either. For one thing, the large wing area will make the wing too heavy to move through air because of the vast air resistance that has to be overcome, and on the other hand, if the wing muscles are too large too, they will require too much energy and the body won't be able to feed them. So, wings have to be large enough to lift the body and hold it airbourne, but not any larger than necessary because then they are no longer effective. Hitting that sweet spot is not easy. So use references, study different birds and their wing sizes. After all, this is exactly what evolution has been doing with them for millions of years - optimizing wing size and shape to find that sweet spot. Use its wisdom.

  Wing position or angle not functional.
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Physically, wings don't flap randomly to create a magical flying effect. What they do is to hit the air with a downward motion in order to push the flying creature up against gravity. The large area of the wing is what makes the pushing upward force strong enough to hold the weight of the body in the air - that is what wing membranes and feathers are for, to create a large area. However, in order for this to work most effectively, that large wing area should be set roughly perpendicular to the gravity force it opposes. However, often times, especially in winged horse or gryphon artworks, artists draw the wings under other, illogical angles. I understand this gives a much more spectacular view of the creature when seen up front, however, it is really not functional. Think of it this way: would you board a plane if its wings were turned this way? I wouldn't.
Another related issue is the location of the wings. In birds they are at the very front end of the torso, but that's because a bird's behind is very small and light. In the predominant in fantasy hexapodal winged creatures however, the rear part of the body has a fully functional pair of hindlimbs and often times a long heavy tail. When drawing wings in these creatures, consider the fact that this rear end is quite heavy - much heavier than in birds anyway. In order for your creature to maintain the iconic epic flight position you so much like to draw, you must somehow balance that behind. Ideas for that include setting the wing shoulder joint slightly behind that of the forelimbs and giving the wing a wide membrane or respectively long secondary and tertial feathers, the tips of which to reach the hips so that the body at least looks more balanced in flight. Otherwise your creature will either have its behind drooping unepically while flying (which will impair speed by the way), or it will have to put enormous strain in its back during flight (which on itself is energy consuming enough) to maintain that straight position. And we all know too much strain in the back is not healthy in the long term.

  Wing shape not functional.
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This is partially related to the previous point too. Apparently to some people wings without any secondary part look very aesthetic. Quite frankly they don't to me. Maybe it's because I understand flying too much and know this is not functional. Roughly speaking, the secondary is the back part of the wing, the one which, so to speak, visually connects the wing to the torso. In many drawings of wings - both feathery and leathery - that part is often missing. It's absence however would quite a bit impair flying which, as we saw already, is difficult enough as it is. Besides the already mentioned problem with the drooping behinds in leather-wings, the lack of this connective wing part would make the whole wing a lot less efficient, especially at take-offs, which are by the way the most difficult and energy-consuming part of flying as a whole. I would agree that sometimes evolution leads to bizarre forms and occurrences and makes strange things happen to the morphology of animals, however deleting functional parts of organs is hardly ever one of its whims. That is typical behavior only for designers and artists.
Another detail about wing shape is that even if you draw the wing with an evolutionary sensible shape, its proportions can still vary - and that is again not a matter of visuals and aesthetics. In reality, the proportions of the wings, i.e. the length to width ratio, as well as their contour shape depends on the predominant conditions in which the animals live. For example, sea birds have long narrow wings because these are ideal for gliding and by the sea, where they live, it is more often than not rather windy - so they use these winds to glide and thus travel distances while saving energy. In forests however such long winds are not practical because they would make maneuvering harder, so forest birds have short wide wings which allow for quick maneuvering and at the same time give enough wing area to fly fast without having long wings. That is a rather minor detail compared to the mistakes I'm listing here, but consider studying bird wing shapes in relation to the habitat and way of life of different bird species. Conforming your creature's wing shape to its way of life and homeland might be a neat detail adding sweet authenticity to it.

  Wrong wing position in flight.
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This one has become rather rare in the recent years, but I still see it every once in a while - drawing wings in a partially folded position in the middle of a flight. Like I already stated, flying requires a technique, in other words, a set of specialized wing movements. I emphasize on specialized. It's not just random up-and-down flapping of wings and it is definitely not half-opening the wing and moving it faintly up and down, because I've seen that kind of animation also. Study some in-flight shots of birds and their various wing positions. As a matter of fact, most of the time you won't really need to. You can always pass with a classical epic wing spread out completely, that always works. But I'd still advise you to study it just because it's just downright fascinating - and on the other hand understanding better how flying works, getting a more fluent feeling of it and its motions, can only help you when drawing flying creatures and even when coming up with ideas for new artworks.
Another bit of advice regarding the way wings behave during flight: wings aren't wooden planks. They are flexible - membranes fold and swell, feathers curve under the pressure of the air they're pushing. Use that flexibility to create more dynamic postures and give them an organic feeling. But still, don't overdo it either because then it makes the wings look twisted and no more functional.

  Two pairs of wings attached to the same joint.
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I don't even think it's necessary to comment on this. This is the multiple organ vogue gone to the verges of absurdity. Quite frankly, this is not even aesthetic anymore. I just don't know what's up with people sometimes.


So that's it from me. Of course, we're talking about fantasy. You don't have to conform to actual logic, biology, physics and other scientific nonsense. You don't really have to study wings and flight. But it does give the feeling of certain proficiency if you do and apply that knowledge into your art. So that's all just a piece of friendly advice and some tips backed up with science to help you if you wish to follow it.

Some wing anatomy schemes:
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Feel free to use the stamp, just it if you do.

_{P.S. Might do a comic to illustrate this, later on.}