Do not lean back when shooting!

 

Many mistakes in today's drawing, which isn't a bad drawing expect the archery part in it. Which is, the main part unfortunately. 

Mistakes:

1. The bow is way too thick, this elf woman wouldn't be able to shoot with it, nor anybody else. Especially a bow this short should be much thinner, at least by half.

2. There is nothing where the bowstring would attach, it just disappears inside the ends of the bow. The bostring in reality forms loops that are put in nocks in the bow's ends.

3. The arrowtip is huge, too large for this arrow shaft. The arrow is also too short, or drawn too much back, since the arrowtip touches the bow's arc, which it shouldn't do.

4. The arrow goes on the right side of the bow, which is very unusual (I would almost say wrong, but there are a few rare medieval illustrations like this) for Mediterranean style shooting, and she should hold the arrow there with her thumb if shooting from the right side, otherwise the arrow would drop off too easily.

5. Mediterranean draw uses three fingers, she seems to use only two, which is unnecessarily harder. The bowstring doesn't seem to go behind the drawing fingers, rather through them.

6. The fletching of this arrow is pathetic, the feathers are both way too small to offer anything to the arrow (their purpose is to guide the flight of the arrow, making it more accurate), and localted way too back on the arrowshaft, so much so that they touch the drawing hand, which they shouldn't do.

7. She is not wearing a quiver nor any spare arrows anywhere. Not a very wise choice.

 

I also want to point out another thing, about her posture.

 

8. The posture is all wrong. People often draw female archers leaning backwards from their pelvis, to make them look sexier, but this is not a good posture for shooting a bow. Rather they should be leaning forwards, as was done both historically and today. This employs the big back muscles (stronger than just the arms), which gives maximum power to the shot. I have included a picture from a book "Archery Anatomy" (1995) by Ray Axford that depicts the correct posture for a modern archer that uses his back muscles more by leaning forward. I replicated the lines of his body in green, and the lines of the elf girl in red and superimposed them on top of each other so you can clearly see how much differene there is in the postures.

I have a request to draughtsmen and -women, please start to draw correct positions, and do not make your (lady) archers lean back to make them sexier, since it's just bad archery.

Sometimes you need to lean back in order to shoot very high, but this is not the case with this or any other drawing that employs this trope of backwards leaning women.

I would regret this so bad!

 

I feel a bit sad while criticising this, but a lot sadder for the person who actually has this tattooed on her/him! Mistakes:

1. This cheap Pocahontas knock-off has a modern bow that doesn't fit the character at all. It's handle part is way too long, and she doesn't even grab it by the middle. It is okay for certain bows to grab it just below the middle, so that the arrow would in in middle, but never over the middle part like this. I don't think the tattoo make was qualified enough to attempt a rudimentary perspective here.

2. She is neither grabbing the string at the middle, but far above it.

3. The arrow is just ridiculous. The shaft is a thin line, but the head is a huge triangle and ball of material, much too large and heavy for that shaft.

4. No spare arrows, no quiver.

This is it. I hope tomorrow brings something a little better.

Faceless space archer

 

Another drawing here. And another woman. This time without a top, and without a face. I guess he drew only the important parts for him. But mistakes too:

1. The bowstring goes from the wrong side of the arm. It is impossible to shoot like this! A horrible mistake, which could've been avoided with even a small amount of thinking, that hasn't been involved in the making of this drawing.

2. The infamous reverse grip. This is not a standard way of gripping the arrow. Also the string goes way too deep in the fist. This is just a mess.

3. There are a lot of things attached to the arrow shaft, making shooting it impossible, since the spikes would stick to the bow arc when released. Ludicrous!

4. The arrowtip is way too large and heavy, Even if the arrow would fly out of the bow, it would not fly more than a few meters and just drop head first to the ground.

5. The arrow is also too short. This makes its flight distance even lesser. Also the fletching sucks big time, it's another mess.

6. No spare arrows or a quiver anywhere to be seen. 

This character only has one arrow, and it's the worst I've seen. And she cannot hold the bow right. Not a very professional archer I would say. Also, where's her face?!?

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.

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.

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.

