#also i can't draw wings but if anyone wants to see the exact design for the wings

[blueberry-bubbles130]

Here's Chloe's main miraculous design!

Naming Choice

The name she choses is Abeille Gardienne. Which roughly translates to Guard Bee, it may not be exact because I used a translater, since I can't remember any French.

There are two reasons why she chooses this name. One being that it's her literal role at this point for Dauge Noir and Mayura, she's guarding the akumas as well as them, therefore showing how they consider her a pawn in their game. An very important pawn, but a pawn none the less. The second reason being it's very simple and literal, which helps her to hide her identity. Her classmates and a good chunk of people around her believe that she's incapable of being anything but over the top and acting like a selfish, arrogant bitch. So by choosing something so literal it makes it seem like Chloe can't be Abeille Gardienne, because it's not her style.

Design Choice

Now you may be thinking she looks nothing like some Chloe would choose. And that, like her name choice, is the point. After Dauge Noir gives Chloe the bee miraculous back, Pollen helps Chloe research different bees, stating she doesn't have to be a honeybee. As well as this she's purposefully picking something that she would never wear, to make people think someone else is working with Dauge Noir, and it's not her.

I gave her sharp spiky armour to go with the whole guard theme. But also as another way to hide her identity because it's not something over the top, and a Queen-like outfit, so people think it's not her. Also to prevent people from getting close to her, so she's got spiked blades on her gauntlets, and on her pauldrons. I gave her armour some hexagonal patterns to associate with bees. And her skin is this pale teal colour in order to draw your eye to that area. Wings, because it's the bee miraculous. Also her eyes are dark black and the pupils are increasingly lighter shades of teal. I wanted this because I thought it looks cool, and if she's stood in the dark you'd see two little pricks of light. I also gave her mandibles because I think they look really cool, and bees have them, as well as the antennae. The bee miraculous is also in her hair, but I just changed the colours. Her hair is also a different colour and shorter to help hide her identity. After she gets injured, her design when using the miraculous doesn't change because she's so desperate to hide her injuries because she doesn't want anyone to find out so she can keep fighting and eventually get her parents back.

The Bee I designed the look after is the Neon Cuckoo Bee. I chose this bee because the colours are pretty and the total opposite of what she usually wears, so it's again helping to hide her identity. But also because Neon Cuckoo Bees are considered parasitic bees and they place their eggs with blue banded bees so their larvae feed off of the other bees larvae. As well as this some neon cuckoo bees can kill and replace the Queen of the hive. And at this point in the story Chloe is thinking some really horrible things about herself, like she believes herself to be nothing but a parasite that can't do anything but hurt others. So by choosing to look like a parasitic bee, it's her subconscious thoughts being shown to others, although they don't understand what bee she's looking like.

For weapons she has the spikes on her blades that can stab things, but also holds the venom that paralyses people when she uses venom. I didn't draw them here, but she also has a mace that has the same colour palette as her design. After her injury she also has the metal bar/spike that impaled her, so at some akuma fights the other miraculous holders see her just carrying this bloodied metal bar with her.

Powers/Story choices

For the powers, Chloe has venom, but also a power that allows her to control other people. I'm haven't fully decided how this secondary power works yet, I'm thinking mini neon cuckoo bees or flowers she can grow. So the bees would sting people, and the flowers would emitt a nice smelling perfume that makes her control people if they smell it.

When she's being Abeille Gardienne, she acts differently to when she's just Chloe. So she's more subdued and quiet. Only making grunts when fighting. Apart from when she has her breakdown on her birthday. Or when she occasionally has a conversation with someone. Again to help hide her identity. She will occasionally say bad things about herself if she gets brought up by another miraculous holder so it appears if she's another person. However her saying all these horrible things about herself doesn't help her already failing mental health.

Another thing, is that when she gets the bee miraculous, all the other miraculous holders (Dauge Noir, Mayura, Cat Noir, Rena Rouge, Carapace and Ladybug) have had their miraculous for at least a year. So they all have way more experience than her. That's why I gave her the mace, so she's relying on brute force and the akuma to get through the fight. Then after her injury it's even harder for her to fight, but she's still forcing herself to do because of the forced deal. Post-injury it's not uncommon to find her coughing and spitting up her own blood and she's often clutching her side where she was impaled, during akuma attacks.

You might also be thinking why I didn't choose Lila as Hawkmoth's helper. Well one because it's a Chloe-centric story, and it's more hard-hitting with Chloe. The second reason is because it makes more sense from Gabriel's perspective for the rewrite. Sure Lila may appear to be smarter and a better manipulater than Chloe, but Gabriel knows nothing about Lila. So he has no way to keep Lila loyal to him, whereas with Chloe he's known the Bourgeois's for years so he knows what makes Chloe tick and can keep her loyal by using the one thing she desperately craves against her. It's even more shitty of Gabriel to kidnap Audrey and Andre because it's just after Audrey and Andre start fixing their relationship with Chloe. This also leaves Chloe vulnerable to the public's negative opinions of her, and her parents are their to protect her. Therefore Chloe never gets a break after Miracle Queen, because she's being bullied in her everyday life and when she's Abeille she's being blackmailed by Dauge Noir with the threat of her parents lives being used against her. Most of her classmates and the school (apart from Sabrina and Adrien) turn to bullying her or straight up ignoring her.

