Anime Warrior Girl Holding A Sword

A small warrior stands square to the front with a long straight sword held across her body, the hilt up near her left shoulder and the point running down past her knee. Her hair is pulled into a high ponytail that arcs up and falls behind her, drawn as three or four wide locks rather than dozens of strands, so it takes a marker without turning muddy.

She wears a wrapped robe crossed at the chest, cinched by a sash with a round knot at the hip. Below it the legs are bound in spiral wrappings from the knee down, each turn of the wrapping a separate band, and the feet end in laced boots. Those wrappings and the sword grip are the two places on the sheet where the shapes get small.

The blade itself is one long empty channel with a groove line running its length. Leaving it white and shading only inside the groove will make it look like steel with almost no effort. Everything else is open: the sleeves, the skirt of the robe and the wide chest panel are all big blank areas. There is no background at all, so the figure carries the page and any strong shade on the sash will become the focal point.