#yes this is a redraw of the first one :) i draw rabbits differently now lol

[dailylagomorphs]

31/12/2023 - 🏁💥

[mtkay13]

Wenzhou's first appearances and first time meeting!

I think those were my first serious attempts at illustrating TYK scenes? I do feel an itch to redraw the WKX one, to be honest, because his design and my way of drawing him changed a little. I also have another expression in mind -although this one isn't bad. I recently reread both passages -his first introduction/description and their first time meeting- and I love how expressionless and almost inhuman WKX is described. Although I think I managed some of that in my illustrations, I still hope I'll get a chance to try again later. Also! His nails are so short on the first meeting one, compared to how long I draw them now! That's funny.

ZZS hasn't changed much, though. Ever since I started obsessing with his book description, his design and face shape have been pretty solid in my mind. I have an interesting story about his mouth shape, though. I tend to prefer drawing plush, sexy lips. When I read the description of his "thin lips" in the books (both Qi Ye and TYK), I was quite dissappointed at first. I remember messaging at least 3 mandarin-speaking friends to confirm with them that the words used in mandarin (薄 in Qi Ye and 轻薄 in TYK) really weren't just a metaphor for something and had to be understood as "thin". That investigation sent me into a small rabbit hole: In QY, the description doesn't leave much room for interpretation. 薄means "thin", and that's it. Interestingly enough though, in the case of TYK, the fan translations all had a different interpretation for the whole sentence describing ZZS' mouth :

嘴唇却轻薄得很，叫那俊美的脸凭空添了一种薄情寡义的味道。

The word highlighted, 轻薄, has been translated as : "scornful", "contemptuous" and "very thin". According to the dictionary, it can mean "light", "frivolous", "a philanderer", "disrespectful", "to scorn". Pretty open to interpretation, then. But the interesting bit is in the following idiom, also highlighted : 薄情寡义. According to Lianzi, and later my own research, it is used to described someone who has no feelings nor attachment, or as a person who plays with hearts but never gets attached (a bunch of articles would use that expression to describe the type of men women should never date, lol). The sentence can then be turned into two widely different directions, right? Disrespectful can fit well with "someone who has no feelings". In my opinion, though, I like the idea of "frivolous" (or insouciant, as Lianzi translated it) being paired with it. A slight smile, almost charming, but devoid of any actual feelings. I think it suits the persona of someone who has had to deal with nobles and court people for the past 10 years, but who is also, now, empty inside and just can't wait for his freedom, wich is now within a few hours' reach. On top of that, ZZS tends, within the novel, to smile and laugh quite often, and he's quite the agreeable person, save for with ZCL and sometimes WKX. Clearly, when he lets his emotions and true self speak more, he does tend to be more prone to emotional outbursts, anger and grumpiness, but a semi-permanent light smile on his lips does feel very fitting, to me. Anway, that's it for the bigger-than-expected meta chunk on ZZS' mouth haha. I wish there was a lot to say about WKX's appearance too, but we don't have much to work with aside from ZZS just gawking at how beautiful and statuesque he is. No precise features to analyse and adapt, unfortunately. Anyway, thanks for reading!