WLOP Aeolian Shooting

Storytelling Character illustration by China based super talented artist and illustration Wang Ling.

She is wonderfully drawn, but author seriously needs to take some archery lessons…

It’s like a picture I saw of some 1970’s advertisement for some European chocolate: showed a good-looking guy in his 40s, playing bassoon (dark, rich tone of the bassoon, etc.), only he was sitting (squatting?) on a low box, with the butt of the bassoon on the floor, knees spayed to either side, reed on the bocal, and the guy was blowing on the reed, but the body of the bassoon was turned around to show all the thumb keys. The photographer/advertiser/manager obviously didn’t know anything about bassoon; they were just trying to sell chocolate to people who didn’t know anything about bassoon, but would be impressed by seeing one with all those keys…

WLOP Aeolian looks like she’s using a putter when she should be using a No. 1 wood driver.  A hunting bow, or a war bow, need to have very strong “draws” (pounds of force to pull back the string). By pulling toward the face, she’s only utilizing about half the bow’s potential, and an arrow fired this way would pierce the skin, but that would be about it. With hardly any kinetic energy, the arrow wouldn’t do any damage, and a huntress that can’t catch food goes hungry.

Also, with a grip like that on the string, it would introduce such a large deflection in the shot that it would miss every time. Only the last knuckle on the fingers would be holding the string, which would prevent left deflection of the back of the arrow upon release. Holding it all the way to the palm knuckles, the string would have to slide over two more sets of knuckles, plus the extra time it would take to release the string, plus the left deflection as the string slides over the partially opened hand upon release. And holding the thumb upward would take it out of play, meaning the fingers would have to hold the string the whole time during aiming (instead of allowing the thumb to help hold the fingertips, and take some of the strain off the fingers up until the moment of release).

A more realistic pose would be with the arm, collarbone, and right elbow in roughly a straight line: the large muscles of the back (latissimus dorsi) give you power. You could do this with the bow, arrow-tip, and left hand on the right side of the picture, and the web of the first-finger/thumb planted against the right cheekbone (this gives stability to the back of the arrow, and consistency of release). Otherwise, it’s like firing a rifle without a back site: you can still shoot it, but your accuracy would not be good.

Unlike swordplay, where the royal member can get seriously hurt during training, archery demands perfection and self-discipline, making it perfect for royal training.

The texture of the WLOP Aeolian Shooting picture is mesmerizing, and I LOVE the green irises.