Common Dragon Anatomy Mistakes
Blah! This is just a doodle I doodled this afternoon.
Now, I'm DEFINITELY not saying my anatomy is perfect, in fact it is not very good at all compared to many people I see here, and these are MY OPINIONS since obviously dragons are fictional and have no "real" anatomy ;) I'm sure if you look through my gallery you will find instances of these errors in most of my pictures. The hardest habit for me to break is drawing the wing hand joints correctly. It's too easy to just draw them like human hands because bat wings look weird to us without any palms - but this is technically more accurate and anatomically useful.
+Drawing dragon wing limbs with big biceps and muscles
Dragon wings don't need big biceps and the kind of motion dragon wings would make is mostly powered by muscles in the chest and shoulders. It's just extra weight and not helpful to have big bulky wing arms. Bat wing arms are very thin and light.
+Drawing dragon wing hands to look just like regular humanoid hands
If dragon wings hands had just the same structure as human hands, spreading the wing digits out to extend the wings in flight would be awkward and they would not be able to spread them far enough. Bat wing hands don't really have palms at all. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Bat-wing_underside.jpg
+Drawing dragon hind legs like humanoid legs
Think about how awkward crouching and walking on all fours is all the time. Making dragon hind legs like human legs puts the center of gravity of the hips too far forward, putting unecessary stress and exertion on the legs.
+Drawing each wing digit with the longest bone on the tip
In actual bat wings, the longest bone is closest to the actual wing hand. This looks more natural and elegant to me and I guess this makes the wings curve closer to their edges because curving at the front is not aerodynamically useful.
+No propatagium
The Propatagium is very necessary in bird wings, bat wings, pretty much every kind of wing!! Leaving it out is very bad, it should never ever be missing!
+Connecting the wing membrane to the elbow
OH GOD WHY DO PEOPLE DO THIS
+Drawing front legs with the elbow far down the leg
If you look at this reference of cat bone structure, you will see that the elbow of front legs is generally at the level of the underbelly of the creature. Some people draw dragon forelegs like human arms with a long upper arm segment but this looks really weird on a quadruped creature.
https://facinatingamazinganimals.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/feline-anatomy-skeleton.jpg
Now, I'm DEFINITELY not saying my anatomy is perfect, in fact it is not very good at all compared to many people I see here, and these are MY OPINIONS since obviously dragons are fictional and have no "real" anatomy ;) I'm sure if you look through my gallery you will find instances of these errors in most of my pictures. The hardest habit for me to break is drawing the wing hand joints correctly. It's too easy to just draw them like human hands because bat wings look weird to us without any palms - but this is technically more accurate and anatomically useful.
+Drawing dragon wing limbs with big biceps and muscles
Dragon wings don't need big biceps and the kind of motion dragon wings would make is mostly powered by muscles in the chest and shoulders. It's just extra weight and not helpful to have big bulky wing arms. Bat wing arms are very thin and light.
+Drawing dragon wing hands to look just like regular humanoid hands
If dragon wings hands had just the same structure as human hands, spreading the wing digits out to extend the wings in flight would be awkward and they would not be able to spread them far enough. Bat wing hands don't really have palms at all. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Bat-wing_underside.jpg
+Drawing dragon hind legs like humanoid legs
Think about how awkward crouching and walking on all fours is all the time. Making dragon hind legs like human legs puts the center of gravity of the hips too far forward, putting unecessary stress and exertion on the legs.
+Drawing each wing digit with the longest bone on the tip
In actual bat wings, the longest bone is closest to the actual wing hand. This looks more natural and elegant to me and I guess this makes the wings curve closer to their edges because curving at the front is not aerodynamically useful.
+No propatagium
The Propatagium is very necessary in bird wings, bat wings, pretty much every kind of wing!! Leaving it out is very bad, it should never ever be missing!
+Connecting the wing membrane to the elbow
OH GOD WHY DO PEOPLE DO THIS
+Drawing front legs with the elbow far down the leg
If you look at this reference of cat bone structure, you will see that the elbow of front legs is generally at the level of the underbelly of the creature. Some people draw dragon forelegs like human arms with a long upper arm segment but this looks really weird on a quadruped creature.
https://facinatingamazinganimals.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/feline-anatomy-skeleton.jpg
11 years ago
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