Another one of those elvesses

Why is it that all elves are female? I know why, it's because men (and boys [and men-children]) draw these pictures with one hand in their pocket. That pocket that has a hole in the bottom you know. But seriously think about how an elven population could sustain itself if it's only made of up women? Are elves a kind of fantasy race such as Amazons who only go to men when they want to reproduce, kill all their boy children and live in solitude? Or is it that gender roles are reversed in elven societies, so that elven women do all the fighting stuff (you know, archery is fighting when done against people and not animals, in which case it is hunting), and elf-men are take care of the home and children?

These scenarios seem unlikely at best. But according to contemporary pictorial evidence, all elves seem to be women.
Except Cary Elwes of course!


Back to business. That Elder Scrolls inspired (quod green glass sword) elvess (?, female elf) has many mistakes in her archery style, so probably she's just a poser with a bow, but without any knowledge of how to shoot with it.

1. Let's start with the bow as always. It's hoorrible, also as always. Sad. This bulky spiky thing would not actually work as a bow, so maybe she should just throw it at enemies instead of trying to shoot with it.

2. The string is not attached to the end of the bow limbs, as it should. The fistmele is also too great.

3. This is a reverse grip of the arrow. There is no point of doing this, and to my knowledge, no evidence of anyone ever doing it.

4. This is the place where the arrow should be nocked. About the center of the bowstring (technically usually one fist above the center, depending on bow type though), but this arrow is nowhere near the center. This arrow would hit the ground if shooting it is possible at all.

5. Back quiver. And on the wrong shoulder for a right handed person. Impossible to get the arrows from there.

6. The arrow has a huge arrowtip, which would be too heavy for an actualy arrow that is intended to be shot from a bow.

Smurfvatar

This smurf is a parody of Avatar, which really could use more parodies, since it was so ridiculous. And not the least because of it's archery. Well, this cartoon continues the tradition of mistakes:

1. I know it is artictic licence and this is a cartoon with a smurf(!) but the arrowtip is still way too large and heavy for the arrow to fly properly. The arrowshaft is too narrow and would snap instantly when the arrow would hit anything. So it really would be an arrow for one time use only, and for a target at most five meters away.

2. Doesn't matter how many (or few) fingers you have, it is wrong to hold the arrow between the fingers of your bowhand.

3. The bow (which looks very crude) loses potential energy when the string is not attached to the ends of the arc. There is no point of making the bow longer than it's nocks.

4. The draughtsman didn't know how to draw a proper grip with smurf hands. Maybe I could forgive that, but no, let's give it a mistake point instead.

5. No other arrows, since why would you need more if your only arrow will fly perhaps five meters and break after that?

6. Left handedness. Left-handedness is as rare in smurfs as in humans. Although in Avatar they also shot left handed, hmm...

Chibi elf with twisted body

I hate manga. I shouldn't say this, but I just did. There might be some good manga comics (manga = comics, I know!), but I hate this chibi style. I usually associate manga with chibi style (I do know there are other styles too, but they all have unnaturally big eyes), and I just hate it.

I hate this picture, not just because it's annoying chibi style, but because it represents archery so poorly.

Mistakes:

1. The whole stance is ludicrous, nobody shoots like this. The pelvis is turned forwards, even though it should be pointing sideways.
2. More of the wrong stance, the string arm should be at level with the other arm and the arrow, the right elbow should be pointing backwards.
3. This arrowtip weighs a ton and don't fly anywhere. Why would you also tie a ribbon to the arrow?
4. Keeping the index finger of the bow hand straight, to "guide" the arrow or something. A beginners mistake. Do people think it looks cool or something?
5. Bad quiver. That means a back quiver.

Medusa drawing (Harryhausen style)

This drawing is copied from the late and great Ray Harryhausen's Medusa from Clash of the Titans (the 1981 version, not the 2010 remake, which is not of course on par with the original). The Harryhausen Medusa didn't have any clothes, but the young man who has drawn this has been shy about drawing naked breasts (I know the feeling, I've been at that point myself), but he has been titillated enough to draw the nipples showing through the cloth. So what's the point of drawing the cloth in the first place then?

Anyway, to the archery mistakes:

1. This bow is asymmetrical, and not on purpose.
2. Bowstring goes over the arm, which is of course wrong by all measurable standards.
3. Reverse grip with four fingers, instead of three.
4. Another mistake in the same circle, the string is bend significantly inside the fist.
5. This arrow is huge, almost the size of a javelin. It's just too heavy (especially with such a huge tip).
6. Index finger over the arrow, a beginners mistake.
7. Quiver on the back.
8. Arrows on the quiver are lacking the nocking space between the fletching and the end of the arrows.

