I was mostly agreeing until you insulted the flight rising nocturnes (second to last picture) and now I’m deeply offended
Like, yes the “fingers” extend very long but it helps give them an interesting silhouette and ties into the way the design combines a lot of round and pointed shapes
I do think there’s an interesting conversation to be had about realism VS creative freedom VS ppl just blindly following artistic trends without analyzing them
Like, when you’re designing fantasy creatures an amount of adherence to real world physics helps avoid ridiculous looking spoon-wings or arms that are permanently bent for no reason
But sometimes it makes sense to go against the laws of physics when it works with the design
Bc good design work will oftentimes express things about the characters with the design. Like the dragon with the weird finger elbows(4th pic from the bottom), if you focus on it from a evolutionary standpoint it’s kinda dumb but in that picture with its posture it gives the picture a sort of regal energy, looking sort of like the back of a throne or a cape
I think the reason these images become problems is because like. When you’re defying the rules of general physics/evolution for an artistic reason it can be cool or interesting. But then people will just take those elements without understanding the function of them and combine them at random.
and you end up with something like the last dragon that looks like it shouldn’t be able to fly according to all know laws of aviation
TLDR: unrealistic designs like this can be okay if there’s an artistic purpose but oftentimes they look ridiculous because people use them without putting thought into it