Despite working for Dauge Noir and Mayura, Chloe does have moral code when she's Abeille. She won't go after civilians and when the akumas go after civilians she'll purposefully attack the akuma or put herself in the way so she'll take the blast. This usually infuriates Gabriel, and doesn't physically help Chloe because it sometimes tears the stitching of her side and hurts her alot. She'll also drop everything if a child and their parents ends up in danger solely because she doesn't want anyone to experience being without a guardian like she is. She considers the miraculous holders (apart from Adrien after she finds his identity) and the akumas fair game because they have the power to defend themselves. Also when she's up against the akumas and miraculous holders she's the weakest out of all of them because of lack of experience and her poor physical/mental health.

Over the course of the rewrite, a few people do find out Chloe's identity. Sabrina, Adrien and Miss Bustier find out Chloe's identity as Abeille because she ends revealing herself to them. She transforms in front of Sabrina because she's stuck in the room and could only get out by using the extra strength the miraculous provided, and she wanted to get Sabrina somewhere safe. Whereas with Adrien they end up fighting alone with each other and fight until the timers run out on both their miraculous. With Miss Bustier it happens during school on a day after her injury when she's alone because Sabrina is ill and Adrien is at a photoshoot. She accidentally detransforms in front of her because she's too exhausted to keep it up, due to her using the miraculous to hide her injuries.

Butler Jean, on the other hand simply figures out Chloe is Abeille because she's frequently disappearing when akuma attacks occur. Audrey and Andre also do figure out Chloe is Abeille because Gabriel as Dauge Noir couldn't keep his mouth shut and tells them, to see their reaction to him kidnapping them solely to blackmail their only child.

Sabrina and Chloe become better friends after Miracle Queen. With them hanging out more and Chloe doing things Sabrina likes, like watching ridiculous amounts of magical girl shows. Chloe truly cares for Sabrina in my au and after they repair their relationship, they start dating. Adrien also stays with friends with Chloe and they both have a close sibling-like bond. They relate to having to hide their identities, and when they head to akuma battles he discreetly helps her because after her injury she can't see out of her left eye. They also sit and binge watch horror movies. Together Chloe, Sabrina and Adrien with Pollen and Plagg help figure out Gabriel and Natalie's identities and confront them.

During this, Chloe starts to watch horror movies as a way of coping with her situation. She finds horror movies with supernatural monsters quite relatable in a way since she's now dealing Dauge Noir and Mayura who are quite otherworldly and etheral in their own ways. She gets into the first two Hellraiser films because the colours of Pinhead and Dauge Noir are similar. She also gets into cooking because of needing food for Pollen and to keep herself awake, so Jean helps her with cooking. Another hobby she learns is photography as another way of trying to cope, by trying to make the fleeting memories last. Another reason she starts doing photography is so if she ever finds her parents she can show them what she's been up to so they're not completely clueless as to what's happened over the time they've been missing.

I think either Andre or Audrey will be the next redesign up. Since I want to finish the Bourgeois family first and I've made some important changes to Audrey and Andre, then do the others. I'm really excited to do Gabriel's design though. I don't know when I'll get the next redesign out though.

[attllhak]

Wild’s Journey

@rhythmicreality @tortilla-of-courage

... Yeah I decided to post this.

So, this it what happened to Wild and his tiny fluffy baby wings.

Also hey! Tag list!

-----------------------------

Link couldn’t remember a time without wings.

He couldn’t remember a lot of things, but that’s not the point here.

When he woke up, a woman’s voice softly urging him to open his eyes, he didn’t immediately know they were there. The liquid (water?) drained from the pool he was laying in and he sat up completely dry. He swung his legs over the side to get out and froze at the feeling of something fluttering on his back.

He reached back there, running his fingers along his shoulders. It took him a moment to realize that they were a part of him, and he grew confused as to why he wouldn’t know that. He knew his feet were part of him, why not these soft, fluffy things on his back?

He pushed it aside when the woman started talking again, figuring that if there was a reason then he’d figure it out.

The worn clothing he’d found in the chests didn’t accommodate the fluffy things, which he had a feeling were wings by now, and so for the first long stretch of his time on the Great Plateau they were pressed uncomfortably between skin and fabric.

He tried jumping off a cliff when the Old Man said he couldn’t make it off the Plateau without dying. The Old Man was right. His wings were too small to fly, and if he jumped then he would die. 

