Heya everyone! Seeing a character in an advertisement of a game drawn in anime style made me wanna go anime style again! As I was thinking of who to draw, I came across a picture of my Figma when I first got it and was trying out poses! I've planned to make a fan art of Asuna from Sword Art Online for a long time that I've forgotten about it >_< Well, now I finally did it~

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Yuuki Asuna

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A short background:

The anime Sword Art Online was the most popular anime on different sites once upon a time. Mainstream, as many would call it. But to those who haven't watched it yet, I suggest you do watch it n_n I still rewatch SAO from time to time when I'm not in the mood to watch anything else.

The story is about the newly developed game, Sword Art Online (surprise surprise), and device that lets you experience a game fully (live the game) by accessing your brain and make you feel stuff as if you are IN the game. (A bit like VR, but more advanced haha) It was all fun and games until they realize that there is no log out button; death in the game meant death in real life.

One of the protagonist of the story is Yuuki Asuna. One of the greatest swordsman in the game who was also known for her great beauty. She was one of the front-liners of the most powerful guild, Knights of the Blood.

Well, that's all I can say without spoiling it for those who haven't watched it yet. Let's proceed to the step by step!

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Sketch and outline

This was quite tricky as I'm used to drawing still objects like portraits and stuff. There wasn't much loose cloth so it wasn't a problem drawing the clothes. However, there was a lot of hair. A lot! I think half of the time it took on drawing this was spent on the hair alone. But hey, it turned out great, I don't have a problem with that :>

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The lines! I found it really hard to create the outline as clean as this one. I made the canvass reaaally big then used a small brush.

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Face

After trying out a bit realistic drawing, going back to drawing anime faces felt a little weird. I was planning to draw a nose for her but I couldn't get it right.

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Hair

I colored the hair then with another layer set to 'Linear Dodge' I made it less dull. Then, I added some shine with a white brush.

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Body

Now that I'm done with the head, I proceed with the body. I started with the rest of the skin since it was easier.

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I started coloring the parts that take up most of the clothes, the white parts. Then topped it off with some simple shadings.

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Off to the small details of the clothes.

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Finished coloring the clothes!

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Up next is the sword. After coloring the sword, I added a soft glow.

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Donesies!

The entire time I was drawing this one, I had the 'Crossing Field' on repeat in my head. I was planning to make the background filled with the red warning hexagons but it kinda hurt my eyes so I used this one instead. This was done easily with the outer glow effect on text and a bunch or ctrl c's and ctrl v's :D

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That's about it!

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I make avatars if you're interested! See post for more details n_n

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Thank You!

I hope you guys enjoyed this one as well!
Feel free to comment any tips or suggestions. It will be greatly appreciated! If you liked the content, please leave an upvote. For more, please follow @kothy.

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All images were drawn and edited by @kothy

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