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AdamMasterman — Archery for Comic Book Artists (and everyone else)
#archery #howtodraw #howtodrawtutorial
Published: 2016-06-05 18:25:40 +0000 UTC; Views: 4910; Favourites: 234; Downloads: 42
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Description
Since archery is very hip these days, I thought I'd jot down some "inside baseball" observations for illustrators of different stripes. Obviously this kind of tutorial can't cover everything, but I'll do my best to answer questions in the comments. Enjoy,Adam
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Comments: 23
this is incredibly informative and so sorely needed for pros and amateurs alike.
great job , Adam!
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Thanks, man; appreciate it. Gonna call you sometime soon and catch up; hope all is well.
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no , prob 
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Awesome tutorial! I myself am an archer and I cannot look at a nice piece of art without noticing all those errors, that artists do when drawing archers.
What you maybe could add is that there is a different technique drawing the string: the mongolian draw (and here your arrow rests on your thumb, so on the other side of the bow). This could be especially interesting for people who draw horse archers, because that would be the draw that most horse archers used in earlier times.
Anyway this is a really helpful tutorial!
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I, too, am an archer and it's always so painfully entertaining seeing the super-dramatic archer ruined by a laughable pose or wonky technique.
This is an excellent 'cliff-notes' tutorial for the Jon Snows who 'know nothing' of archery. Well done!
(Psst ... one minor detail - Archery-Man's drawn arrow lacks any fletching - so as not to obscure that heroic chin, no doubt.)
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Gah! Victim of my own know-it-all-ness. 
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I did notice that but I've gotten so used to refraining from pointing that out everywhere.
The 'pad of the thumb' makes me think of the tip of the finger. I might have mentioned that the bow was braced against the heel of the thumb and gently steadied between the thumb and fingers. You're firing a graceful implement of precision, after all, not strangling snakes. I thought that 45-degree knuckle-angle tip was a good reminder to keep the elbow rotated out of the line of fire.
You did cover a lot of important ground, though, so it's still a 'win'.
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I did archery in high school once, and not wanting to brag but I hit the target about once in all of my attempts
On a more serious note, this is a really helpful tutorial
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There are different ways of thinking about the shot, and they can all be helpful depending on where you are in your shooting. Pushing forward with the bow hand doesn't really make that hand move forward, but it can help you to "feel" the proper alignment. If your alignment is off, your hand will be pushing left or right to compensate for the force not being directed straight back through your skeleton. So yes, that is a common teaching aid that can be very helpful.
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Ohh I see! I didn't feel like that method helped, but that might just be because I was (and still am) a beginner with archery
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That is actually a very good point. My dad taught me a bit of archery when I was young, and it's been years since I shot a bow, but I do remember the form well. And seeing this, it really does show the science behind it.
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Heh, ol' Rob is not without his detractors. And I'm not a huge fan myself, really; my point was that I wasn't trying to hold anyone up to ridicule. I'm sure that fist fights I've drawn are equally wonky to a real boxer or martial artist...
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Ah ha ha! I was like 'hey, that looks like Todd Nauck'... and it was! XD
Anyway, this is an awesomesauce resource, and I will be referring back to it in the future. Thank you!!
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Was kinda cheating using a con sketch, but I wanted four examples that were literally impossible ways to shoot an arrow. In the first, Ollie is holding 90 lbs in a pinch between his thumb and finger; in the second, the nocks of the arrow are gripped by the fist. Todd's shows an arrow that will end up about 30 feet high and left of the target after his finger strips the feathers off, and the last one will only shoot about 10 feet (and the arrow is on the wrong side of the bow).
Glad you dig it, de nada.
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Huh! That's really interesting! I knew that they weren't posed like Olympians (and therefore likely not correct), but I had no idea how much it would affect things!
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AWESOME!!!
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OK then. Maybe someone you know on DevART knows a thing or someone made a sword tut like you did on Archery?
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Having a background with archery (Shot my first arrow at age of 7), I can appreciate this listing and I thank you for informing the public on these things which I have complained about for years. At the same extent, comics, cartoons and even TV and movies are all about "Bigger and better than real life". Head tall, muscles, hair, clothes, standing, running stances, even dialogue, everything is over exaggerated. And no matter how bad the archers hold of the bow, the shot always hits the mark. Of course a good artist should still know the basics of archery before incorporating them in any art form, so this is a great study form you made.
The only thing I would add to this, is the fact that different societies of the world, do have their own versions and rules to good archery; from how the bow is held, to aim. So technically there is no "proper way" to hold a bow. Just matters where the characters are from. Techniques and style vary from Native American, European, Ancient Greece, Mongolian and African tribes. So it might be worth the time for some people to study these various cultures. And if one is doing something like Elves, dwarves or other fictional cultures, well, they main have their own standards to the dynamics of archery.
That's all said, fantastic tutorial.
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Thanks, and excellent points. There is a lot of variation in archery; I tried to stick to the most central and universal points of form, but you are correct that grips can vary across different styles. One Olympic archer I watch braces his string hand thumb behind his neck, which is apparently traditional in parts of Eastern Europe. And Kyudo form has an insanely long draw. Still, the basic "T" seems to be common everywhere, and it's often missing in comic book art.
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Oh yes, the T form is still generally standard. Well, Actually I can not say that as there are a few societies of pygmies that insist that the archers need to stand or sit at a curve because that are always aiming upwards (no joke). Again the main problem is for artists Pro and non, they will study the form to get a general idea and then toss the rules out and create their own form because, again, everything in a superhero is always over exaggerated. And that's okay. I mean, its visually effective. I do not nit-pic comics and movies. But as we both agree, some study in archery should be done before incorporating it into any art. I have seen some magnificent serious sci fi and fantasy art ruined because of the lack of study. Visually appealing but "Dude, you're about to hurt yourself if you let that bowstring go."
As a side note, keep up the great work man.
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