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Books Art & Illustration

Picturing Archers

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Published on November 1, 2012

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.
Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Archers are cool, there’s just no two ways about it. There is something particularly elegant about the bow and arrow. It’s a romantic weapon that exudes competence and stealthy precision. So, next up in my “Picturing” series of obsessive image collections is an ode to all manner of marksmen, from pre-history to future times.

Above, The Hunt by Odd Nerdrum.

One of my favorite N.C. Wyeth paintings…in fact, many of his Black Arrow paintings are my favorites.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

High society bow and arrow from Jean-Marc Nattier.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s Telemachus.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Giuseppe Crespi with a really lovely Eros.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

One of a number of paintings by Charles Vess for an illustrated edition of A Storm of Swords.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

This post could be solid N.C. Wyeth. Here’s the title page for his illustrated Robin Hood. Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Donato Giancola’s cover for the fantasy novel The Last Paladin.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

The cover for At the Earth’s Core by my favorite of the pulp artists, J. Allen St. John. St. John did many great paintings for Burroughs’ stories through the early 20th century.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Jeff Jones’ cover for Sons of the Bear God.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Lucas Graciano, a young painter carrying on the traditions of the Golden Age illustrators.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

I’m not sure who’s saying “Bring it!” louder in this one from Kekai Kotaki—the centaur, the demon, or the brush strokes.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Virginia Lee Burton did a nice series of stylized black and whites for one of the many editions of Robin Hood.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Just about anyone that I told I was building a collection of archery paintings jumped to tell me about this William Russell Flint….and with good reason.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

John Liston Byam Shaw’s leaping Artemis.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Because you really can’t have too much Wyeth, two more from Robin Hood….

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Modern archers from German expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

A rare case where I’ll show a detail of a painting….but I came across this selection of Kekai Kotaki’s larger painting and loved it just as much as the full image. Be sure to check out the rest here.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

The great French surrealist Moebius.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Victo Ngai’s amazing linework and design for the finiancial magazine Plansponsor. For those outside of the illustration community—Plansponsor, under the direction of AD Soojin Buzelli,  is the leading edge of illustration.

Victo Ngai

Charlotte Harding—like Wyeth, she was a student of Howard Pyle’s. Like Wyeth and Pyle, she tackled her own Robin Hood.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

A fairly strange painting by Harry Brooker of a bunch of young boys not being very nice to someone’s little sister.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

The current reigning marksman, The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen as portrayed by Adam Schumpert.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Kaare Andrews’ Hawkeye.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Brom, very deftly depicting the still moment after the arrow flies…with exactly four to go.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Edward Burne-Jones, Cupid’s Hunting Fields:

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Frank Stockton’s take on The Hunger Games.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

James Jean’s triptych of archers, each a wine label.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Jeff Jones was just as amazing with pen and ink as she ever was with oils.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Utagawa Toyokuni, one of the great printmakers of the late 18th century.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

James Jean did a lot of cool Green Arrow covers, and this is one of them (looking a lot like the digital cousin of the wood print above!)

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Chris Rahn and a woodland elf. I love the simplicity of the bow in this—nothing over the top, just elegant utility.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

George de Forest Brush:

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

John R. Neill—the “Imperial Illustrator of Oz”—with an ink rendering of Hiawatha.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

An Artemis by Leo and Diane Dillon for C. M. Bowra’s Classical Greece.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Tiepolo has a surprising number of wonderful centaur drawings.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Contemporary Russian academic artist Sergey Chubirko.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Legolas from Michael Kaluta’s fantastic Lord of the Rings calendar.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Festival of the Archers by the enigmatically named Master of Frankfurt.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Carter Goodrich, a great illustrator turned great concept artist. Whatever else you can say about Brave, it looked amazing and Carter was one reason why.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

The wonderful Russian illustrator Gennady Spirin.

Diana, via the School of Fontainebleau.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Yaroslav Gerzhedovich:

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Kekai Kotaki’s cover for Peter Orullian’s The Unremembered.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

J. C. Leyendecker, wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Albert Vargas’ pin-up version of one of Robin Hood’s Merry Men.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Edo printmaker Utagawa Sadatora.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

It may not be the pinnacle Disney of animation but I don’t care—I loved fox Robin when I was a kid.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber, another Slavic folktale from Ivan Bilibin.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Tournament folk!

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Edmund Dulac:

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Greg Manchess, from his first children’s picture book, To Capture the Wind.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Hannah Christenson:

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

John Howe, one of the premiere Tolkien illustrators and concept artist on the Peter Jackson movies, giving us Legolas and Gimli.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Franz Stuck shows us a cupid who’s clearly up to something.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Fanny Y. Cory:

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Raymond Swanland…everything badass.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

You could call Tony DiTerlizzi a current artist in the long line of great fairy painters…except he’s so damn good at a million other things, as well.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

A woodland elf for Magic: The Gathering by Steven Belledin.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Artist unknown, from the valley of Wadi Tashwinat.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Another great concept sketch of Brave’s Merida by Carter Goodrich.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Richard Anderson with some concept work for Guild Wars. (Be sure to check out his environment images, as well.)

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Diana and Cupid by Pompeo Batoni. (The dog is very funny in this.)

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Persian archer on a Greek vase (or some such vessel.)

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Leo and Diane Dillion for the cover of The Golden God: Apollo, by Doris Gates.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Laura Laine, an Artemis with art deco flare.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Green Arrow: Year One, art by Jock.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

 Itailian comic book artist Sergio Toppi, an artists’ artist.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Another from Virginia Lee Burton’s Robin Hood.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Howard Pyle depicting Robin Hood’s passing. N.C. Wyeth used this as a basis for one of his own Robin Hood paintings.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Russian illustrator Ivan Bilibin.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Triple threat William Blake and the rebel angels in Paradise Lost.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Of course we needed a St. Sebastian—this is one by Vincenzo Foppa.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Joshua Reynolds, society boys out for a hunt.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.

Giuseppe Crespi; the centaur Chiron instructs a young Achilles.

Picturing Archers: A collection of illustrated archers depicted by great artists.


Irene Gallo is the Art Director for Tor Books.

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Irene Gallo

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