19possums-blog

[19possums-blog]

Background Tutorial

requested by ion4ever. sorry it took me so long to do this for you but hopefully I was of some help? 

Notes:

I use CS6, and this was mostly done with default hard round brush at around 50% opacity or higher, 100% flow, and size pressure on. I made some random brushes for the greenery by modifying the default ones.

always use a large canvas. I go about 3000px x 3000px.

with enough practice, painting backgrounds like this will be a fairly quick affair. this one, for example, took about 30 minutes? it’s just a matter of time/experience. :)

So yeah, good luck doing backgrounds, and have fun!! :D

[19possums-blog]

YES to all this and also :

is no one in the manhwa going to address the elephant in the room which is that JY is kidnapped again to live in He Cheng place to train for unknown reasons ?? its making me mad lmao

i want JY to ask his mother what the hell is happening, to insist to have answers from Qiu/HC on why he have to train for ! ZZX to act like the concerned friend that he is shown to be (when OX remember) and ask JY what the hell is going on ?? And HT to ask his brother or JY what the hell is going on ?? like i dont know why is everyone acting like everything is okay when there was a major event the day before \0/ like if my friend was kidnapped and detained against his will to become a bodybuilder u can bet ur ass i would ask questions and not just “okay shut up ill massage you lol” !

I would also very much like MGS to be more involved in the main story line and with the other two boys, bc for the moment hes only connected to the story by HT sheer persistence lol. Which is in character for Mo, but if hes gaining more confidence like it seems to be in the last chapter, it would be nice for him to reclaim more agency by interacting with others on his own free will (and not bc HT forces him to) (and did i say how much i want to see MGS confronting HT on his behavior?). also bc im betting that JY/MGS interaction will be fucking hilarious, theyre too hype all the time. and also ZZX/MGS !  given their history i would love to see how they construct smth after this. aah, so much things i want to see and so little pages....

Some predictions, scenarios n’ stuff. I don’t know how to title this mess.

1. Guan Shan asks He Tian why he kissed him back then. How would Tian reply?

2. He Tian dragging Guan Shan out to buy a pair of black studs after school. End up buying some cheap ass studs because Guan Shan feels more comfortable that way.

That or Tian decides to purchase some simple-looking yet fancy studs.

Either way, Guan Shan still appreciate the gift and wears them whenever he can.

His mom (probably Jian Yi/Buzzcut as well) would probably notice and ask?

3. Guan Shan letting He Tian put the studs on his ears, that would make a nice parallel with the previous scene idk.

4. More She Li. Also She Li bugging Jian Yi again.

Some hints on his motive and questionable actions towards JY and MGS.

5. Boys preparing for the soon-to-come major exam. These boys need to study srsly.

He Tian helps Guan Shan with his studying; or at least one of them need to sit down and study.

6. Brother Qiu picking up Jian Yi after school. Zheng Xi’s gonna have so many questions to ask.

7. He Tian asks Guan Shan to cook beef stew for him.

(And He Cheng waiting for He Tian right in front of his penthouse.)

8. Guan Shan encounters He Cheng once again / He Cheng gets to know the one friend his little brother risks his life to protect.

What would He Cheng said to Guan Shan though, if that ever happens?

9. He Tian inquires He Cheng on Jian Yi’s matter. These bros are gonna pull more info out of nowhere / more dramatic He family stuff.

10. Buzzcut’s + Brother Qiu’s full name.

11. Flashback: Wtf did She Li help Guan Shan with? When did Guan Shan leave the gang?

How did She Li get his piercing?

12. Flashback on He Tian’s past: How and when did he leave his father and start living on his own? How did he feel back then? How did he become friend with Jian Yi?

When did he start smoking? Also is he gonna try to break the habit?

I wanna know more about his thoughts.

13. Zheng Xi’s gonna do something unexpectedly and profoundly romantic again.

14. Unexpected revelation of either Jian Yi or He Tian’s father.

15. Doggo’s revelation. He brothers’ relationship is gonna suffer for a while. Oh no.

16. Guan Shan’s new hair explanation (we’re probably not gonna get that, but still…)

And in which scenario would he smiles for once? Faint or wide smile?

17. The four boys interacting with each other, ‘cause they are all precious.

[19possums-blog]

ZZX reaction to JY return after his 3 years absence : wut

So im kind of thinking out loud, but i was wondering why JY and ZZX relationship changed so much before and after JY kidnapping. Im sure someone else in the fandom talked about this bc i doesnt make any sense, but anw !