Bonus:
Left-handedness, definitely not on purpose. Medusa in the film was right handed.

Kili the Dwarf from The Hobbit

A dwarf archer for the first time in this blog. They are quite a rarity. J.R.R. Tolkien, who is siglehandedly responsible for creating the modern concept of fantasy dwarves, elves, orcs etc. also wrote about dwarves using bows in his book The Hobbit. Peter Jackson's film adaptations have quite a many archer characters; Legolas and Tauriel, who were not in the book, Bard the Bowman of course, and also the dwarves Kili and Thorin. Although Thorin's archery stuff was cut out of the theatrical release. Maybe it's in the extended edition (of the already extended-to-three-movies adaptation of one book merely 300 pages long), we'll see...

Someone in internet confessed that he/she (probably earlier) hated that the dwarves used bows, and the bows should belong to elves, and elves only. Well, this is both stupid and ridiculous. And also moronic, did I forgot to mention. Why couldn't the dwarves use the bow? They use bows in the Hobbit book for Iluvatar's sake!!! Professor Tolkien invented modern concept of dwarves and he made them use bows in the first book they appear in! Yes, elves use also heavily bows, but also many other kinds of weapons, such as swords, knives and spears.

It is a ridiculously stupid and clichéd view that dwarves should only use axes or giant warhammers as their weapons (as in the eponymous tabletob miniature wargame), not swords, spears and especially bows. Many games have give them gunpowder instead! Dwarves are based on Viking mythology, where they first appear and where Tolkien omitted them, so they "should" only use Viking weaponry. That includes swords, spears, axes and bows for example. Especially not firearms!

Elves are also based on Nordic legends, so their weaponry "should" be the same as the dwarves'. But it is fantasy and they can use more diverse weponry if an author wants. As long as it's believable. I think gunpowder weapons are more than a bit off the Viking style of dwarves, but hey, that's just me!

Also the elves shouldn't only use bows, since that's stupid. No army ever used only bows. In every land and time period throughout history all armies had a large footman force in their core, using spears and/or swords. Bowmen were often important, but without anything else, they wouldn't win anything.


But about the dwarf Kili, and his archery. First mistakes:

1. Two finger grip. He only has two fingers covered in leather glove, archers glove, so it's natural that the actor doesn't want to use the third finger to draw the string, since it can hurt. they should've given him a third leather finger in his glove at the costume department.
2. Keeping bow and arrows in a same (separate) quiver is nothing unusual, for example ancient Persians, Scythians and other eastern/steppe people's did that. But their bow quivers were always at waist level, fastened to a belt. Not in the back, which is not the place for arrows either. They are harder to get there, and why you would make things harder, when you can make them easier? Especially if it may mean if you live or die!
3. These flat headed arrow tips are not unknown either, they were used occasionally, but they are kind of speciality arrows. These would probably be used in hunting small animals, such as squirrels, or some other rare purpose, but not against armored opponents for example. These are not good for war. And the arrow tip is also too large, it would be too heavy for that arrow. I get it that they tried to make the arrow look bulky (and succeeded) so it would seem more "dwarven", but why the dwarves have to make everything so impractically thick, heavy, angular and bulky? It's not very useful you know.

Then the good parts, and there are surprisingly many:

1. I didn't expect to see good archery in The Hobbit films at all, but Aidan Turner (Kili's actor) has really listened their archery instructor. Better than anyone else on the set. His archery form is nearly perfect. In this second picture his grip is more of a three finger Mediterranean one, and the bowstring is really drawn near his mouth, where it should be. This give much better aim.
2. The lines from the arrow and both arms are parallel, which is great. This is how it's done.
3. The arrow goes on the left side of the bow, which is right. Too many beginners put it on the right side and then drop the arrow wondering why it happened. He also doesn't seem to shoot sideways, like all other archer characters in The Hobbit have done. Shame on them, good for Kili. Although Kili's bow is so short than it wouldn't lose much power when drawn sideways. Although aim would be poor of course.

Strange:
I already talked about the arrow tip, but I need to say something about the bow too. It cannot be clearly seen in these photos and screencaptures, but Kili's bow is a very short composite recurve bow. It's length is about the same as his arm from shoulder to fingertips. This short composite recurve bows were in fact used in history, by the Huns for example, but they were always used on horseback. That's why they were so short, so they didn't interfere with the horse. Or the other way around. Anyway, the dwarves are all foot soldiers, so why not a longer bow? Are longbows too elven or something? Although Tauriel was given a recurve bow too, since it seems to be in fashion now. It has become hard to even find longbow using characters these days.

