Winged Humans - a comprehensive guide

Here it is! My take at a tutorial/reference sheet/concept for winged humans aka harpies. Started drawing them about four years ago and haven´t stopped ever since. Without a doubt it´s not yet perfect but i daresay i got the most important basics fused together. I am aware of other similar concepts but great minds think alike and really i can´t think of any better method of putting the wings of a bird on a human while preserving the ability of flight. (well other than completely replacing the arms).

My concept is about fusing humans and birds together into one body and creating a hybrid. After all simply because a human has wings doesn´t mean he can fly, he´d also need the rapid metabolism, strong heart, pressure sensible ears etc. This comes with great advantages (at least for the human side) such as great eyesight, flight (duh), better reflexes but also has many drawbacks: nightblind, no taste, slow healing rate. Harpies aren´t overpowered humans but complex creatures with their unique way of living.

Since this is based on eagles many things would be different for other bird-based harpies. Most birds have higher body temperatures, better sight at night and so on. Just about all birds can rotate their primaries, at least eagles can so it´s not something only harpies can do. Since harpies have no sweat glands they have other methods for cooling/heating for instance fluffing up their plumage (creates small protective air pockets) or fanning out their wings to cool. The oil produced on certain glands is spread over all the human skin protecting it against the harsh conditions in the sky however usually thick clothing is worn as well. Males and females are the same size and sexual dimorphism isn´t as distinctive as with humans.

There´s probably a ton of other things i should state here but it won´t come to my mind right now.


I´ve been working on his for two weeks and since i really wanted to make this one of my best works ever i drew only when i really had the motivation. It´s still easily over 20 hours invested in this so i sure hope it gets around. I hope other artists will look at this and point out some flaws my goal is after all to make it as realistic as possible ^^

Please tell me if anything is unclear or confusing so i can fix it