Volume 13 of “The Sacred Blacksmith” features its heroine in quite a potent state of moe as she seems to be an ideal “housewaifu” – fitted in apron, smiling, and the only blade carried being one designed for cuisine.
With its white background and other lack of extensive surrounding detail, as an overall composition, it’s quite a simple artwork – though focusing solely on the character design of Cecily, the series’ lovely heroine, one can see that she emanates cuteness like the sun and the moon’s combined shine and glimmer. There’s already many cute characters of the second dimension – however, what sets Cecily apart from the rest in this image is her collective of pose, dress, and appearance.
The subject matter is powerful to the point that if it were a warrior, it would be of the kind that could yell out a meaningless phrase and fire beams of energy at will – rather than anything scantily clad, the artist choose an incredibly modest outlook instead, something unfortunately not seen too often. And this manages to cater to many a desire indeed as the bishoujo pulls off the look all so well.
She has her eyes angled directly at us – and with such a tender, pleased expression, it strikes the heart as one can truly feel the intimacy present. Noticing the slight blush beneath her eyes, the particles of romance aren’t so difficult to find floating around – or in other words, the artist illustrated her in a manner that it looks as if she were admiring a lover, a rather fearsome manner of sketch indeed.
Yet moving away from her visage, the focal point, a quick examination of her hands also proves unsurprisingly impressive as one can see the precise shadow application in order to devise depth to a degree that makes it seem as if she’s indeed physically grasping the items in hand – and also to represent all the adorable strength she’s managed to earn over the course of many a moe battle. And turning to look at her hand equipped with tomato, the ring on her finger is a fine touch as well.
Focusing on color, there’s no absolute solid black – there rarely ever is in any illustration of an anime nature. Yet instead, there’s a dark hue only short of black substituting in its place as per her charming headpiece, with a cute ribbon tie – and this color is also masterfully spread across the artwork to bring out the lavishing traits of our beautiful subject matter, Cecily. Her eyes are red, like her hair, and her eyelashes also feature the impostor tone of black once again – a pattern of reappearance to build a gentle feel.
And once more, the same deal is present with her skirt.
Overlooking the aforementioned, the pseudo-black is also seen in assorted other places – amongst a variety of other tones. The soft tans which make her apron, as well as that phony black, are natural hues intended to set the earnest feeling of a settled down life – and a working housewaifu. Yet taking into account the reds, complementary watermelon green, and the pink ribbons, these show that she still very much has a cute, colorful girly side despite being occupied with chores and tasks – and indeed, one shouldn’t have trouble assessing her seducing femininity.
A final mention, it was said that the shadows around the hands are excellent – yet do note that this is the case of the art piece in its entirety. Folds and wrinkles are recreated in a fascinatingly accurate manner across her ensemble – perfecting an already perfect housewife.