All about Amazons!

The day before yesterday I played a game called Smallworld with my girlfriend and a good friend of mine who brought the game. It was a great experience, Games Magazine 2010 game of the year winner. The version we played was on Ipad (I don't like Apple's products), and my friend said it was even better in board game version, which it originally was designed to be.

Anyway, the game has several different "races" (more like species, like they should always be called in fantasy and science fiction settings, since the "races" are so different they cannot be of the same species), and one of them is Amazons.

This (A) is the Amazon picture from the game. B is a figure made of the character, which can be purchased on the game's official website.

I don't have much good to say about this character. And not even talking about archery yet! The baby-faced sex-Amazon has the kind of Poison Ivy-esque "clothing" that only holds on her body with the Holy Spirit, which may explain the visual connection with Eve of Paradise. No, boots and one bracer are not clothes. And neither are some strategically placed tree leaves. She has some kind of "tribal" tattoos or warpaint on her body, but also heavy mascara, pink eyeshadow and red lipstick. Of course Amazons didn't really exist outside ancient mythology, but this is not the style any woman has ever dressed herself. Especially for battle!

How far have we come from the original source of Amazons from Greek mythology?
This is a real image of an Amazon (as "real" as it can be of a mythical character):

Herakles (Hercules in Latin) here is fighting with an Amazon queen Adromakhe (NOT the wife of Hektor of Ilion (Troy)). The Amazon is clad in elaborately embroidered khiton (a Greek tunic), bears a helmet, greaves (shin armour), shield, spear and sword. Most of the pictures of Amazons show them fully dressed in robes, tunics and trousers. In fact after this early period of vase painting which this image represents, Greeks tended to portray Amazons in Persian garb. That's because Persia was their mortal enemy, and represents barbarism in Greek minds (which it really was not, but that's propaganda). Amazons also represents barbarism and the whole idea of women fighting against men was a blasphemy to the Greeks, a nation of great inventors and military geniuses, but also of probably the biggest gynophobia (fear of women, chauvinism) of any advanced civilization. Thus, Amazons were dressed in Persian style headdresses, long sleeved tunics and even trousers, such barbarian clothes Greeks would have never used. And trousers were seen as feminine! How have times changed.

A few millenniae later some sweaty nerd boys in their basements read about Amazons as well as other mythological stuff, and incorporate them in their role-playing games. They probably didn't have pictures of Greek vase paintings, since internet was not in use yet, and with their longing of women, they created the modern charcter of Amazons, exotic ultra-sexual nation of fighting females. They were not man-haters and hated by men anymore, now they become just targets of lust. How many times have male game designers / moviemakers / comic draughtsmen justified their Amazons (used here as a synonym for all female fighters) as being strong and dangerous opponents to any man, while at the same time their costume choices tell a wholly different approach of just trying to please teenage male audience.

The introduction text for the Amazon figure in the Smallworld game official webstore tells a lot:

“Strong and fearless... beautiful and exotic... the Amazon is deadly accurate with her favorite weapon, the bow and arrow. Definitely not a foe to encounter in the dark! Winner of the 2009 popularity context as the most beloved Small World character, this Amazon will be a natural fit at the top of your game shelf!
The Amazon figure is 21 cm tall.
Note that the Amazon figure is mildly NSFW. If you, or your family, are offended by partial nudity, you should not view or purchase the Amazon.”

And why is that every Amazon/female warrior uses bows nowadays? Archery is not easier than sword fighting for instance. It does require a great amount of strength and skills. Not to say that women couldn't be strong and skilled warriors, just trying to defend archery, since it seems to be so misunderstood these days.

