Wing Design - Blog Posts
I need more people to make that in character design please please please corn you are a genious omg
wings that act as articles of clothing
Already encountered my first struggle
Wings
Wings are a funny thing. Specifically choosing wings. Especially when there’s no prior context to the character.
Wings are often based on how the creature evolved. If, say, an alien race evolved from insectoid ancestors, then they may have insect wings, like beetles or dragonflies. Same with other creatures like birds, bats, butterflies, or even fairies.
Different wings move differently, so for this character’s wings, I have to not only think about how I want them to look, but also how I want them move.
Some wings move in a circular pattern, spinning almost like propellors. Other wings, the more common kind, simple beat up and down (however, these sometimes do move slightly in a circular pattern to achieve directional movement instead of pure lift).
This character isn’t coming from a premeditated race, so there’s no exact evolution path to follow.
I first considered drawing Insect wings, which tend to move in a circle. However, the reason insect can use this to fly if because they have teeny bodies. If I wanted to go with these wings, I’d have to make them proportional to the character’s body, and this fucker already has so much going on and I don’t want it to look cumbersome.
The “more logical” option would be bat wings or bird wings; but I already use these as the wing default in most of my character designs.
I could go with Butterfly wings; that’d leave me only with deciding which butterfly or moth I want to design them after, or just make the design up from scratch.
I also have to think about how they fold. Bird and Bat wings are evolved to be foldable and flexible, though Insect wings would be more compact when resting; Butterfly wings don’t compact at all.
I think I’m gonna fiddle around with different Insect wings to see what I like.
Combining all my favourite charcter design traits into one mf, I’ll keep yall updated