The warm doublet had holes for his wings. It itched and made him sweat a little easier, but it had holes for his wings. No more feathers between skin and fabric and getting ruffled and rubbed uncomfortably. He did not take it off until he got something else.

Impa had laughed when she saw his wings, which made him ruffled and caused his wings to puff up. Impa and Paya both thought it made him look cute, which only really made him more ruffled.

Impa did apologize, and directed him to a shop in the village that would modify clothing to accommodate his wings. She told him of what happened, and who to talk to.

Purah was thrilled by his wings, and took a picture of them with his repaired Slate so he could see them. A soft greyish brown, with little bits of blue in them. She said that they’d be really pretty when they fully came in. He didn’t understand that, and Purah sent him back to Impa.

Impa did explain. Apparently, at the end of their first quest, since some had many, the Hero and Princess who beat back the evils would gain wings. It explained why he was the only one with wings. Apparently when he died, and also he died and wasn’t THAT a shock, his wings had begun to come in, but by placing him in the Shrine of Resurrection it seemed to have halted that process. Purah seemed to believe that at some point, likely after he rescued Zelda, his wings would finish coming in.

He got himself a new outfit, this time comfortable and with holes for his wings, and headed on his way.

He got dragged into Zora’s domain, and met Sidon, who didn’t notice the wings until after his father pointed out who Link was. After that, Sidon got really excited, and spent a moment cooing over Link’s wings.

Link, finding his enthusiasm sweet and rather cute, for as much as a ten foot tall shark man could be cute, fluttered his wings.

Sidon was thrilled about that.

Muzu caved the second Link put on the tunic. It was hard to argue who it could be for when Mipha had specifically tailored slits for his wings.

He got the shock arrows from the lynel, and he joined Sidon in fighting Ruta to free it and Mipha, someone Link barely remembered but knew had loved him dearly. She had planned to propose after all.

Mipha also thought his wings were cute, and, though he was still ruffled, found he wasn’t as mad when she said it. He thought he might have missed her a lot.

Her grace in hand, he headed for Death Mountain.

He made a stop on his way in Akkala, locating the Robbie that Purah mentioned. The man was, eccentric, and Link couldn’t find the source of that sound that played for effect when he spoke occasionally. It bothered him. The man was helpful though, and offered up a few more thoughts on Link’s wings.

Link didn’t stay long, intent on saving the rest of the friends he couldn’t remember.

He had to hide his wings on Death Mountain as well. The feathers caught fire too easily. This was annoying.

Yunobo was great though, and when Link downed a flamebreak potion once so he could stretch his wings, Yunobo thought they were fascinating. He treated them with so much care and gentleness, like he thought he’d break them or something. It was sweet. 

Daruk had laughed, said he was finally growing into his role. He also thought Link’s wings were downright adorable, and Link was only mildly put out by that phrasing.

The Korok forest was adorable, and Link loved the koroks. They loved him too, and he let them preen his wings when they asked because of how excited they were. It was really cute.

It was also the cleanest his wings had been since he woke up.

He had been excited to meet the Rito, they were after all bird people. They had wings too. He hoped that maybe, when his wings came in fully, they’d teach him how to fly.

Teba was an asshole. He was also stubborn and determined, and willing to throw down with a Divine Beast. As someone also stubborn and determined and willing to throw down with a Divine Beast, Link could respect that.

He made a note to come back to the flight range when his wings came in for practice.

Revali, once free, had laughed at how small Link’s wings were at first, making Link really upset that he couldn’t punch a ghost. Then Revali softened up, just for a second, and said that Link’s wings would be gorgeous when they came in, and that he was impressed. Then he went back to being a self-entitled jerk.

It was okay though, Link forgave him. Even if he was still bitter about being unable to punch a ghost.

The only place left was Gerudo Desert, and Link found his first issue in the form of being a man. He did meet a woman who sold him an outfit to disguise himself as a woman so he could sneak in.

(And if he, as he wandered the streets of Gerudo Town, learned that he sometimes wanted to be she, well, that was her business.)

Riju was very helpful. Buliara was not. And so Link found herself tasked with stealing something back from the Yiga. They needed the Thunder Helm to get to Naboris, and the Yiga stole it, so it had to be stolen back. Prove yourself, she said. Ugh. 

The Yiga pissed her off. And Kogah was a joke. That was all she wanted to comment about that matter.

Riju was more than happy to lead Link right into the storm, facing down the Divine Beast with prejudice. One more, then a few more shrines and the rest of her memories.

Urbosa, once saved from the most difficult of Blights (Link wasn’t bitter, shut up), had been very happy to see him. She smiled, and said she was proud of him, and mentioned how beautiful his wings would be when they came in. She asked him to look after Zelda. And then she sent him on his way.

Link had to blink back tears before Riju met up with him again. No one had said they were proud of him yet.