And now we finally get to the archery mistakes:

A. Game picture:

1. This bow doesn't get thinner at all towards the ends of it. How is it supposed to bend? Completely ridiculous bow which doesn't work. Great.
2. This is like reverse sideways shooting. Maybe the maker of this picture had a hard time (pun intended) fitting the bow into the small square tile which shows in the game. Anyway, the bow is way too tilted. The fistmele is also too big.
3. What is this position of arrow?!? It's not even on the bow grabbing fist! It looks nothing else than dropping. It should be on the other side of the bow, so this wouldn't happen.
4. Maybe the arrow is dropping because it has a way too large arrowtip. That wouldn't fly very far. Stop drawing spear heads on arrows, please. An arrowtip should not be much bigger than the last bone of your thumb.
5. The arrow doesn't have fletching at all. At least none can be seen here. If there is something, it's too small and too close to the nock of the arrow.
6. Another mistake inside the same circle, what is this style of drawing the string with two fingers, and even keeping the pinky straight? We're not in Versailles you know? Grab it with three fingers in Mediterranean style. That grip is more powerful, and power you will need to bend that inlexible bow.
7. The arrow should be drawn about here. It's not anywhere near the correct place in this picture. The makers of these kinds of pictures always want to show the face of the woman so badly taht they just can't draw the arrow near the mouth of the archer where it should be. This Amazon has a very very poor aim.
8. Where are all the other arrows? Don't tell me she only has one.

B. Figure:

1.  The figure is somewhat better in the manner of archery form than the original drawing, but this has got a series of new mistakes. The arrow is again on the wrong side of the bow.
2. The arrowtip is still too large and heavy.
3. No quiver to be found here either.
4. This white arrow shows the correct nocking point for the arrow on the bowstring. Now it's nocked too high. At the last picture is was nocked too low.
5. The last picture shows quite clearly how the bowstring touches the forehead and left breast of the Amazon, and bends. It's not good. The original myth of Amazons is that they supposedly burnt the mammary glands of the left breast of their prepubescent daughters before their breast started to grow, so that the left breast wouldn't infere with a bowstring. They even got their national name from this, "a" = without, "mazon" = breast (in Greek). This is of course not true. Not only because Amazons as a nation didn't exist (there were some women warriors in ancient times, mainly in steppe peoples, like Scythians), but because no women archer would have to do that. The breasts have to be exceptionally large in order to disturb archery, and for them to be that large a woman has to be very fat, which women were not back at the ancient times. This Amazon figure although draws too much, which results in the bowstring to touch her forehead and breast. They have enlargened her bust from the original picture though.
6. She doesn't even hold the bowstring! The bowstring is not even at the nock of the arrow! This is impossible. The string is only back of the fletching, which is made of feathers, which would of course not hold the string back there.
7. Again the two finger grip, but what is she even gripping, since the string isn't in her hand?
8. The fletching is big enough, but it's too far back and has only two plumes instead of three. An arrow will fly even without fletching at all, but the purpose of those feathers is to give the arrow a spin (life rifling gives to a bullet) so that the arrow will fly more accurately. Three feathers are needed for that.
9. What is this bulge in the arrow? They may have thought to give the arrow some more charcter, but this ball really just hinder the arrows flight by hitting the bow's arc while it flies besides it.

Good:
Hmm... nothing except at the figure, the position of arms and bow is correct, and she has got a bracer in left arm only.
The game Smallworld is great though, buy it, play it, enjoy it! I command you.

Turok, worst of archers

Turok, son of stone is a native American comic/animation/videogame character who uses his bow to battle dinosaurs. Sounds awesome right? This panel from a comic (or a frame from animation?) tells another story. Turok must be both mentally and physically handicapped, since he cannot even hold a bow right. Everything is so wrong in this picture I don't know where to start!

But let's begin, with the mistakes:

1. He's depicted left handed here, when he's really not. A common mistake.
2. The lines from both hands and from the arrow should be parallel. Now they are not anywhere near where they should be. This form wastes the drawing energy of the arm and makes the shot less powerful. It's also more tiring for the archer.
3. The bowstring should, shall and will never ever go OVER the bow arm!!! How is this so hard to get right?!? Stop drawing it like this, it's completely impossible to shoot like that! And don't you see how ridiculously stupid it looks.
4. The former mistake would not happen ever if people would also stop drawing people shooting sideways. It's not cool! It's stupid, it makes the shot less powerful since the archer cannot draw the bow with full force, because the bowstring contacts with the archers body. Nobody shot like that ever.
5. The arrow should be placed as near the middle of the bowstring as possible. It's not anywhere near the middle in this picture. The white arrow shows the correct place.
6. How much this arrow head would weight? It would not fly anywhere with that stone on it's head. Better use that as a mace or something. Arrowheads were small, like the size of the tip of your finger, not your whole fist.
7. That bow does not bend! Bows do bend! They are made of wood! Even when they are made of metal (very very rarely) they bend. If they don't bend and only the bowstring stretches, that's not a bow, it's a slingshot. And not nearly as powerful than a bow. For Manitou's sake, how is this so hard to understand?!?
8. This hand is not holding the arrow or the bowstring. Given the line of the string, the hand is in completely wrong position. It just wouldn't work.
9. The arrow should be positioned near the hand holding the bow, not far away. That makes aiming more difficult in this picture.
10. Arrows weren't held in a back quiver since they are hard and slow to get from there. Quivers were worn hanging from a waist belt.
11. Turok here not only has a back quiver, but it's on the wrong shoulder if he's shooting left handed, which he is now. How he's supposed to get the arrows from behind his head?

