School girl Link with aviator hood

This time a 3D-rendering that looks like the Japanese game developers have tried to compose something vaguely European and Medievalish like. Those boots are just super weird, and so is the aviator hood! and the plaited skirt has much more common with modern Japanese school girl uniforms than with anything Medieval. The archery is also weird.

Mistakes:

1. The bow has these huge wooden blocks inside its arc, that will render it pretty unusable, since they would hamper the bending of the bow limbs severely.

2. There is a large bulbuous thingy in the upper nock of the bow. What's its purpose? Certainly it doesn't have one, apart from making the unusable bow even more of a nuisance.

3. The fistmele, the distance between the grip and string of the bow as indicated by the red line here is too large. In a longbow it should be approximately the height of the archer's fist with an upturned thumb.

4. The ubiquitous back quiver strikes again! It's a clear mistake in European Medieval context (and in fantasy derived from it), which this obviously tries to be.

Double-arced crossbow for no reason at all

A trading card game piece apparently. And with a crossbow, since I've started to collect crossbow pistures too. This work never ends!

But why does this crossbow has two arcs on it? It doesn't make any sense. Some modern compound crossbows (and indeed compound bows in general) have double arcs, but that is because they have the cams (working like pulleys) between the limbs of the bow. Without the cams there is no point of splitting the arc in two, it's counterintuitive and stupid. It was also never done before compound bows.

This crossbow is not a double-shooter, it has only one string, so both the arcs are attached to the same string. The string is also way too thin for a crossbow. Crossbow strings need to be thick like a bolt (a crossbow arrow).

Here are the parts of a modern compound crossbow for a reference:

That bow should've been tillered

Straight to the mistakes:

1. This bow bends asymmetrically. There are asymmetric bows in real life, like the Japanese Yumi, but this is not like those. This is just a bad bow. The upper limb bends too much compared to the lower limb. This is a problem that is eliminated in tillering, a process of making the bow limbs bend the same amount, when makign the bow. This bow is already ruined, it cannot be fixed.

2. This arrowshaft is too thin, especially when compared to the large arrowtip is has.

3. Long fletching is perfectly okay an an arrow, but these extend too far back, between the fingers of the arrow hand.

4. Two finger Mediterranean grip with the spring held only with the very tip of the fingers. The fingers should curl up some more on the string, especially if there's just two. Not in a clenched fist of course, that's not what I said.

5. Back quiver

If you'd spent that time it took to grow that hair to practise archery, you'd be good already

This stance is entirely wrong. I see this a lot in beginners. The back should be more straight and the shoulder blades pulled together so that the chest muscles are opened more. Shoulders need to align with the arrow a lot more than this, the head should be kept straight on top of the spine, no need to cant it like this for aiming. You don't need to look down the arrowshaft, the aiming should be instictive. Of course it needs training, but who said archery is going to be easy? When you just learn not to lock your bowarm's elbow you won't even need the overly large arm guard anymore.

Horror vacui

There's so much going on it's hard to see what there really is. Horror vacui much?

Mistakes:

1. Utterly ridiculous trash bow.

2. The bow doesn't bend, instead the bowstring stretches.

3. Index finger on top of arrow.

4. This grip doesn't look anywhere near convincing. It's like he's not using any strength at all, probably because the bow doesn't bend and has just a rubber band for a string.

5. No quiver, no spare arrows anywhere. Until they're inside his massive spiked collar-thingy. Who knows really.

Crossbow assassin

Let's review a crossbow for a change! Getting tired of handbows being drawn awfully, so this is gonna be a refreshing break. Mistakes:

1. This is a pistol crossbow, meaning that it's very small, easily used in one hand. These existed, but they were toys for the rich people in Early Modern period Europe. It was not an assassin's weapon by any chance.

2. The purpose of the stirrup in a normal sized crossbow is that the crossbowman puts his foot into it and that helds the crossbow in place while it is being loaded. This stirrup is too small for anyone's foot to fit in, and completely unnecessary since pistol crossbows were loaded without the stirrup.

3. The bowstring is not drawn, but there is still a bolt (crossbow arrows are called bolts) on the crossbow. This is wrong.

4. No quiver for spare arrows. Crossbow quivers were always carried on the hip by the way, surprise surprise.

What is that ring on top of his head?