Riju caught on however, and then Link was dragged back to the streets of Gerudo Town until Riju had found something for her to wear on her wings. It was good.

Not long after that, Link went back to the scene of his death, trying to remember.

Rain, mud under foot, the princess behind him. Don’t stop, keep moving, keep her safe.

A whirring, followed by light.

Link raised his shield to block, the beam shattering the already flimsy wooden shield into splinters. He stumbled, slipping on the mud and falling to one knee. The Master Sword hit the dirt to balance him. He could hear Zelda speaking to him, but through the adrenaline and exhaustion there was very little that registered.

The beeping of a tracker locking on. Link forced himself to his feet, stumbling back. He was already injured, too injured to fight. His whole body ached, but still he stood. They would not get Zelda.

And then she was in front of him, and he opened his mouth to call out to her, but froze when he actually looked at her. A glowing triangle adorned her hand, and a golden light spilled out from her. Link watched, the pressure in his shoulder blades finally easing, just a bit.

He blinked hard once. Twice. He collapsed.

Words were hard to make out, but he could sense Zelda was worried. His last clear memory was her panicked expression as his eyes slipped shut.

Link gasped. The memory left him shaking, and he dropped to his knees. That was the day he died.

He took a day, just laid in bed in his house in Hateno. He needed it, to just decompress.

He got up the next morning, traveled to a stable and saddled up a horse, and then marched off to face Ganon.

Master sword in hand, his friends raining down covering fire for him, Link faced Calamity Ganon, Zelda’s voice ringing in his ears and mind.

The first half of the fight was hard, a drain on his body and what little energy he had left after fighting his way through the castle. And then he thought it was over. Ganon was gone.

He wasn’t.

Zelda called to him, warning him that Ganon had changed himself.

Link was standing in an empty field with his horse, a monster ten times any he’d ever faced before leering down at him.

This, Dark Beast Ganon was easily the size of a Divine Beast, but made of pure malice, and looking to kill him. More so than the Divine Beasts, that is.

Zelda gave him a bow, and arrows made of light, and told him to fire on the targets.

He did.

Mounting Epona, his dear horse Epona, and taking off around the monstrous boar, he drew back the string and aimed.

He ignored the tension in his shoulders and jaw, ignored how fluffed up and quivering his wings were, ignored the shaking of his hands. The only thing that mattered in that moment was his bow and the arrows and the monster he was aiming at.

One target, two, five. Link existed just to fight and shoot and dodge.

He wasn’t fast enough, the arrow flew, and it stuck, but Ganon got in a hit too.

All of Link’s air flew out of his lungs when he hit the ground, Epona whinnying and the sound of hooves thudding away from him.

He rolled, gritting his teeth, and struggling to his feet, left hand still wrapped tightly around the Bow of Light like a lifeline. He lifted his head and met the monster’s stare.

(Looking back, he’d say he felt the pressure. He’d say he felt the release. He’d say he could feel his wings come in. He's lying everytime he does.)

Flames licked at his skin and clothes and feathers, and the monster growled at him.

‘Link! Look up there!’

Link’s eyes traveled up to the glowing, golden point on the monster’s forehead. A target.

‘That’s the very core of Ganon’s being!’ Zelda coached in his mind, and Link nodded. ‘Do what you must, Link!’

Link struggled to his feet, spitting blood from where he’d bit his tongue, and faced the monster.

Ganon roared, charging him.

Link caught an updraft and went up, and how he gained the air without his paraglider was lost on him, though barely an afterthought as he drew back his bow.

Link aimed true, and loosed the arrow with the perfect accuracy he had come to be known for.

The shockwave it caused knocked him out of the air, greyish brown feathers obscuring his vision as he tumbled through the sky and back to the ground with a harsh thud.

It took him a minute to regain his breath, and shove the soft, strong wing covering him aside, before he got a look at Zelda.

She was almost exactly as he remembered her, only bathed in a glowing, golden light, and in possession of the most beautiful set of wings he’d ever seen.

The top half of her wings were a light blue, but the bottom half were pure white. The feathers closest to her back, her secondary and tertiary feathers, were longer than the rest and seemed to flutter behind her in the soft breeze that even still moved across the field.

Link could only see her back, and he was robbed of what little breath he had left.

For a moment, just a moment, he swore he was looking at Hylia herself.

He missed what happened in the moments that followed, still struggling to reorient himself and lost in the golden glow of the princess, but he got the important part. Ganon was gone. For good.

The light faded and Link’s senses returned one by one, the adrenaline crash would be brutal, but he utilized what still lingered in his system to push himself back to his feet, standing to face the princess, to face Zelda.

He missed the first few words she said, but he understood the last question clearly.

“Do you really remember me?”

Link couldn’t stop the stupid grin that stretched across his face. He nodded.