Good? Hahahahaha, not!
If the word "comic" is meant to mean laughably bad, then the maker of this picture has succeeded, otherwise he should change his career. I heard that the streets could use some more people to wipe them clean.

Tortured female anorectic leftie redhead Jew archer

Now back to the horrible stuff! Can't be without awfulness for a very long time, can't you?
This is a perfect example of all kinds of clichés and mistakes put into one picture. The boy who has drawn this, has had no reference of bows, arrows, archers or women at hand, only a Wacom pen in his right hand and his little willie in left. That is why the result is what it is. Can't you people just stop this nonsense and start to use real reference? I'm begging you! No I'm not, I'm just mocking you, since you deserve it!


Mistakes (amount of them must be a record thus far!):

1. The archer woman shoots left handed. In a picture with this much mistakes it's unintentional. So it's a mistake.
2. The bow (which has some stupid and unnecessary studded metal rings around it) does not bend! You people should know by now that it is the bow which bends, while the string doesn't stretch. But of course this bow doesn't bend, because it's limbs are made of metal! And thick one at that. Yes, there were some metal bows in existence, but they were very thin in order to bend. This is not.
3. The string doesn't go anywhere near the end of the bow. Here's a free suggestion to the maker of this picture: next time draw the whole bow, even if it's not going to fill in your final picture frame. Thus you can make sure that the string would actually attach to the bow arc, and not to the  toes of the archer. This is not even hard since when drawing with computer you can easily draw over the picture area.
4. Four finger Mediterranean grip is wrong. It should use only three fingers. Four finger grip is an amateur mistake.
5. The drawn string and arrow are not anywhere near the place there should be. A quick tip: it should be where the red ring points, the mouth area of the archer. Thus she would be able to even aim. And yes, it goes in the way of those sexually opened buffy lips.
6. How do you explain that the arrow holds here? It flows on thin air! It should be on the other side of the bow, of course. This may be the most common archery mistake of all time.
7. Why is she holding her thumb upwards? Is she liking this picture? Since I sure as Hades don't!
8. Even more ridiculous of the fact that the arrow floats in the air makes this mistake, the overly large arrow tip, which would weight a ton and not fly properly anywhere.
9. The arrow also lacks proper fletching (those three feathers at the back end of the arrow you know?)
10. What is this? It reminds the leather strip some of the Jews roll around their forearm when asking their god favours. But as an archery bracer, no, it doesn't work.
11. The form of the archer is so bad it would be very difficult to shoot in this position. This over-sexualised shape is straight from the catalogue of "How to draw fantasy females which boys can drool at" (I'm going to think it really exists, since this is so common). Maybe she is forced permanently in this curved back position, since she has the metallic unbendable and immovable torture device hammered on her? Poor thing. But fortunately she won't suffer for long, since she's dying of anorexia (and anemia, based on her colourless complexion).
12. No quiver anywhere to be seen. An archer should be able to carry arrows somewhere, have you heard about that? And the proper place for a quiver is the waist belt, not the back of the archer.

Good:

This section is closed for the time being, since I have lost my faith in humanity because of all these mistakes. Shame on you!

Ashe the Frost Archer (from League of Legends)

OH, BY THE GODS OF EVERY RELIGION IN EVERY PLANET THAT HAS LIFE ON IT!!!
This is horrible beyond any words. And I have a broad vocabulary. I will still try...

This picture... this picture might very well be the worst piece of imagery my eyes have ever have the unpleasantness to witness. Not only it's the worst archery picture of all time by far, I also cannot get in my mind any worse memory relating to a visual stimulant.