My main hypothesis is that OX didnt know what this manhwa was going to be and where they were going with the story at first. So when 19 days wont be a big flashback anymore and OX will rejoin the ‘present’ timeline, they will have to do a big big retcon of the beginning of the manhwa. Which is okay, i mean i write too and i basically dont have any idea where im taking my story and characters lol.

Because at the beginning, when JY return to ZZX after his 3 years disappearance, ZZX and JY basically act like almost strangers, cold and distant (well, as cold and distant as JY can be lol). They seem like some sort of estranged childhood friends. And ZZX is like “oh its this airhead, who would think i would see him again”. And like it doesnt compute with the story we’re reading at the moment !!

Right now, JY confessed to ZZX, and ZZX accepted his declaration and is reflecting on his own feelings, while acknowledging that JY is very important to him too -even if he doesnt seem too sure on how to label their relationship. ZZX acts like a caring mother towards his best friend, by comforting him, by massaging him, etc. Most of all, he’s worried about this kidnapping thing which seems to be recurrent in JY’s life lol, and is legitimately distrustful of He Cheng and Brother Qiu.

So presently, we have ZZX who :

-is aware and accepting of JY’s romantic/sexual feelings towards him

- have deep feelings for JY, no matter what this feelings are, and act upon them

-is aware that theres something wrong with JY’s life that makes the latter be kidnapped regularly and is therefore worried about him and inquired about JY’s life’s event

And OX want me to believe that when JY will disappear and reappear out of thin air three years later, ZZX will be unhappy and distrustful ?  and would just ask JY “so what happened” and wont care about JY’s answer ? and they will basically be back to square one after all this development between them in the last chapter ???

So either OX is a genius and thought of something that would make sense of what i just said, that would explain how all this development is just,, cancelled, or OX didnt anticipate their story and will be kind of stuck up if they dont retcon the very beginning of the story.

Obviously, im inclined towards the second option. I think OX began their story wanting to write a goofy relationship between two childhood idiot best friends which would be a succession of funny moments between them, with borderline shonen-ai tone. Lets not forget that at first 19 days was a compilation of illustration without story. And then OX wanted to introduce dramatic moments ; but to create dramatic moments, we need a story behind them. And thats how Zhanyi relationship development came to be, and how the mafia storyline wasnt just a funny ‘hey this idiot is actually a big boss son lmao!!” but a major plot point that threatens the relationship of the two friends.

I have other ‘evidence’ that point towards this hypothesis : theres quite a number of time when ZZX and JY relationship doesnt make sense. example 1 :  Remember how at the very beginning of the flashback, how JY goes to ZZX house and it seems like its the first time he went there ? And JY isnt aware that ZZX have a sister which he is quite fond of ?? If they were best friends since they had 5 years old, im pretty sure they should be aware of the other’s family. They should also have gone to each other house many times. But here OX shows that they basically dont know anything about each other while still being best childhood friends. I think OX wanted to depict the creation and blossoming of a strong friendship, but it cant happen in the span of a few weeks... so they added that they were childhood friends to add more depth but thus it doesnt  quite feel right.

example 2 : More recently, JY have been ‘kidnapped’ by brother Qiu to go to He Cheng house in the last chapters. Just before, ZZX was shown to be distrustful of Qiu when Qiu brought JY to school with his scooter. But when JY come to school the day after, ZZX doesnt seem to care at all that JY is living and training in He cheng’s house ?? he doesnt even ask questions, wtf ???

Like make up your mind OX, do you want ZZX to be a concerned friend with strong feeling towards JY, or do you want him to be an aloof guy whou couldnt care less about JY ?? You cant have both :/ if you want the first scenario, you’re going to have to write a more dramatic story with less funny moments. If you want the second scenario, you have to stop writing poignant scenes between JY and ZZX.

Actually, it articulates why im not too fond of the Zhanyi ship (it isnt believable, and its frustrating because it could be ! the love confession was the most intense shit in the manhwa!! and im saying this even though i largely prefer tianshan!!) and my main problem with 19 days : sometimes its just not coherent. I hope OX will make up their mind !!

[19possums-blog]

an old work of mine. the drawings were stocked negligently in an envelope so i put them somewhere else.

i love to imagine that tian will be the person who will help guan shan regain his self-confidence and maybe his faith in people.