I don't like this style of drawing. Too messy. But hey, that's just me!

Mistakes:

1. Bow is unbendable, too thick, and doesn't thin towards the ends at all. Complete trash.

2. The arrotip is way too large, arrowshaft too short.

3. Looks like he's nocking the arrow way too high on the bowstring.

4. No quiver, no other arrows. A pretty common mistake in drawings and photoshoots.

Stock photo archeress

I have nothing to say to this picture, other than mistakes of course:

1. This elbow should be pointing back and not to the side.

2. Sideways shooting. Now somebody is going to comment that canting the bow like this is possible. Yes it is, but why? There is no obstacles that would make it necessary in this image.

3. Beginner's mistake: keeping the index finger above the arrow.

4. No quivers were harmed during this photoshoot.

Note:
She has a strange grip of the arrow. It's not the traditional European "Mediterranean" grip, nor the widespread Asian "Mongolian" thumb grip. But it is a real grip, a pinching grip, although relatively rare one. It is used by some natives, and presumably ancient people's of Europe. It's really hard and requires a lot of finger muscles for the pinching, which this girl obviously doesn't have. But in this case it doesn't bother her since this bow (if it is even a bow and not a stick with a string) has about 10 pounds of draw weight.

Barely naked Amazon

Amazon warrior of course, immediately noticable by the lack of clothes. Since of course there would be a culture that is composed entirely of women but don't know how to make clothes! Those steel armour plates would be pretty painful on bare skin, but maybe the Amazons like pain?

Archery mistakes:

1. This bow is flat on the wrong dimension. It is flat on the sides when it should be flat on the back. Wouldn't work well like this, if at all.

2. Sideways shooting. Don't tell me she's just nocking the arrow, we all know that she's going to shoot sideways too since it looks "cooler".

3. Beginners often stick out their index finger like this. Some say it is useful to feel where the arrowtip is, but I find this explanation unsounded. Why would you need to feel the arrowtip, you already see and know where it is?

4. She has been given an archery glove with two fingers, only it's on the wrong hand.

5. Reverse grip.

6. Back quiver, on the wrong shoulder.

7. The struckture of this bow's siyahs makes it impossible for removing the bowstring. It should be removable since all bows are stored without their strings in place.

How many of these drawn girls shoot while jumping, and why?

Awful manga-inspired drawing full of bad archery. Mistakes:

1. Ridiculous bow. Completely unshootable. Made of a pile of junk. Would weight a ton.

2. No bowstring, what?

3. Overly large arrowtip. Wouldn't really fly far.

4. No other arrows in a quiver or anywhere.

I don't know if this could be more wrong

Yäääh, this is really bad! Where should I even start...
Mistakes:

1. This bow doesn't bend.

2. There are two (2!) bowstrings.

3. Bowstring(s) go on top of the bowarm here! A result of wrongly done sideway shooting.

4. Too large arrowtip. If it's on fire, don't draw it so near the wooden bow. Arrow is also too short and missing fletchings.

5. Reverse grip.

6. Back quiver, on the wrong shoulder.

Elf with a WWII ammo bag on belt

An elf again, a man-elf once in a while. Still pretty boring. Left-handedness not sanctioned anymore.

Mistakes:

1. Finger over arrow.

2. Two arrows shot at once.

3. This grip is not good, it's too loose. Doesn't look like he's really drawing the bow.

4. Back quiver. Almost always a mistake in my books. Will write an article about that someday in the future. It's even on the wrong shoulder it seems.

The new Tomb Raider cosplay

Nice Lara Croft cosplay, but the archery should use some work.

Mistakes:

1. This elbow (of her right arm) should point higher up and backwards from the arrowshaft, not to the ground like this.

2. This elbow should not be bent in like this, it will lead to the bowstring hitting the forearm. The bow arm doesn't need to be exactly straight, just a little bit bent.

3. Take the forefinger off from the top of the arrow. It will hurt in release.

4. Three fingers are enough for the Mediterranean draw, four in unnecessary and might hamper the shot.

5.This bow is crooked (the upper limb in this photo should turn right and not left), and I believe it's not a real bow, but just a cosplay prop.

Neutral:
The quiver is okay. It's ugly, but Lara is supposed to make it herself in the bushes or something. And it's more of a hip quiver than a back quiver, so that's something I like.