The maker of this picture, who is not entitled to be called an artist, not even a concept artist, has absolutely zero knowledge relating to anything he's trying to portray; correct anatomy, originality, artisticality, archery, realism, interestingness and sense of style all shine of their absence while overused clichés, childish sexism and all kinds of physical errors are well represented. Actually the knowledge of how to draw different 'things' of the maker of this picture must be below zero, so bad this is.


Mistakes, oh so bad and oh so numerous:

1. The bow is being held in horizontal way, which is a very bad mistake. But it's nothing to compared to the second one!
2. The string goes OVER the bow arm!!! What? Excuse me, but what again?!? Even a basic understanding of bows and archery would tell anyone that the bow string does not go over the bow arm. It would go under if the bow would be held in this stupid position, and it would be on the inside of the arm if the bow would being held properly in vertical position. Shame on you, this is the worst mistake you can make! But oh no, it's not the last! There are plenty others.
3. This is not any real grip of the string. Of course the maker of this picture (let's call that boy "motp") had no idea of the real grip, and it would be difficult to do in this angle anyway. Our oversexualized fantasy female here is pulling the string with two fingers, instead of three, and more importantly, her hand is the wrong way up. This is a very weak grip.
4. Motp also hasn't looked any reference because he doesn't know which holds the arrows on the string. Of course the archer's string hand! The arrows here doesn't even go anywhere near the hand, they just kind of are on the string somewhere. The aim would be uncontrollable and they arrows wouldn't even probably keep on the string while drawing.
5. Hasn't motp ever even seen a real arrow? I think not, since even a child can draw better arrows. Everybody knows that an arow has a tip (the sharp often triangular shaped thing on it's front end), a shaft (a rod of wood) and fletching (the three feathers at the back end), but these arrows lack the last one altogether. Yes, the arrows can fly without the fletching, but first of all, nobody ever would've made them like this, unless they are uneducated punks, and secondly without the fletching the arrows flight is not very controllable. It will fly more straight with the fletching.
6. The arrow tips weight a kilo! They are way too thick. Not only they would drastically reduce the flight distance of the arrows to some lousy five meters, they would also turn the arrows tip down while flying, so if they somehow magically would hit any target, they would hit it with the right side up front. Also this thick arrowheads make them harder to penetrate any form of defensive equipment. Even spearheads, which can be much longer, are never this thick. It would just be completely stupid. And waste of material. These arrow tips are also too large in every other direction, despite of the proposed perspective of the picture.
7. But it doesn't matter, since Ashe is using three arrows at once. And when she's not even holding the nocks (the little things on the back end of the arrows which have slots where the bow string goes, and which nobody knows of unfortunately) in her hand, she has none control over where the arrows will fly. Absolutely zero. She wouldn't hit a barn door from three feet distance. The arrows are also positioned pointing all in different directions, and as everyone should know, aiming at more than one direction (Yes, aim at them!) at the time is impossible, so all these arrows would miss their targets by a wide margin. Good job, motp! Not really, this was sarcasm.
8. Since this girl is called "the frost archer" her bow is probably supposed to be made of ice. Well... no, and... no again. This is fantasy of course, and maybe it's some magical ice, but still it's beyond stupid. Can't the arrows just have some frost magic on them, does the arrows and the bow have to be made of real ice? It doesn't make any sense. You know, there are fantasy, and then there are this thing, which would be called unreality, when everything is so unreal that it's only stupid. Look for Lord of the Rings, that's high fantasy for you, which is realistic at the same time! That's the stuff most people like, not counting some silly boys just hitting puberty of course.
9. Where is the quiver (the holder for the rest of the arrows in case you didn't know that either). And, as you also didn't know, it should be here, at the waist level, hanging from a belt. Back quivers are just a pop culture myth. In other pictures of this character I have seen that – of course – she has a back quiver. What else to expect from a game this stupid anyway.
10. This stance is a very bad archery form. I can't imagine any more silly position of one's limbs and body than this. It would be stupid and impossible to do without assistance even while staying still. But now she's also trying to shoot arrows while being in this uncomfortablest of positions. Of course we all – who are not guided by hormones alone – know that the only reason this character is in this position, is that the motp is a young horny male who wants to draw "beautiful" (= unrealistic, sexist, clichéd and childish manga characters)  females who he can drool at. That's why she hasn't got any real clothes on her. That's why she's positioned in the infamous boobs-and-butt pose (Oh, don't know what that is? Try Escher Girls for once!).

