You've probably drawn a dozen "M" shapes in your life and called them wings. We all do it. You take a pencil, scribble some jagged lines, and hope it looks spooky enough for a Halloween card or a Dungeons & Dragons character sheet. But then you look at a photo of an actual fruit bat or a flying fox and realize your drawing looks like a broken umbrella rather than a living, breathing limb.
It’s frustrating.
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The biggest hurdle in learning how to draw bat wings isn't a lack of "talent." It’s a lack of anatomical awareness. Most people treat a wing like a flat sail attached to a stick. In reality, a bat wing is a hand. Literally. If you can look at your own hand, you're already halfway to mastering the sketch.
Stop Drawing Sails, Start Drawing Hands
To get the hang of how to draw bat wings, you have to internalize the concept of the "modified pentadactyl limb." This is a fancy way of saying bats have the same basic bone structure as humans, dogs, and whales.
Think about your thumb. On a bat, that's the little hook at the top of the wing—the alula or the "thumb claw." They use it for climbing or grooming. Then come the fingers. The index finger forms the leading edge of the wing, while the middle, ring, and pinky fingers act as the "ribs" of the umbrella. They are incredibly long. Imagine if your fingers were three feet long and you had thin, stretchy skin stretched between them. That’s a bat.
The Arm Component
Before you even touch the fingers, you need the arm.
- The Humerus: This is the upper arm. It’s usually short and tucked close to the body.
- The Radius: This is the long, main bone of the forearm. In bats, the ulna (the other forearm bone) is basically gone or fused because they don't need to rotate their wrists like we do.
- The Carpus: The wrist. This is the "elbow" looking joint at the very top of the wing's peak.
Most beginners make the mistake of making the wing perfectly symmetrical. Nature hates symmetry. The "elbow" of the wing (actually the wrist) should be the highest point when the wing is partially folded. If you draw it as a straight line, it looks stiff. It looks dead.
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The Secret is in the Membranes
Once you have the skeleton down, you have to drape the skin. This skin is called the patagium. It isn't just one big sheet. It’s actually divided into four distinct areas that artists often overlook.
The propatagium is the small strip of skin between the neck and the wrist. Then you have the dactylopatagium—the skin between the fingers. This is where most of the "wing" action happens. Below that is the plagiopatagium, which connects the last finger to the body and the legs. Finally, many bats have a uropatagium, which is the flap of skin between the hind legs, often involving the tail.
Why does this matter? Because of tension.
When a bat flies, the skin isn't just hanging there. It’s taut. You should draw subtle "stress lines" radiating from the finger joints toward the edges of the membrane. This gives the wing a sense of weight and physical presence. Think of it like spandex. If you pull a piece of fabric tight over your knuckles, you see those little ridges. That’s what makes a drawing look professional.
Nailing the "Vibe" of the Wing
Let’s talk about the edges.
The trailing edge of a bat wing isn't a perfect series of semicircles. If you look at high-speed photography from researchers like Dr. Merlin Tuttle—basically the godfather of bat conservation—you’ll notice the edges are often ragged or slightly irregular. They have tiny veins. They have scars.
If you're drawing a dragon or a demon using bat anatomy, adding these "imperfections" adds a layer of grit that clean lines just can't touch. Use a varied line weight. Make the lines thicker where the skin meets the bone and thinner where the light would shine through the membrane (this is called "subsurface scattering" if you're working in color).
Common Pitfalls When Learning How to Draw Bat Wings
People often place the wings in the wrong spot on the torso.
Wings are limbs. They shouldn't just sprout out of the spine like they're glued on. They need a shoulder girdle. When you're sketching the torso, make sure you account for the massive pectoral muscles needed to power flight. Even though bats are small, their chests are relatively robust to support those wing beats.
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Another weird thing: the legs. Bat legs are rotated 180 degrees compared to ours. Their knees point backward. This helps them hang upside down and allows the wing membrane to attach in a way that creates a functional "scoop" for air. If you draw the legs like human legs, the wing attachment will look "off" and you won't know why.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Sketch
Instead of just reading, pick up a pencil right now. Try this specific sequence to refine your technique:
- The "V" Gesture: Start with a wide, shallow "V" for the main arm bones. Don't make it a straight line; give it a slight bend at the "wrist."
- The Finger Sprawl: Draw four lines radiating down from the wrist. Make the middle one the longest. These should be slightly curved, not poker-straight.
- The Hook: Add the tiny thumb claw at the wrist joint. It’s a small detail that adds instant realism.
- Connect the Dots: Connect the tips of the fingers with a scalloped line. Remember, the "scoops" between the fingers shouldn't be identical. The gap between the "index" and "middle" finger is usually narrower than the others.
- Add the "Elbow" Fold: Draw a small line for the actual elbow tucked near the body. This creates depth.
Check out some actual skeletal diagrams from the University of Michigan’s Animal Diversity Web or the Smithsonian. They have high-res scans of bat skeletons that show exactly how these joints lock together.
Once you get the anatomy down, you can start playing with perspective. Foreshortening a wing—making one part look like it’s coming toward the viewer—is the "final boss" of bat wing drawing. It requires you to overlap the fingers and bunch up the membrane.
Focus on the "finger" bones first. If the skeleton looks right, the skin will follow naturally. Don't worry about shading or fur until you’ve got that hand-like structure solid. Every great creature designer, from the folks at Wētā Workshop to solo indie illustrators, starts with the bones. You should too.