[19possums-blog]

[19possums-blog]

Who wants a new background because I got bored in photoshop

High res: http://imgur.com/gallery/RIEpSDD

[19possums-blog]

On tianshan relationship and their fandom, i guess ?

hello there @nightfayre !! Im the 5asks anon lol (the one abt the last chapter of tianshan). I wanted to thank you for your answer and continue to rant in your askbox but i figured it was so long that mb it would crash ur box lmao, so I... kind of created a blog..... hm. well theres no bad reasons to create an account is there lol ?? (also is there no way to send a long ask ?? why is it so limited :(( )

So once again thank you for anwser, and what an answer ! You raised many points i didnt think about and that was very interesting. I knew i would be glad to hear your thoughts ! the rest under a read more coz i think its going to be looong lol

(( To do a sort of disclaimer : I despise fandom discourse and im more of the mentality “let ppl enjoy what they want as long as it dont hurt real life ppl”, and “dont like dont interact”. So everything im going to say is not an attack against anyone, but just a way of prolonging a manhwa that i like. Most of all, i want to emphasize that at the end of the day, its just a manhwa : it doesnt justify being mean or aggressive towards other real life ppl. If you find yourself raging while reading fandom wank, just stop reading, block, and go outside a little. My way of enjoying the manhwa is to be analytical, to criticize (positively and negatively) and to look at the material source as well as the fandom in itself ; if its (understandably lol) not your definition of fun, this post may not be for you !))

Ur totally right in saying that the hardest thing is separate morality, reality and fiction. I hope my asks didn't come across as a 'u shouldnt like tianshan bc its not morally good'. There is a lot of puritan push back on tumblr lately, and im totally against it. Everyone is free to like/ship what they want ; reading only ‘morally good’ literature wont prevent you to become a nasty person - i would argue itd be the exact opposite, as your spirit wont be trained to think critically or to evaluate a situation (and every situations is always grey) by your own means. Also, its important to separate fantasies/what you like to read and who you are/what you do. To be embarrassingly honest, and like many people, one of my sexual fantasy is rape ; but in my real life, im in a queer anarchist collective that actively fights against rape culture and defends rape victims. That is why i dont have a problem with SheLI/Mo shippers (or even HeCheng/SheLi shippers) even if its not my cup of tea, but i would have a problem if in real life (irl) ppl would say to irl Mo that irl SL is good for him (or if they wouldnt find it wrong that a irl 30yo Cheng is involved wt an irl 15yo Li). I digress.

But then again this confusion about fiction/reality/morality is at the core of the tianshan fandom -and many fandoms. I dont know about you, but i grossly see 3 types of ‘trends’ depending on how ppl interact with the source material  :

1.The ones who think you cant like something while being critical of it. I love 19 days but I think there are flaws in it, beyond tianshan dynamic (like how OX handles the transition between funny and dramatic moments –I think its badly done). It doesn’t mean I personally hate OX and wish harm to their family oc. Worse than this, the ones who, because they dont like certain things in 19 days, feel free to harass OX on their social media.  Here its a confusion between fiction and reality and a lack of critical thinking.

2. the ones that loves Tianshan because they think it fits the trope “Dark, handsome, tortured violent boy who is violent towards fragile, sweet, pure cute boy because he loves him” and the typically associated trope “the pure boy will change the violent boy by the pureness of his heart”. Aka the most common yaoi trope. Again, if it pleases people to see Tianshan like this, good for them and i hope they have a nice time reading 19 days. Lets face it, I love really bad yaoi and books. Its just not how i see tianshan at all, but to each their own. I just have a problem when these ppl insist that its an ok behavior to have in real life and say things like “possessiveness is a proof of love” uncritically (hint : it isnt). For me, its the difference between enjoying fast food (thats okay), and wanting to force everyone to eat fast food and to find it pleasurable (not okay).

3. the ones that think what you like in literature defines who you are, and so in order to be a “good person” you have to only like “morally good litterature” -there are the ones I personally find the more interesting bc they can ask good questions. But alas, in most cases its just puritanism badly disguised and currently they are in all fandoms. Lets not delve into the issue of this statement : what is ‘morally good’ ? who are in the authority to proclaim what is good ? how can you recognize what is ‘morally good’ if you dont see what is ‘morally not good’ ? is it literature’s responsibility to educate its audience ? do literature have to point out “watch out audience what just happened is not okay” as if we were brainless children ? whats more important : what you like reading or what you do irl ? .... Okay i totally delve into this lmao. Here its a confusion between fiction and morality and a rejection of critical thinking : we could say its like when the Catholics prohibited women from reading bc it would pervert them and think of the children).

