Draw bat wing membranes in Aquarell: turn supports and thin surfaces together

Bat wings can be simplified into supports and the membranes between them, but those surfaces are not independent triangular flags pasted on. Draw an invented simplified bat in a slight turn, establishing body and near/far wing origins before restrained shading of thin surfaces. This is not species identification. Support count and anatomical detail are visually simplified; connection, tension and shared orientation are the priorities.

Establish pose through body and wing tips

Use an approximately 1900×1400 px landscape canvas with a short central body, near wing spreading forward left and far wing slightly gathered rear right. Establish head/chest masses and principal tips rather than mirror the wings mechanically. Separate background, far wing, body, near wing and fine lines. Check a clear flying gesture in silhouette. Repair a ball-between-two-fans result through shoulders and projected widths. A detailed body is unnecessary, but broad wing surfaces need clear support origins before texture.

Extend major supports continuously from the shoulder

Begin with a main bent path from the shoulder area toward the wing centre, then several unequal long supports reaching the edge. They are not arbitrary straight rays from one body point or disconnected pieces. Trace changing-width paths from root to tip before painting surfaces. Reduce random branching in a tree-like result or repair joints in broken rods. Complete anatomical detail is unnecessary for this simplification, but visible paths cannot contradict one another. The far wing needs an intelligible origin too.

Attach membrane between supports and body

Fill thin surfaces between adjacent supports, including an explicit body attachment. Their outer edges curve inward with depth varying by support spacing, not equal semicircular trim. Resolve the two largest near panels first and check continuous tension small before smaller ones. Merge flag-like panels through shared edges and fewer dark outlines; restore broad curves and local turns to rigid paper. Structure and contour together explain membrane tension.

Group near and far wings before local values

Under upper-left light, near and far wings may have different overall greys while individual panels still respond to orientation. Avoid entirely bright near panels versus entirely black far panels; retain middle values. Start in muted warm-grey or violet-grey without glowing edges. Hide supports to test surfaces and depth, then restore them. Add a useful broad turn when flat, or reduce local differences in a coloured-patchwork result. Each wing must first read as a whole; colour cannot replace root occlusion.

Keep supports distinct from the thin surface

Make principal supports slightly clearer than membrane, tapering their ends, with a narrow light on one near segment and simplified far sections. Membrane edges remain thin rather than double-framed everywhere. Reduce hard reflections and excessive contact darks on metal-rod supports; emphasise one shoulder-to-tip path if the frame vanishes. Explain support before optional fine veins. Line count cannot replace hierarchy, and no automatic skeleton recognition or membrane-deformation simulation is assumed.

Add restrained body, ear and root cues

Suggest a short chest/abdomen and small head, with one near and one far ear differing in projection rather than identical spikes. Interrupt hidden roots; a near wing may cover one body side. Keep the eye a small dark cue judged at reduced size, not brighter than the wing. Diagnose a butterfly-like result through body proportions, shoulder and support direction instead of larger ears. Identification must cooperate with the whole form; a fictional style still needs coherent connections without a title doing all the recognition.

Do not expose every hidden feature through the membrane

Thinness need not expose the background completely. If choosing local transmission, warm one light-facing area while retaining membrane colour and support occlusion. Do not show every line transparently through the body. Test structure with transmission hidden, then restore one material change. Reduce continuous hard lights in glass-like wings, or remove heavy pooling folds from cloth-like ones to recover flatter tensioned surfaces. Thin, soft and transparent are distinct cues; a global opacity change cannot handle all three.

Use negative spaces to check wing angles

Inspect background gaps beside the body and beneath the wings, comparing the more open near side with the narrower far side. Repair a turning pose whose gaps remain identical. Review gesture small, surface attachments normally and supports overshooting edges close up. Change one wing while retaining body and other wing as references. Temporary colour can trace supports in a copy, restored afterward. Additional serrations should not conceal uncertain angles: gaps often expose misalignment better than fine texture.

Compare curvature in one membrane study

Study two neighbouring supports and their membrane with straight and shallow-concave outer edges under unchanged light and colour. Choose continuous tension without a hanging-cloth sag. Reconsider curvature as support spacing changes rather than copy one sample everywhere. Apply it to one large panel and assess normally. This tests visual shape and tension, not real flight mechanics. Its rule makes the invented creature coherent; a flowing image does not certify scientific anatomy.

Keep light and colour and fold one wing differently

Keep silhouette, support structure and PNG with separate near/far wings. Next, gather only the far wing inward, rebuilding visible panel widths, overlapping supports and outer membrane while near wing and body remain unchanged. Compressing the old far wing misses root and arc changes. At export size simplify subordinate supports if dense. Record a formerly complete panel becoming a narrow edge and check that first next time: the subject is a spatial action rather than two repeated icons.

Related tutorials and sources

Thin wings and connections, Material direction and tension.

Checked on November 4, 2026 against the official Aquarell listing and Apple’s version lookup: version 1.0.7, requiring iOS / iPadOS 15.0 or later. This manual drawing workflow uses public brush, colour, layer and saving capabilities. Dimensions, shapes and palettes are study suggestions; check controls in the installed version. Keep native projects for editing and PNGs for previews. No step-by-step physical-device testing is claimed.