#archery reference

- if you're shooting western style archery you're pulling with three fingers on the string. think hunger games symbol - your pinky and thumb should be together, folded down. the hand can be under the arrow on the string, or split one finger above two below. this means when you're starting you're really only seeing those three fingers because the hand is squished up next to the face.

- modern archery: the hand pulling the string should touch your archer's face! at their lip is a decent place, they can also anchor to below their jaw. it shouldn't be further back on your face than around your mouth though - none of this pulling back to your ear, unless you're looking at kyudo. some styles pull up to your cheekbone, but that's usually not pulling with three fingers anymore!

-traditional English longbows you do see people pulling further. consistency with that is way harder because you don't have a reference on your face to know that you're able to shoot. I'd only do this if your character is an archer, your fantasy version of an English longbow solider.

- your archer's chest should be turned along the same line as the bow, so it's flat. if they're turned so their chest faces their target life is gonna be so difficult. also back elbow straight back behind them, roughly in line with the arrow - no going up, or down.

- shoulders should essentially be flat. they are working, especially the front one, but they should stay the same height as normal - no shoulders up by your ears. this means under heavy clothes they should look the same height as normal

- the string should touch the face, or come close to. this depends on the style, but if you're drawing, just know it should come right in front of their vision

- if your character is shooting ye olde bow that is a flat stick without somewhere to hold the arrow, the arrow sits on the hand, on either side of the bow. this matters what style if you're doing it irl, if you're drawing both are legal, but on the inside of the bow in more western european, on the 'outside ' of the bow is more mongolian archery. for asiatic traditional archery this means if i hold the bow in my left hand and pull with my right, the arrow sits on the right side of the bow, along my thumb. you can put a glove on the hand here if your character if you want -fletchings can scrape your hand, especially if you're just starting.

-feathers or fletchings. there are three, often 2 same colour one different, though all three three same also works. u want the different one to point away from the bow, towards your archer, so it doesn't hit the bow. tbh just do them all the same colour, especially for medieval or fantasy.

below is some photos i found that i think might help explain above. il try and update this later, and like . idk im trying to put this together as a how to reference and draw archery if u don't archery thing, pls don't take it as i know everything. i just archery a lot

the photos show thumb release, resting an arrow on a hand prior to drawing back, three finger draw, hand relative to face when the string is pulled back, and overall posture for an archer at full draw