They crashed together, a mess of limbs and wings, blue and white and greyish brown feathers fluttering to the ground around them. Link held on tight, relieved to finally, finally, have a friend from before back, grateful to have not lost everything. Zelda likely was just glad to have something, someone, solid to hold on to after so long.

He denied being surprised when Zelda commented on his wings. He denied it then and will continue to deny it to his dying day. He knew they were there. Shut up.

Zelda took a picture for him, so he could see them. Greyish brown, with a long stripe of blue down the middle of the backside from shoulder to tip, and a soft orange starting at the base of his wings on the inside and fading into the rest as they went along.

“They look like a peregrine falcon,” Zelda commented once, sitting nearby as Impa and Paya ran fingers through their wings and preened for them.

Link had just hummed, content to let it be.

Now, he just had to convince her that throwing himself off a cliff was a perfectly reasonable way to learn how to fly...

[comic-the-adventurer]

HEYY HEYY, I'm just gonna go crazy rambling about my ocs cuz... I want to xD

OKAY SO, these people are Cosmicco (on the left) and Mist-Jun (on the right)!

(Excuse the crude doodles but I assume I have tons of drawings of them posted so you've probably seen them before xP)

And they look human, right? Or, at least, mainly human? Well, (dun, dun, DUN!!) they're not! They're (and a lot of my other ocs but this is about Mist and Co 😇) a magical species called Starions!

(It's a play-on-words of the word "star-crossed!" Hehe, don't ask...)

Cosmicco has reactive powers (to be exact, it's a cross between Earth powers and Fire powers but... Way more explosive. She's vulnerable to fire cuz of how reactive fire also is. It can like... Make her literally implode.) and Mist-Jun controls the wind/air. Mist is weak to thunder/electric powers cuz yk... Electrocution.

They look human but are actually just elemental spirits that possess human bodies. However, that's not all bad cuz, without their human emotions, they could only feel fear and m u r d e r n e s s. However, their elemental forms can still be "unlocked" if they are exposed to high levels of elemental "particles" or corruption.

So... Wanna see their "true elemental" forms? Also, sorry for using Gacha Club but it's honestly good for mapping designs–-

This is --true elemental form-- Cosmicco! She's faceless/expressionless and it's unknown if she has eyes under her flower crown or she simply never had eyes. Every time something should kill her, all that happens is that another flower blooms someone around her head/eyes. The middle parts of each of the flowers actually act as eyes. So she has hundreds of eyes

She barely has a soul of her own in this form so that's why ghosts control her (or she controls ghosts) and she can mimic anyone's appearance that she has collected enough data on while she's in this form.

She, of course, cannot talk; she has no mouth. To work around that, whenever she tries to communicate, she exaggerates gestures and such like a speechless cartoon character xD. Oh yeah, and she moves like a zombie–-

Cuz, yk, she's either completely mindless or constantly possessed–-

This is --true elemental form-- Mist-Jun! Fun fact: Starions have "levels" of magic. Mist-Jun has an extremely high level. Naturally, he's very powerful–-

In his non-true-elemental-form, he already has wings but I wanted to make his wings even more obvious in his finale form xD

He also basically has razor blades on his fingers cuz he's part-cat–-

And no, he can't talk. He can only make roars and screams and such.

And there's them :D! So uh, yeah, Cosmicco certainly seems more interesting than Mist-Jun... Still, I really like Mist's glowing eyes, OKAY–-

Trust me, Mist-Jun is more interesting than her! Just... Not by true elemental form–-

I'm only half happy with their designs... They're meant to look inhuman and magical but they just look like edgy anime characters... Especially Cosmicco's...

Also yes, their normal colour schemes are different than the representative colours of their powers. Ik it looks cursed but that's what I was going for–-

Anyway, if you're reading this, tysm for listening to me yapping on and on about my ocs! It means the world to me :D! /g /pos

[f-nodragonart]

How do you draw folded bat wings? I tried to look up references but it looks so dark and such a mess that I can't figure out what's going on. All my dragons have their wings sticking out and I want them to relax and fold their wings, but I can't figure it out.

first, know that having a good grasp on wing anatomy is the first step, so I rec checkin out my crash-course on vertebrate wings, if u need it. I’ll try to summarize some of the more relevant points when necessary here, tho

that said, real-life folded bat wings are actually a lot messier than u might expect, as bat bones/joints are SUPER-duper flexible

tho this may also be a consequence of their legs/hips being right there, splayed out where the ends of their fingers fold up, and other body types prolly wouldn’t require that particular zig-zig crinkling of the fingertips