Returning to the specifics of what we've been talking about  : so in this last case, you (generic ‘you’) think that you are a good person ; so you have to read morally good literature. So in this case, fandom isnt just a harmless hobby, but a proof of how you are morally good, imagine the stakes ! But alas, you happen to like 19 days and most specifically tianshan. You said (@nightfayre​ ) that you judge Tianshan unhealthy as they are now, and i wholeheartedly agree with you, so im not going to discuss why since you already explained it so well. So, what happens when you like a morally not good ship, but you think liking morally dubious things makes you a bad person ? You bent over backwards to explain that, in fact, this ship is morally good, to protect your integrity. And thats why, in 19days fandom since the last chapter (and its the same thing with every chapter where flaws of HT are revealed!), there are many posts going around “hm, in fact, what He Tian did is good ! i know it can seems like hes a violent asshole who dont respect MGS because he punches him, threatens him, and dont listen to him, but hm.... in fact its because he’s nice...” and then they do mental gymnastics to justify what is, obviously, not morally justifiable. And i find its a pity because, my guy, my buddy, nobody is going to throw you tomatoes if you like a morally dubious character, and also bc nothin is morally good ! everybody does what they think is the best in ‘problematic situations’ ! and thats what make life interesting ! and so, 19 days interesting ! The flaws of HT (and MGS) are what drawn ppl to his character, bc it makes him real, its makes him contradictory, we can project ourselves in him, and we can see a complicated character with awesome latent potential. And yes, treating someone like a territory bc you care about them is a flaw lol. (on this subject : i saw ppl saying that its protectiveness and not possession : if you protect someone like you would protect a territory, then its not a healthy protection. you deal with a human whose agency you must respect, contrary to a territory).

MGS and HT are the product of what happen to them in their early childhood and then their adolescence. Like you said, they grow up in a violent, twisted world, where being emotionally distant is the norm. I would even say that they are expected to conform to the standards of (toxic) masculinity : channel all your emotions into anger, caring is being weak and feminine, prove your worth by your physical strength, be in control in all ur relationship, etc. I would say thats why Mo is so hostile towards HT : HT challenges his masculinity, by seducing him (everyone know that the biggest fear of macho men like HT and Mo is being considered gay -_-) and being stronger than him. Lets face it, Mo has kind of a homophobic issue, like all the boys. Between JY who tells HT its disgusting being told hes handsome by a man (at the beginning of the manhwa, i hope by now he had grown out of it), or Mo who tells HT he isnt happy that a guy is on his bed or who desperately wants to prove his heterosexuality by saying he likes all cute girls to his baldy friend... HT is more nuanced, but at the end, when he ‘seduces’ Mo, its always predatory. He doesnt let himself being vulnerable and he aggressively touches Mo even without his consent. For me, its a way of proving his domination, not his interest (and when i say that, i dont mean that HT is not genuinely interested in Mo -just that his actions dont translate this). ZZX is the only one who seems to have a healthy relationship with his masculinity lol, but then hes the healthy one in all aspects (thats why i dont like his character and am not invested in zhanyi, even if irl i would love to be his friend).

With all that being said, oc HT wont know how to adequately express genuine concern and interest in Mo ! This sort of social interactions is not something you just know, its smth you learn. And in HT and Mo’s cases, nobody was there to teach them -we could even say that ppl in their life made them unlearn caring behaviors. So HT does what he does best : he fights and forces, and is surprised when Mo thinks (obviously) HT is evil. And also, like you said, Mo will never be (at least how he is now) a driving force in their relationships bc he will always run away from bonding with ppl. So here we are, HT being the only driving force in their relationship, the same HT who only knows violence. No wonder that their relationship is like this...

As it is, i feel like tianshan is kind of in an impasse right now. One or the other is going to have to evolve if we want to see their relationships changing. Either HT learns how to care without being violent (seems complicated if Mo doesnt challenges him, bc HT isnt going to realize this without feedback since its how he has always functioned), or, more likely, Mo is going to be honest with him and tell him that his behavior is hurting him. Though more probable, I dont see it happening anytime soon : for one, Mo isnt capable of seeing when he is hurting emotionally and what is hurting him ; and also, bc Mo doesnt know any other language than violence, not unlike HT. I think its smth most of the fandom ignore, how violence is smth that HT and MGS both have in common, and how if HT wasnt violent, MGS certainly wouldnt consider him at all.

Anw im excited to see where OX is going with all this ! Like you said, the forced kiss was pivotal to their relationship, so im kind of hoping it would be the same here ! I just hope they wont... do like usual and just put a funny chapter and ignore this latest development.....

OMG i wrote soo much and there is so much i still want to say.... i think im going to do a second post... sorry about the spam lmao

( @nightfayre : i dont know how this site works yet, is @ you alright ? will it show you my post in your notif or should i send an ask ?  bc i want you to see my answer, but i dont want you to feel pressurized to respond or interact or anything !! above all dont feel pressurized, i was sad last night when you wrote ‘im sorry to not answer more quicly’ bc you should answer at your own rhythm or not answer ! your blog is a hobby, not an obligation, so dont feel bad to not do more when yo already do much !! )