TIP: Keep a picture of the completed bow in front of you to
look at. It helps when you are doing something for the first time.

Set your Foreground color to a med red color. I used
#D8303C.

Set your Background color to a darker shade of the same color.
I used #91252D

Open a new image 500 x 500...transparent background.

Choose the Preset Shapes tool...Ellipse..Filled....
Antialias and Create as Vector both checked.

Draw an ellipse shape for the first bow loop..like this.

Select the Vector Object Selection tool...
Now click on the little box in the center right ..you should see some curved
arrows come up when you run your cursor over it. Swing it to the left to turn the loop
at an angel...like this

Now..right click anywhere inside the box and go to Node Edit.

Now you will have just the outline of your bow to work with.
Hold the Ctrl key down and click on the line ..just out to the left of the top node..to
add a new node.

Now click on the new node and drag it to the left and down some.
Like this.

Now click on the node below the new one you added and drag it out to
the left..to make the side curve of the bow loop.
Like this.

Now click on the node at the bottom and drag it down some.
If you need to adjust any of the nodes..just click on it and use the handles to
adjust it. If there are no handles there...right click on the node and go to Node Type...
Symmetric. This will add handles to the node for you.

When you have your shape done..right click and go to Quit Node Editing.

You should have a shape similar to this.

NEXT