I also doubt that that level of flexibility would even be available in the bones/joints of dragons as large as horses, or even just dogs, though I could be wrong about that

either way, I’ll give you some examples of how I approach folded bat wings in my designs

so here we’ve got a standard folded bat wing. note that the LOWER arm is the most visible portion of the the arm anatomy-- the lower arm pulls up over the upper arm, and the fingers curl up under both arm sections 

the “tightness” of the folding can vary, depending on the look you want. real-life bats obviously have CRAZY flexible wrists, and can tuck their fingers snug up against their arms/bodies all the way down. and I’m sure you could pull the wrist up a lil closer to the shoulder if need be. however, I believe the position as I’ve drawn-- with the lower arm hanging a bit down towards the front of the body, and the fingers loosely tucking in-- could be a perfectly comfortable, relaxed position for folded bat-dragon wings. this is especially considering that bat wings would be located more towards the midline/sides of the torso rather than right up near the spine like birds, meaning gravity would pull on them a bit more easily, possibly lending to this loose pose. BUT that also depends on the exact wing muscle configuration-- wings generally have pretty good ‘locking’ mechanisms when tucked closed, so tighter tucking is a perfectly reasonable possibility

I will note that wings ought not to be tucked up on top of the back. even bird wings located closer to the spine don’t rest their wrists above the shoulders-- the wings still hang to the sides, with the wrists held near the front of the body

I can’t imagine that pulling the wings back constantly is very comfortable, much less a position that affords the wing muscles any rest

tho the elbows would prolly need to be pulled next to or above the hips a bit, so the elbows don’t interfere with hind leg movement

on that note, also notice the anatomical proportions of the wings and how they affect the look of the folded wing. the upper arm of a wing will ALWAYS be shorter than the lower arm, so when they’re folded up, the wrist will stick out in front of the shoulder. usually even in front of the front limb shoulders, depending on the size of the wings (I think I drew these wings a bit small in comparison to body size, but we’ll just pretend this guy ain’t a particularly strong flyer)

the finger proportions are actually very similar to human fingers, in that the sections closest to the wrist are longest/thickest, while the sections closer to the tips are shorter/thinner. this means that when the fingers fold up, the bases will have long sections without joints, while the tips will be able to curl quite tightly, which you may be able to visualize more precisely here

the bend back under the arm at the 3rd joint may, admittedly, be a bit too sharp even by bat standards, so the fingers may still need to follow the line of the body

but I still think the fingers should be able to curl up under the arm just fine, honestly

now, while it’s important to know the underlying structures here, also note that certain parts of the folded wing (like fingertips) simply won’t be visible due to the membrane

and this is where folded wings get tricky-- not only is it hard to keep track of what’s covered up, but also what sections are connected to one another! hopefully the above diagram helps you visualize how the membrane lays over the overall arm structure at least, but being able to follow membrane connections in different positions takes a bit of familiarizing with overall wing anatomy

(also note that for ease of seeing the base anatomy, I’m not adding in most of the membrane wrinkles I usually would. just keep in mind that bat membranes are embedded w/ a lotta lil tendons that help scrunch up the membrane and hold the wings steady)

I will at least point out one particular section of membrane that trips folks up a lot

here, it’s important to remember that the back edge of the membrane (specifically the plagiopatagium section), connecting back onto the body, is ALSO connected to the back of the arm AND the pinkie finger. thus, we must keep in mind the flow of this section of membrane in the folded wing. note that it may very well cover up part of the visible finger(s) (particularly the pinkie) just before they tuck underneath the arm, as I’ve shown above

now, something fun about bat wings is that they’ve got ROTATION in their wrists! so, unlike birds, you can give yourself some freedom in how many of the fingers are visible, when folded up

I WILL say, though, that real-life bats seem to go for the latter folding, more reminiscent of a bird folding their wrist sideways next to their lower arm rather than curling the wrist underneath the lower arm. but, again, bats have way more leeway in wrist flexion, so I think any of these wrist positions are perfectly possible for a bat-winged dragon

and this flexion will also be affected by the kinda palm you give your wings. while many dragon artists give their dragons humanoid palms, real-life bats don’t actually have palms-- the metacarpals that make up our palms are actually the base bones of bat wing fingers. thus, bats just have a tiny connection area of carpals to connect fingers to arm, allowing for a frankly crazy range of flexion. while I’m not sure about how exactly a palm might affect flight, I don’t think they’re necessarily a problem so long as they’re downsized (palms proportionally the size of human palms compared to the arm would be WAY too heavy/thick for flight..) and retrofit for flight in shape (think about oncoming air currents and what parts of the palm would need to be more/less stabilized or aerodynamically shaped)

also note that, if the wing has a thumb and it’s visible, then the front edge membrane (propatagium) is gonna attach to it

like so (depending on the exact position of the thumb, of course)

now, I know some dragon artists like to curl the tips of the fingers up over the elbows, like this

and like, sure, the tips may be visible past the back edge of the membrane, if you go for the finger-tuck where the fingers follow the line of the body. or if the fingertips aren’t typically bat-like, but are stiffer and incapable of comfortably curling up. I’m specifically thinking of designs with faux-feather cartilage, or those with pterosaur-like fans of cartilage fibers across the membrane, leading to more bird-like folding

but idk, this desire to pull the fingertips up over the membrane THAT far seems uncomfortable and unnecessary? like, I really don’t understand why a dragon wouldn’t simply tuck their fingertips up against their body, following underneath the membrane, as a bat does. if anyone wants to argue me this point, I’m willing to hear it out tho

so, I know that was a lot of hyper-specific info, but if you step back for a minute and just take in the overall look of a folded bat wing, it turns out folded bat wings are WAY easier than most ppl realize!

