How to Draw a Bird's Wing

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Ebony pencil
Kneaded eraser
Sketchbook or drawing paper
Workable matte fixative

Step 1

Undetailed wing silhouettes

Look at a photo reference for the exact proportions of the wing you need to draw, unless you're just making it up for an angel, cherub or Pegasus. Seagulls and albatrosses have very long narrow wings. Sparrows have shorter broad wings, eagles have very broad wings, some birds like the ostrich have wings that are only for display and balance rather than flight. Decide what type of wing you'll draw based on the effect you want.

The wing is actually an adapted arm. You can see the upper arm swinging back, the elbow, the forearm swinging forward and the wrist turned back again to hold the strongest flight pinions. Be sure when drawing any birdlike wings that all these joints are there, even if you don't draw in any details of the feathers. The outlines alone will make the wing recognizable and natural looking.

Practice sketching wing silhouettes. If you have a pet bird who's tame enough to let you handle it, gently stretch the wing out to see where the joints fall and how the feathers are arranged. Don't make the poor animal hold the position too long or force it if it struggles, but if you're gentle your bird may let you get a close look at its wings.

For angels and cherubs, a pigeon or sparrow's wing is a better shape than the long albatross wing.
Step 2

Wing diagram showing bones, joints and arrangements of feathers

Looking at a diagram of a bird's wing, with bones showing, it's easier to see what happens to its wrist, fused hand bones and fingers. The thumb has another feather coming off it that can move a little independently to adjust wing shape for maneuvering. On a chicken wing, you can see the little nub of the thumb leading.

The largest feathers on the wing are the ten flight primaries, which are all along the fused hand portion of the wing. These are large distinct feathers that sometimes show as a jagged edge in a wing silhouette, each one shaped aerodynamically. There are two rows of larger coverts above them, and then the small round feathers that come to and cover the edge of the wing, the lesser coverts. Depending on the type of bird these can almost be fluffy.

After the long wing primaries come 16 to 18 secondaries, almost as long as the primaries. These big feathers give the wing its sturdy plane to cup the air and interlock perfectly to make a smooth surface. They too may form a jagged edge depending on the shape and the type of bird. Eagle wings when spread often show the bumps of individual primaries or secondaries. When drawing a bird at a distance it's not necessary to show every one of these feathers, most of the time they slide up under each other to form a smooth ribbed surface.

The two bands of coverts and multiple bands of lesser coverts continue along the wing. The coverts and lesser coverts are there on both sides of the wing, but the last row of feathers, the primaries and secondaries, is just one row seen from above or below.
Step 3

Wing seen closed, lesser coverts drawn as a texture rather than individually sketched.

How a bird's wing looks when closed is almost like a teardrop shape, with the curve of the wrist at the outside folding down. The primaries slide in close to each other forming narrow lines, the coverts do too but may be small enough to seem wider, and the lesser coverts become a soft texture around the curve.

In art, less is often more. Rather than detailing each of those smooth coverts, it's good to hint at them with loose small curves that don't quite meet. Use swift curving lines to hint at feathers but keep the structure of lesser coverts, two rows of distinct coverts and big primaries and secondaries in mind as you do. The bird's chest and belly would show at this angle too, but the wing forms about 2/3 of its body width when resting depending on angle.
Step 4

Wing spread for display, seen from behind as it would look from above in flight.

The Anhinga is a long-necked black and white waterbird with a build a lot like a heron, and its striking wing patterns are a good example of why to pay attention to the structure of lesser coverts, coverts, primaries and secondaries. Its wing is open for display and it's turned with its back toward the viewer, so the markings on the outside of the wing can clearly be seen.

The primaries and secondaries are dark, almost black, except for a row of fluffy black and white feathers near where the wing joins the body. All the coverts from body to wrist are white, creating a big white bar, while the coverts above the primaries are black. The lesser coverts are black and white in dramatic little speckles, creating a jazzy op art look along the top edge of the wing.

The shape of the structures is still the same from the outside of the wing, but because birds may have varied markings, it's important to tell which groups of feathers those markings are on. Down among the secondaries two lighter ones form another visual signal to other Anhingas, birds' markings are elaborate for species recognition as they flock together and choose mates.

If you want to draw or paint a bird from above while flying, it may take some work catching a reference photo with the markings on the back of the wings as they look when they're spread. If you're drawing or painting an angel or gryphon, then you can use the basic structure of the wing and create your own patterns and markings so that yours is unique and distinctive.

Wings in flight present their own challenges. Look at nature videos and movies, using the remote to move forward a frame at a time till you find the image that pleases you before sketching. It takes some work to realistically draw a bird landing or taking off or flapping, and the best way to do that is by sketching many different poses without worrying too much about the details till you get exactly the pose that's right. Then transpose it to what you're drawing.

Knowing the basic structure, you can change the markings and shape to fit the subject. Finding a photo in a pose you like and combining it with a photo of another species is a combination that can work, especially if you do preliminary drawings of both before combining them.

You can lighten unwanted darks with a kneaded eraser before using fixative. Use workable matte fixative on soft pencil drawings to avoid smudges, after picking up any smudging with your kneaded eraser.

Comments

robertsloan2 said

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on 7/12/2009 Thank you, Starlet and Asicat! Give it a try -- not all these structures have to be drawn in detail, but if you imply them by one curved stroke for the coverts and a few sweeping strokes for flight pinions, you can get much more accurate bird wings even without that much detail. I let those shapes guide my brush strokes when I'm painting bird wings.