Generic turban guy

This looks like a drawing of my friend who likes to draw clichéd black-clothed raghead characters (his wording, not mine!) that look like himself. But this is somebody elses drawing entirely. To the point: mistakes!

1. Is this arrow solid steel? That's a bad idea, an arrow has to bend around the bow arc in order to fly well.

2. This longbow doesn't seem to bend enough. Also why is a Middle-Eastern / Indian inspired archer using a Western European type longbow? Usually we always see recurve bows nowadays, because people think they look cooler, but this would be the time to use it!

3. Four finger grip, instead of three, or any other proper grip.

4. These flethings are terrible, they also cover the nock of the arrow which is really bad.

5. Back quiver, and on the wrong shoulder.

Chinese elf

This Chinese drawing has a serious mistake:

1. The bow doesn't bend. It's a common misconception in drawing, but every archer knows that bow bends, and the string doesn't stretch. I've drawn a comparison of a real bow here for you all to see how this bow should bend.

2. This bow also has blades. Unnecessary and stupid.

3. Back quiver, and even on the wrong shoulder. A mistake it is.

Vaguely Medievalish archer

This looks like a video game concept drawing for a vaguely Medieval-ish game.
Mistakes:

1. This bow is flat in the wrong dimension. Flat bows existed, and most bows were flat towards the back of the bow, not like this which is flat towards the sides. This makes bending the bow extremely hard.

2. The arrow tip is way too large.

3. Fletching is missing.

4. Reverse grip, wrong.

5. Back quiver, also wrong.

Some kind of ranger

A ranger of some sort. With a ridiculous leather patch armour à la Hollywood. Let's get to business.

Mistakes:

1. The bow seems to be constructed of different parts. This is sometimes done nowadays, but was not done historically in Europe, which' cultures this ranger is obviously based on. European bows were made of one piece of wood, or laminated with several pieces, and of different materials, like horn and sinew (in the case of recurve bows like this one here), but never like this with two wooden limbs nailed to a steel handle.

2. This arrow only has two feltchings. While there were two-fletched arrows, never in Europe, they were rare also elsewhere, and where made a bit differently.

3. Back quiver, and even on the wrong shoulder. Impossible to get the arrows from there easily.

Perfectly good hip quiver ruined with a ridiculous bow

This bow is completely ridiculous, it wouldn't work at all. It's way too thick and constructed of possibly metal. While metallic bows did indeed exist (e.g. in India, but they were always rare), they were really flat, not like this. This wouldn't bend at all and would weight dozens of kilos! There's also unnecessary spikes on the bow that are only a liability to the archer himself.

The only good thing here is the hip quiver.

Chief bull-sitter

I don't know what this is, a Native American tree person? Undead Native American tree person perhaps?

Mistakes:

1. This wouldn't work, it's not a bow, it's just a tree branch with a string. A bow has to be made of solid wood, not from a twisted branch like this. Indians were really good bow makers, so this is a shame really.

2. This arrow is laughably short, it cannot be shot from this bow at all. It also lacks fletchings.

3. There is no quiver or other arrows anywhere.

I've never seen a bow like this been drawn

This just wouldn't work. The bowstring cannot go past the bow arc like this. The bow limbs have to bend back further so that the string is unhampered. Not like this, this would ruin the string very quickly, if it would work at all.

Also, a back quiver is a mistake.

On the other hand, I've stopped sanctioning left-handedness. Not because about five percent of all people are left-handed, no since the left-handed archer drawings outnumber the amount of real left-handers in any population by vast numbers. But instead because an excellent archer should know how to shoot with both right and left-handed. Does that sound fair to you?

And is this Avatar the Last Air Bender water people inspired by any chance?

Demoness archer

Let's get back to ordinary reviews of drawings and photographs, after a series of tiresome to write movie related posts. The next twenty will be these, since there's nearly 400 pictures in my files still waiting to be mocked, and new ones emerge every time I make a Google search. I want to get rid of these someday, so work work work...

Mistakes:

1. This bow is ridiculous, it wouldn't work since it's full of things that won't bend properly. Utterly unusable thing.

2. The arrow, while being a magic arrow, floats in the air above the bow hand. It should still rest on the fist.

3. There are no fletchings in this arrow.

4. And there are no other arrows in a quiver or anywhere else to be seen. Very poor archer only has one arrow.