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.

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.

Androgynous manga elf again doesn't know how to shoot

This obviously Asian drawn manga-elf has not yet perfected the art of archery. Or rather, the draugtsman of this picture hasn't seen enough reference photos.

Mistakes:

1. The bow doesn't bend enough. Now the string stretches here, which doesn't happen in reality.

2. The string terminates too far from the end of the bow. The nocks for the bowstring should be quite near the end of the limbs, otherwise the bow just loses power.

3. Quiver on back. Nah, didn't happen.

Should I be worried about men who draw these sexualised little girls?

This bow is just ridiculous. I don't want to talk about anything else here. This bow is waaaay too thick to be usable by anyone, let alone by a girl who's arms are three times thinner than the bow itself. If there would be a machine strong enough to pull this bow two string would just snap in before the bow could really bend. If the string would be magical and not break the handle of the bow which is five times thinner than the arc, would break and the whole bow would snap in two parts. The handle is usually the thickest part of the bow, not the thinnest. This bow is so wrong there is just now would it could be usable in any magical fantasy world ever created.

She has a hip quiver too. And hips of an adult woman connected to the torso of a prepubescent girl who's boobies are almost slipping out of the underboob-cut vest. What's wrong with Asians?

Three arrows shooting manga woman

It almost feels bad to rip these drawings to pieces. I know that young people have drawn these, and I have drawn my entire life myself, and I know how bad it would feel to read a critique like that. But I hope the person who has drawn this is a grown up adult now (since I think this is a pretty old picture), and can handle the critique. Since the critique I present in this blog is never aimed towards a person behind a drawing, and usually not even at the artistic quality (or the lack thereof) of the drawing, but usually only towards how archery is depicted in that particular drawing. Since that is the point of this blog. To correct all the archery related mistakes in popular culture. And even when the work to be done is monumental in nature, it won't stop me trying to fix things.

So, mistakes in this drawing are:
1. What is this bow made of? Surely not of wood, since this contruction with spikes and sholes wouldn't last a second in real life. It also looks very ugly.
2. The bow tapers to a series of spikes in the end, and wouldn't be durable enough for use. The string is also not attached to anything.
3. Three arrows shot at once. This is not how it could be done. All those arrows are pointing in different directions, and even though the middle arrow might be possible to be shot, the other arrows interfere with the shooting significantly. It's also a waste of arrows. The arrowtips are also horrible. The thumb of the bow hand is on the wrong side of the middle arrow.
4. All the arrows nock to the exact same point on the bowstring, which is impossible. They also lack fetching altogether. And all the arrows are held between the middle and ring finger of the archer, that is one finger too low.
5. Four fingered grip, a beginners mistake. The bowstring is deep inside the fist, which is impossible in real life.
6. One of the most significant mistakes in this picture is that the string is way too short for this bow. This bow cannot shoot arrows at all. The string is pulled back maybe five centimeters, which isn't nearly enough to fly those arrows anywhere. The bow is drawn way too curved, that's why there hasn't been room for the string to pull back more.
7. Quiver on the back. This simply wasn't done.
8. The quiver on the back that simply wasn't done is also hugely too long. It is completely impossible to take arrows from a back quiver which is that long and sits that high on the back. Your arm just can't reach to take the arrows out of it.
9. Now the arrows on the quiver (which are also longer than the arrows being shot) do have fletching on them, but the fletchings are fuzzy and there isn't any space for fingers to grip the arrow at the nock. The nocks can't even be seen under all the fuzz.
10. The character isn't even looking anywhere near the direction she's supposedly shooting.

Bonus:
She's left handed, most probably due to a poor understanding of archery, and not on purpose.

Red manga archer woman

This science-fiction-ish, more fiction, not science at all, manga archer woman has a very stupid bow.


Mistakes:

1. What are these things growing out of her bow? They are completely ridiculous and ugly, and seriously decrease the capability of the bow. The maker of this picture thought that they would look cool, but they don't. Very stupid indeed.
2. These two spikes protruding horribly out of the bow interfere with the line of the bowstring. The string will damage every time it hits these spikes while released. That is, every time. Until it breaks. Very very stupid design.
3. The string goes over the arm. Now the woman is not shooting in this picture, but why the string would still go there. Does this imply that she would also shoot the string on the wrong side of her bow arm? I hope not, since then this drawing sucks in a whole new lower level.
4. She's holding three arrows at once. Not impossible at all, many speed shooters have done that. Are she going to shoot more than one arrow at once? I hope not! But the arrows lack their fletching completely. Not good for accuracy.
5. And she doesn't have a quiver at all. Is that why she's holding the three arrows in her hand? Probably so. Not a wise idea to go to battle or hunting without a quiver, only carrying arrows in your hand. Thus you can only bring a handful, which is not enough.

Androgynous manga elf archer drawing

This manga elf looks like a girl, but it's probably supposed to be a man, because it lacks the characteristic ten gallon boobs the Japanese perverts (and Western youngsters imitating them) usually draw on women.

Mistakes:

1. The grip could not be more wrong. The maker has no idea whatsoever regarding to archery forms. The hand grabs the arrow like a pen, and completely on the fletching. So bad it hurts.
2. This bow has two bowstrings! Two (2)!! What? Why?!?
3. The bow doesn't bend. Only the string(s!) stretch here. A very common mistake
4. The arrow is on the wrong side of the bow, is too low, is too short, has too thick tip...

Also the stance is ridiculous and no quiver to be seen, but one could argue that it's hidden somewhere behind the floating curtains this character has draped over him/herself.

Sexist manga female archer drawing

Some picture I found on the Internet in a group of 30 "amazing archer illustrations" or some other bullcrap it was titled. Every single one of them were ridiculously full of inaccuracies, mistakes, errors and stupidity beyond any measure. I got angry. I still am. I'm going to post a few of them in a row next, starting with this manga one with ridiculously skimpy "clothing" or "armour", dislocated hip, over exaggerated legs and pair of plastic boobs the size of her tiny expressionless doll head.


Mistakes, regarding to archery:

1. The fistmele (or brace height) of this bow is two times bigger than it should. It should not go to the elbow, only half way there.
2. The arrow is once again on the wrong side of the bow. It's also not on the bow gripping fist as it should, but at the side of it.
3. This is not a proper grip of an arrow. The fletching is located too back the arrow so that the gripping hand touches it. Wrong all the way.
4. The string is not attached to the bow in any method. It just appears under some blue thing, which might be ice, or magic crystal or some other stupid thing.
5. What is this bow made of anyway? It the brown thing is wood, then this is very very badly made bow which could break in any moment. And whatever the blue material is, it's not doing any good for the bow. Stick to real materials please.
6. Where are the rest of her arrows? No quiver anywhere to be seen.

Good:
Absolutely nothing. I should really stop this "good"-category altogether, since in these pictures, there aren't any of it.