truly, so many people overthink like, where the fingertips end up, or how the membrane overlays the arm. but once you understand how it all fits together, you can condense the look of it into basic shapes like this

and you can add or subtract detail depending on your style, how defined you want the arm to be from the membrane, how wrinkly/detailed you want the membrane, etc.

hope this helps!

-Mod Spiral

[dorothydelgadillo]

Why You Need a Content Manager for Your Company (Some Tough Love from a Former Content Manager)

Let's cut to the chase. If you want to see results from inbound and content, someone in-house has to own your content as a full-time job.

Now, inevitably some of you are saying to yourselves:

"We're not ready to commit yet. We want to dabble first to see if inbound is for us."

You'll never get 110 percent results by putting in 50 percent (or less) effort. Success will only come if you commit fully. There is no in-between. (This is true for almost everything in life, so I'm not sure why anyone would think inbound would be different, but whatever.)

Or maybe you think you've got it covered:

"We've got a few people who can use part of their time on inbound, it's fine."

No. No, it's not fine.

You've got a few people who will deprioritize your content strategy the second something else "more important" comes along -- and you won't have anyone to hold them accountable.

As we've spoken about at length before, you need to hire a content manager if you want to walk an inbound path to attain the growth, revenue, and expanded brand awareness you're looking for.

You can call them whatever you want -- content strategist, content marketing manager, chief content officer, grand high priest (or priestess) of words... I don't care!

You just need someone in that seat.

We've also shared what questions to ask when interviewing for a content manager, as well as the most important qualities to look for in a content manager.

But I think we need to roll this narrative back a bit.

Lots of people -- including us -- are telling you that you need a content manager, but why?

Why do you really need a content manager? What do they bring to the table that can't be covered by someone else on your team? ("Seriously, can't the marketers we've already hired just take care of it?") Are the skill sets we're suggesting you look for actually necessary?

Most of all, will having a content manager really make a difference for your team and your company, beyond accountability?

Those are the exact questions I'm going to answer here for you.

But first...

A Brief History of Liz the Content Manager

Before we joined forces with IMPACT in 2017 -- where I was first a content strategist and I'm now our director of web and interactive content -- I was Quintain Marketing's content manager.

Although I didn't start out in that role.

I joined Quintain Marketing in 2014 as an account manager (and then a senior account manager), before Kathleen Booth (then-owner) created the content manager position for our company and moved me into that seat a year or so later.

Kathleen's move solved two challenges.

Coming from a writing and publishing background -- part of the reason she hired me in the first place -- I was much more suited to that role. As a result, I was able to thrive and excel professionally in a way that would have never been possible as an account manager. (Truth be told, I wasn't that great of an account manager. I was the right person in the wrong seat.)

More importantly, however, it helped us centralize content creation efforts for ourselves and our clients.

Kathleen realized what many other marketing leaders (agency or otherwise) had not at that time -- mediocre content no longer gets results.

So, if an organization doesn't bring centralized content and publication expertise in-house, they will fail in the long-run.

Through my experience as our content manager, I could not agree more.

What It Feels Like When You Don't Have a Content Manager (Spoilers: It's Painful)

No matter what your marketing strategists and subject matter experts tell you, creating content feels like a burden. (Although some will be upfront about it. Really upfront about it.)

There are those who will be exceptions to that assertion, of course. But, for the most part, creating content -- even when they see the value in it and want their voice to be heard by your audience -- will always be that thing they have to do.

It will always be in the way of what they really want to be doing.

Without having a content manager in place:

You will have some folks who grow to resent your strategic content efforts. Even if you're getting results, their pain doesn't go away or get better.

Marketers who want to create and execute innovative campaigns and strategies will leave, because they didn't sign up to be a brand journalist who is forever caught in a loop of chasing people down for edits and approvals.

You won't have someone in-house who can empower others to create truly engaging content that actually gets them noticed and gets better results.

Deadlines will be missed, strategies will go off the rails, and -- eventually -- your little inbound experiment will fall apart.

I want to draw particular attention to that second point, because this is something that often gets overlooked.

One of the top things I look for in a content manager or specialist hire is the desire to do that exact role. 

Unfortunately, it's my experience that digital marketers who end up with content manager responsibilities they shouldn't have (and/or didn't ask for) always end up leaving or cycling out to another role within the company. 

