Here, a young winged brid-being reaches out to small butterfly just as she lands gently on water. I started Winged as soon as I finished Butterfly Girl. I want to do a series of four winged creatures. Winged is the second of the series. There are two more on their way.

How to grow new wings

My first sketch for this piece was that of a swallow-like bird-being hovering over a pond while a snail lazily crawls across some lily pads. But as the idea developed, the winged lioness made her appearance and so did the little butterfly. By the time, the pens came out, the lioness was out and a young girl-like being was in. You may notice in the third image that she did have two legs and was postured like a cartoon princess, thanks to the daily influence of my little 6 year old daughter.

Once I started inking, small unexpected changes and details started showing up. She didn’t have arms any more. Or legs. She had wings and many of them. She was wrapped in them and made of them.
The fifth image is one of my favorites. I paused here to debate whether to continue detailing or not. I liked the lines and the structure and the incompleteness of the piece.
Based on an intuitive push, I continued on. I paused again (after the 8th image). I had initially wanted to doodle the background and foreground. However, I felt there is a soft quietness to the piece that might get lost in an explosion of background and foreground detailing. I decided to hint at the landscape by letting the bird-being land on water and to leave the rest to the imagination of the viewer to picture and complete.
And so, in that shared quietness and silence. I’ll leave you to wander and explore. Enjoy your journey.