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??? years old (don't worry she's legal) | she / her
Yuuki is one of my first original characters, and the first that really stuck around for as long as I'm still alive. Honestly she's the best visual proof I have of my improvements overall as an artist.
Funny thing, Yuuki initially started out as a male, as well as my first fursona, back in 2019. In retrospect though, I don't think I could pull off her personality as a male anyways. His main inspiration, of all things, was Fortnite's Drift character. I was also a weeaboo(?) and looked at Japanese folklore, if only at face value.
Later that year I was beginning to pick up 3D as a medium. And this is her second iteration. I can't find the original, but in a nutshell it was a very crude sculpt. But this model I recall referencing Zootopia, and if you ask me now, I don't think I succeeded. And for some reason she looks child-like, she was never designed to be one, it was quite literally just me being retarded.
Here she finally got an upgrade in proportions, and back then I was dabbling in different pattern and color choices as well. I was also very much into anime, particularly Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, luckily it was just a phase. I was getting better at rigging too, and I'd consider this model quite the milestone, as this was only a few months after the model before. The outfits you see here, were made by request by then online mutuals at the time. My real life friends at the time got me into Jojo initially, so I'd say that was what warranted the Jotaro outfit.
Now we skip to 2021, and with it a MAJOR improvement across the board. I was toying more and more with Blender, and was getting better at anatomy as well. She was starting to become my sort of mascot around this time too, though she was no longer my online sona, thanks to Indigo. I don't know why she has like, sock feet? Maybe laziness? Yeah, I'm gonna go with that. The room in this render was borrowed from a model sharing site.
This was her last iteration for a while, made in 2022. I just wasn't feeling it with her anymore, and for a while I just was focused on Indigo, as well as external stuff like school and whatnot. Then in 2023 I had a major falling out with real life friends and that just killed my will to create for a bit. However, things got better because later into that year..
She got another iteration! I'd still sorta say this was a good look for her, she was based off pokemon though, and was sort of losing her (very small) eastern asian inspiration. I did have a model made based off this, but I somehow lost it? It's a shame because that model was actually really well made. This was also when I was starting to look into phong styled rendering. Once again though, she still wasn't cutting it for me for a while, this time from the rest of that year and then the next 1 and a half years.
Then out of nowhere, early Summer of 2025, I was working on this site at Starbucks and I brought my sketchbook with me to maybe jot down ideas. I had a weird idea for Yuuki so I ended up with a rough sketch, which I then brought home and digitized. A buddy of mine helped me look at woodblock prints as a source of inspiration, as well as helping with the new color choices. And man... I think this is her best iteration yet, like this blows all her past looks out of the fucking water. This is good.
For now that's all I have for her, but again, she has been sort of my visual marker for all of my milestones as an artist. And in addition, I couldn't do any of this without the help of my buddies, on and offline. You know who you are, and just know that I have a deep regard for you all.