Depicting Angels

(6 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

 Loading ...

I’ve been seeing alot of criticism around the internets lately of the depiction of angels as "humans with wings", seeing as I’ve sort of become known for drawing just that it’s a topic of interest to me. These people do make a good point as, despite the fact they often appear in human form in the canonical scriptures of the Abrahamic religions, they sometimes don’t, and there are stranger descriptions still in books of apocrypha. There are angels with the head of a man, the head of a lion, the head of an ox and the head of an eagle with four wings. There are the Seraphim, six wings covering their bodies and one glance at them could incinerate you.

Angels have been described as having 70 wings, 100 eyes, 80 tongues, or with mouths all over their heads continuously chanting. They’ve been described as having eyes of fire, walking on fire, and spitting fire. Their skin has been described as being of the likeness of beryl and their feet like bronze. Considering all this, you could make angels into some really freaky, alien, menacing figures. So why do I decide to still depict them as "humans with wings"? Well there’s more of a reason than just the fact a ball of eyes, wings and tongues is a bit hard to draw…

…it’s also that a ball of eyes, wings and tongues is a bit hard to relate to. There is naturally vast potential to have angels as mysterious, untouchable, fearsome and awesome creatures who only look partly human or not at all, but this only successful if they are secondary characters, a background force, something that will only appear once in a while or once throughout the entire work.

Where it may be possible to have an awesome, super-powerful, non-human (and of little humanoid resemblance) entity be a sympathetic character I can’t help but notice even these tend to have a simpler human form in many works (comics especially) and they transform into this hideous, alien or awesome being. This way, the character is easier to sympathize with even though they aren’t human.

Humans can relate best to humans, or at the very least anthropomorphic characters (which is any non-human thing, living or inanimate, given human traits), so whatever you do you need a trace of humanity in your characters, and this is just as important visually in a visual medium such as comics, film, and animation. Considering that my angel characters are the main characters, and the main focus, of the story, making them quite human is beneficial in getting the message across while still conveying it through supernatural beings and themes.