An old interview with Jessie Lam that is worth posting up again. It’s very inspiring to look at her work and see the difference in her work throughout the years. I once again would like to thank Jessie Lam for this interview with Static-Design.com.
Please introduce yourself and tell us how you got your nickname AXL99.
I’m Jessie Lam, a part-time animation major student and lead colourist at Switchstance Inc. Back in the days of dialup I went by ”archangel_XL99″ since plenty other Yahoo users seemed to like the ”archangel” handle. “XL” meant “excel”, and “99″ was the year I started taking art seriously. I was pretty shy back then so I often used that alias on the credits of my professional work with the studio. As time went on, I stuck with aXL99 because it was easier to type.
Favorite movie/game of all time?
Tough question… Hands down, Grim Fandango and [trying to decide between my tastes for North American and Asian movies] Out of Sight / Zatoichi … For now…
What influenced your decision to do what you do today?
As a storyteller, asian comics, animation, and action movies. As a colourist, Dreamwave Productions [now Dreamengine]. They were famous in the comic business for their Japanese-inspired cellshading style. I was a huge fan of lead colourist Ramil Sunga’s professional work in comics. On one of my first few trips to the studio he was even nice enough to give me his photoshop brush set and give me pointers on how to paint! That’s just one of the greatest things a pro can do for an aspiring novice in digital art.
Of all the works you have done, which are you the most proud of (painting, drawings, ect…) and why?
I take pride in most of the pieces I do, but the real milestone for me was the Siris cover I coloured for the fourth issue of Rotogin. It was my first ever professional comic book cover, gives me the
perfect excuse to frame the book up on my wall and go “Holy crap I did this~!?!” and pinch myself.
What aspect of your work do you find the most challenging?
Colouring period! Nah, just kidding, I mean colouring consistently during crunch times. Sometimes I’m forced to sacrifice quality to make deadlines, I often find ways to cut corners to getting the best results in the shortest time. After that there’s the challenge of finding a distinct visual style people can identify with your work, especially if it’s your personal work.
Are there characters from movies or games that really got your attention growing up?
James Bond, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. I was raised on action movies after all. Of course then there came Tetsuya Nomura’s stylish always-3/4-view designs with FF7, FF8, FF10, Parasite Eve and The Bouncer. I became one of those rabid fans with the secret ambition to be a lead character designer at Squaresoft, or any other place for that matter. Then I grew up.
Could you break down your creative process for us?
Sometimes I draw random scribbles until I hit on something that might look cool, or I start with a theme in my head. With some col-erase pencils I block out the composition and character posing and flesh it all out. I then clean it up with graphite either on the sketch or on a new sheet of paper before I scan it into the computer and work out the basic colour scheme. From there I colour however style I think suits the purpose of the image. If I ever get stuck midway I usually try to work it out on a screencap until I’m comfortable applying it on the real thing.
If you were offered the opportunity to work on any movie or game character ever, what would it be?
Dan Smith of the Killer7~!!
Jessie Lam’s website: http://www.axl99.net/
Jessie Lam at Static-Design: axl99