Even if they say they want that role, it's not going to work out. That's not to say there aren't marketers who later go on to find their passion as a content specialist -- that's exactly what I did, as did Ramona. But someone either has the foundational skills and (more importantly) the passion for content, specifically, or they don't. 

I've seen too many super-talented social media strategists and digital marketers try to backdoor their way into a different dream marketing job via a content specialist role, and it never goes well.

If you don't take this into account, you will hire the wrong people or worse, lose the people you've already got in-house. 

Which leads me to a personal bone to pick with the digital marketing industry, as a whole.

Stop Expecting Your Digital Marketers to Be Everything to Everyone

There are way too many of you out there who expect your digital marketing strategists to wear as many hats as possible.

They need to be experts in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, community management, LinkedIn, HubSpot, WordPress, Adobe Creative Suite, conversion rate optimization, social advertising, PPC, Salesforce, sales enablement, marketing automation, business writing, SEO, keyword research, brand messaging, website user journeys, privacy laws, public relations, video production, graphic design, web design, HTML, event production and marketing, email marketing, public speaking, personal branding, podcasting, audio editing, audience research, data analysis and reporting, wood carving, baking soufflés that never deflate, predicting the future, and so on.

Now, you're also expecting them to become storytelling, publishing, and journalism experts?

Those are areas of expertise people get degrees in and build whole careers around, because you can't just "wing it" or watch a few YouTube tutorials to learn the required skills to excel in those areas.

Here's a story to show you what I mean.

Almost two years ago, a senior marketing strategist who is absolutely brilliant at crafting results-driving campaigns for his clients came to me with a problem that had been keeping him up at night.

"I have this outline for a guide a client wants to publish, and I want you to look at it," he said.

He shared they were way over their timeline on the project. A fully-designed version was supposed to have been published the week prior, according to their original timeline -- and they were still mired in the outlining phase, with no end in sight.

"I don't know what's wrong with it or why we're stuck -- can you take a look at it?"

It only took me a five-second glance to realize what the problem was.

The topic they had chosen for their guide was so broad in scope -- with no specific problem they were trying to solve clearly identified -- there was no way they were ever going to agree upon an outline, let alone actually produce the damn thing.

They were doomed to fail from the start.

To toot my own horn, this is what my background in writing and publishing has trained me to do.

But it wasn't his fault that he couldn't see that -- we're simply experts in different things. Seriously, some of the strategies he would share with me blew my freaking mind, because I knew I could never make my brain work that way in 1 million years.

Bottom line, asking your digital marketers and other subject matter experts to suddenly become storytelling wizards and editing geniuses is a bridge too far. You're creating unnecessary friction while also guaranteeing your inbound content strategies will ultimately tank, because you're not putting someone qualified in place to own it.

I say this because the story I shared above is not a unique one.

There isn't a week that goes by where I don't have between at least three and five people approach me with a content problem. They do so because they know it will take us 10 to 15 minutes (on average) to solve it together, instead of the many hours (days, weeks, or more) it might otherwise take them to do so on their own.

Content nerds like me know how to manage writers, make content more powerful, edit content efficiently (so you can produce more, better and faster), make writing blogs less painful, spot why content projects will fail (long before they do), get other stakeholders participating (and enjoying) the content creation process, and manage competing deadlines for lots of projects -- all of which are inevitably a "top" priority.

We spend our late nights obsessing about new ways we can tell our brand's stories in ways that are more helpful, engaging, and innovative.

We go out of our way to find the content tools and applications your company needs to make content creation and collaboration easier and more productive.

We're constantly trying to find new methods and processes for empowering our internal subject matter experts to have more time to do what they do best, while still getting their names and insights in front of our audiences.

This is the stuff we're born to do, and that's why you want someone like me (and Kevin Phillips) on your team.

(Not us, specifically, of course. We're IMPACTers. But you get the point.)

If You're Still with Me, Here's What You Need to Do

If you want to see exponential gains in your website traffic, lead generation, and the numbers of deals you are able to close, you've got to hire a content manager. It's that simple.

And if any of the pains I outlined above sound familiar, trust me when I say a content manager will make a lot of that go away... assuming you hire the right person.

To do that, you need to:

Commit to memory the top qualities your content manager needs to possess.

Use the interview questions and situational activities Marcus Sheridan outlines in this article.

I know Marcus mentioned this in those articles above, but I want to reiterate how important it is to hire for the right skill set and company culture fit over industry expertise.

If you happen to find someone who checks all of those boxes, that's great!

But never, ever exclude a candidate because they're unfamiliar with your space -- especially since some of the best content managers we've seen were fresh out of college with journalism degrees.

If you hire for the right skills, your content manager will quickly accumulate the knowledge and expertise you want them to possess simply by doing their job.

They'll become unstoppable. 

And you'll wonder why you ever questioned investing in a content manager, because (in hindsight) you'll see you never could have afforded not to.

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/why-you-need-a-content-manager