katherine lam

katherinelam.com

[katherinelam]

I love your Sopranos artwork! Is it watercolor and gouache?

thank you! they are all watercolor minus the third one which is fully gouache

[katherinelam]

im trying to paint every episode of the sopranos. send thoughts and prayers

[katherinelam]

for texas highways about indigenous origins stories of the stars 💫

[katherinelam]

[katherinelam]

every day im longing for your spaceship/human art in print form … its just so good i want to own it physically (lol)

i gotchu anon don’t worry the day will come !!!

[katherinelam]

7 color screenprint for one of my favorite movies ever, Wong Kar Wai's IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE

[katherinelam]

more of this guy pt 4

[katherinelam]

Hi! Is any of your work available for purchase and/or do you take commissions? I was checking out your website and saw some of your posters were listed as commissioned, but wasn't sure if that was active.

Thanks!

I will be opening my store very soon (end of February!) and I will be posting about it then! At this moment I don't take private commissions (large alternative posters are kinda a different story but that's another can of worms), but that may happen in the future, anything is possible!!

If anyone has a specific piece they'd like me to have in my store let me know and I can see if I can get it in stock!

Thank you!!

[katherinelam]

Just wanted to let you know that your ms paint art with the guy seducing the spaceship inspired me to write a fic of a character who is also seducing his sentient spaceship (who in the original canon he wears on his body as a spacesuit but he can also turn into a ship and a really badass cape)... thank you for your service you literally awakened smth in me. I keep thinking abt your art and drawing stuff with these characters inspired by it skjfhkjghg

god honestly thank you so much for sending me this. i was a little embarrassed after i talked about it and started to get The Doubts 😂 anyway this is incredibly sweet, always the highest compliment to hear that something of mine left an impression on someone else and even inspired them somehow 💖💖🙏🙏

[katherinelam]

Are familiar with The Murderbot Diaries (Martha Wells) and/or the Apple TV adaptation?

so many people have recommended this to me lol. it's on my watchlist!

[katherinelam]

Hi, I'm absolutely in love with your art, those of your black-and-white pictures of the guy in the spaceship becoming overwhelmed by immense machinery, for some reason that just hits so hard. It's hard to explain properly, but something in that aesthetic in general and the theme of inhumane technological structures, becoming-machine, the vast machinery, the fragile human, something. Just so brilliant and striking. Literally one of the most influential original art pieces for me. So I need to ask, where do these come from? Do you have some books/films/anything for inspiration? I just think how "I absolutely want to read this book" when I see your art! So does such a book exist?

thank you!! honestly a lot of this started because i really wanted to draw smut lmao, but in a way that I specifically like, that tickles my brain exactly the way i want to. very self-indulgent stuff!!

ive always liked terato/xeno/mechano but a lot of the depictions of the monster/alien/machine have a lot of human traits, and i wanted something that was as far away from human as possible. basically the story is that this guy gets abandoned by his company after manning one of their sentient space stations alone for 5 years. with no way to get home and 5 years of pent up horny anger he decides to seduce and fuck the space station 😇

while i wasn't really using a specific book/movie as reference, i can probably draw parallels to alien, moon, portal, body horror films (tetsuo the iron man, david cronenberg), the matrix, stalker, annihilation (book series), three body problem... a lot of people have told me to also check out blame!, titane, nge (i actually havent seen it yet (I know, im horrible)), i have no mouth but i must scream.

ive already been compiling them into a zine/artbook so definitely will be releasing that sometime in the future lol!!!

[katherinelam]

you have one of the most striking senses of light/dark and shapes in your compositions ive ever seen.... is there anything that helped these things *click* for you?

hi thank you! the way i think about images is shapes with values, and i focus on trying to make sure whatever design i have, that it works in its most basic form (simple flat shapes). i like to think if you can convey everything you need in this basic/simple foundational stage, you can render/color/add textures to your hearts content and it should still hold up!

the best exercise that helped me really understand shape/value and work on this foundational stage is something i learned in college called "the flat assignment": you take a photo reference and try to design a composition with a couple of strict rules:

1. only shapes, no lines

2. each object/shape can only have two values/colors total

3. no fancy/soft/rough edges, only sharp edges

4. no rendering, no textures,

5. must be designed in a square

examples from robert cunningham and me below (robert cunningham's piece isn't in a square but it follows the same idea) (mine doesn't necessarily follow all the rules but still follows the basic idea of flat shape, maximum two values/colors per shape)

i like this exercise because it not only helps you "see" in shape, but by taking away the "fancier" techniques (edgework, rendering, textures, gradients, etc), you are forced to learn how to make fun designs with nothing but a couple of shapes! when i make my students do it they all get headaches but i think it's still very valuable lol :)

[katherinelam]

I'm obsessed with the guy in love with his ship that you've been drawing lately, thank you for sharing him

thank you 🙈💖 it was purely self-indulgent but im so happy to see that people also like it !!!

[katherinelam]

yearning for something

[katherinelam]

Do you always use MS Paint or do you also use other drawing programs?

i usually work in photoshop/clip studio paint! i started using ms paint last year just to play around with it

[katherinelam]

[katherinelam]

more of this guy