"Good", hahahahaha, are you kidding me?

Absolutely positively negative amount of goodness can be found in this drawing. It's so profoundly an epic fail that when I tried to make a corrected version of it, I couldn't. I just ended up censoring the whole picture, since it gives a totally mistaken and erroneous view of archery, bows and arrows. Correcting it would mean starting all over again from scratch, and probably getting a thorough brainwash before it, since this monstrosity has left some deep scars in all of it's viewers psyche. This drawing is harmful to the portrayal of archery, women, fantasy genre and to the society as whole, and the motp should be in jail because of it.

Stupid picture from stupid game.

Skyrim elf archer (fan drawing)

This is a fan drawing of a wood elf from Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which is one of my favourite videogames of all time. Archery in that game is not perfect, but this drawing is very far from it! This picture could be one of those ‘find all the mistakes’ -games, so numerous the errors are.


Mistakes:

1. This archer is left handed. It is not necessarily a mistake, since there are left handed people (but not in Skyrim), but generally it is, because the draughtsman most possibly haven’t intended her to be left handed, he just drew the archer in the mirrored position. This is a common mistake, which follows from not thinking properly before drawing.

2. This bow is not symmetrical. The upper limb of the bow which goes over the picture’s frame would not be anywhere near the likeness of the lower limb. It is drawn going to wrong direction. Why wouldn’t he copy the lower limb and paste it in there, since that’s so easy to do in Photoshop? The bow also has spikes on it’s back for no reason at all. It only makes the bow heavier and thus harder to carry and shoot with.

3. The string goes to wrong place. If the strings goes here, the upper limb of the bow must be very short. Or then it is not flexible at all. Bad things both options. I’ve here drawn where the string would lead, if it would fit in the picture (this is the option that the upper bow limb does bend, but it’s too short).

4. The bow string is not properly attached. There are really strong forces at the nocking points of the string, so they should be tightly attached to the nocks of the bow. Here instead the string is tied around some tiny branches which grow out of the bow’s ears, and they would just snap off in the first draw attempt of this bow.

5. The ‘one kilo tip’ of this arrow is way too heavy to be a missile. Instead, this could be a pretty good flanged mace (a knightly weapon used against plate armour) if attached to a sturdier shaft. Why is it that the arrow tips have to be drawn so freaking enormous?

6. The arrow goes from the wrong side of the bow. I know it’s easy to think it would go here, but it doesn’t. How is it supposed to keep there while drawing? Especially if the arrow tips weights a kilogram!

7. The bracer is the wrong side up. There should be an even surface at the inner side of the arm, so that the bow string which might hit it, won’t get damaged by all those metal buckles and stuff. But of course these are not archery bracers, these are just ‘cool fantasy bracers’, which have to be worn by everyone at all times.

8. If you look close, you can just see the fletching of this arrow, inside the archers fist! That’s not the place for it, it would be ruined! The fletching should be far further on the arrow’s shaft, so that there would be plenty of room for the gripping hand. This is just stupid.

9. There haven’t been reference used, which can be seen from all these things, also from the fact that the string gripping hand is drawn all wrong. She uses only two fingers instead of three, and the form of the hand is not right.

10. The string gripping hand should draw the string near the mouth of the archer, so close to the face, that the hand touches it. This is far below it, which makes aiming much more difficult.

11. The arrows which have killed the draugr (frosty undead corpse monster)  in the backgroung are too short and their fletchings are terribly destroyed (maybe because the archer grips the fletching of the arrows while drawing, since there isn’t enough room for a hand).

12. Where is her quiver? Did she only have those four arrows? That’s not a good strategy. Also, why hasn’t she picked up the arrows, which she just used to kill the draugr with? Arrows don’t grow in trees and a quiver can only hold some 24 of them, and if you’re alone, you would certainly pick up the arrows from dead corpses. There are some unnecessary leather straps with buckles drawn over her partially exposed breasts, but now quiver can be seen anywhere.


This drawing had so many mistakes, that I had to draw a version which corrects them (almost all). I really hope that the boy who drew this would see my post, so he could learn to draw archers properly.


"Good":

This is still not the worst out there. There can be pictures with much less  mistakes, but with much severe ones! Wait for them, you won’t be undisappointed!