Oh boy!
I started out with drawing landscapes in mind as the sole topic of interest and, as I mentioned in my last post, that is far from where I am heading... although landscapes may yet form a backdrop for pictures to come.
Somewhere along the way a dream has pushed me in the direction of considering winged humanoids. I see tons of artwork that depict dragons, fairies and everything in between but none of them are anywhere near realistic... if you could ever call dragons and fairies realistic. Either the wing area is too small for the mass or the body is not setup to provide the structure to support such a wing even on it's too small scale, a wing just poking out of a back has no functional means of actually working let alone carrying a load in flight. This prompted me to consider the physiological aspect of trying to put wings on a person in such as way as to make it believable... or at least follow most of the laws of physics involved in flight.
Suffice it to say that I am not satisfied with just saying "but it's fantasy art and it's just magic that makes it work". I think that is the line that normally gets used in cases such as this.
The only animal that exists in reality that is anywhere near to being somewhat similar in structure to a human and that has wings is a bat. Unlike a bird they have a proper ribcage similar to that of a human, no large breast bone and keel arrangement. The downside is that this only works due to their extremely low wing loading. One thing that I considered was losing the arms and making an extra hand at the point where a bat typically has the vestigial thumb. Then I did some math and came up with a wingspan of over 30' to carry a human with a total flying weight of 175 lbs. That is not very workable for what I have in mind so I need to put the arms back in, which means now I need a shoulder structure to provide for two sets of shoulders. I thought that I could use the arms as an auxillary source of muscle strength but the wings are large enough that they would be little more than decoration.
I have seen Avatar, (who hasn't?), and recalled that the Na'vi bone structure was reported to have been some sort of carbon fiber natural composite, this makes them tough. I figure that it also makes them lighter than they might be had they a traditional Earth style structure. Perhaps this sort of structure could also reduce the water content of the bones to further reduce body weight. More math results in the possible total mass going from 175 lbs to about 144 lbs. Take into consideration that this also provides for a stronger structure which allows the bones to not need to be overly large.
The next, but far from the last consideration is the musculature that would need to be involved to drive these wings for anything other than controlled gliding. This is where it all seems to fall apart as I cannot come up with any workable muscle structure that could conceivably power this great wingspan to provide even a fast running lift off.
Enter the realm of telekinesis. Well, at least I didn't say magic. I decided that I can draw whatever I imagine so there are few limitations. The trouble is that I was doing this in conjunction with a story line that also was spawned by the same dream and telepathy came up somewhere along the way. So, if mental abilities get mixed in for other reasons why not some form of telekinesis that is focused specifically on flight assistance in the form of augmented muscle strength.
Basically, my drawing project is also a writing project and I do not really know where this is going to end up taking me... but isn't that more than half the fun?
Jeff.
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