Devoid of Statement w/ Daniele Serra

Greetings. Award- winner iItalian illustrator Daniele Serra has a peculiar artistic touch with oil-painting, Indian ink and water-color. He has collaborated with spectacular artists, musicians and authors. Daniele's references as portfolio is like a unique valley of gemstones. From Stephen King to Clive Barker, DC Comics, Ramsey Campbell - he illustrated and vitalized these acclaimed artists book covers. Dark Souls Comic Book Variant cover is one other prominent work he has done in previous periods.

To be apparent with the fact, Daniele Serra's achievements did not appear abruptly. The profound commitment, devotement and a brush stroke of patience has cleared the ivy creepers that blocked his path.

Forwarding dreamscapes into reality on a canvas is such a concealed demeanor. I am attracted to the spontaneity of drawing with an unknown emotion urge you to interpret something wanders in your head. Daniele Serra is one of those rare artists that I cannot grasp, yet I am devoid of statement. To a certain extent, I strangled my curiousity.

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

Benvenuto! It’s so amazing to have you on my realm. Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Daniele Serra: Hello everybody, I’m Daniele Serra, an Italian illustrator and comic artist. I was born and always lived on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean sea. I’ve been doing this job since 15 years ago and I still enjoy doing it as the first day. I love cats.

How did you develop an enthusiasm for horror culture - especially the Japanese horror, what was the first ignite that swallowed you into that world?

Daniele Serra: I think my first impact with horror images could be traced back to my childhood. I was used to leaf through my father’s art books, I saw that Giotto as well as many other painters, flemish and Reinassance painters, often painted Hell, demons, obscure atmospheres, where death and popular beliefs shroud their magnificent paintings. I think that seeing those images as a child has been an imprinting I still carry with me today.

Observation starts at young ages, I am curious about how you observed the world in your childhood. Do you believed you will become someone you dreamed?

Daniele Serra: I was a very quiet child, from an early age I’ve ever been attracted by dark and horror things, so I think it’s my kind of sensibility, my own way of being that many people consider perhaps sad or frightening, instead to me it’s a vital source of tranquillity and beauty. As a child I had no many desires, I ever dreamt the idea of living drawing, and the more I was growing up, the more the dream came stronger, although the schools attended were not artistic, my dreams always remained there, until I had the chance to make them true.

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

Everyone had lost something in the past, which they wanted to take and carry through to the current time with them. Did you lost something in the past you long for?

Daniele Serra: Yes, I lost the pureness, the beauty to be marveled by things, it’s something I rarely feel and I suffer for it. Now I can find these sensations only in art… art still manages to make me a child again.

What you are creating is more than what you demonstrate, it’s not solely watercolor, illustration or sketching. It is absolutely something else. I would like to understand your mind-set when you begin your preparations to contemplate a new project. Tell me about your inner vision please?

Daniele Serra: Thank you for your nice words and thoughts. My approach to a new project is usually “mental”, in the sense that I let run an idea in my mind for days, then I let it grow in my mind without drawing anything, I hardly ever make sketches, except from ones I have to show to the publishers. Once the idea becomes clear in my mind, I filter it through my style. It’s a process with more urgency than tecnique, it’s the need to express somethings through the medium with which I feel most comfortable: illustration.

You have accomplished wonderful work for many reputable people like Clive Barker, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale and Niklas Kvarforth. These people might see something on you. Do you know why you were special for them?

Daniele Serra: Honestly, I don’t know. I’m usually told my style is very recognizable and peculiar, I think that’s why I’ve been chosen by them. I really feel grateful when such great authors choose to work with me, it’s always a big pleasure to find my name next to some who were being my literally references as a teenager.

As you design distinctive artwork, you have a different communication path. Could you tell the significance of art of the communication with yourself, your audience and your work?

Daniele Serra: I’ve always considered “drawing” as my favourite method of exchange with the rest of the world, I’m pretty shy and I often find hard to get into society with usual channels, so in some ways, drawing saved me and gave me the possibility to express myself spontaneously and consciously. As well as a job, it’s my way to say “Hey, I’m here! I’m like that, look!”. The interesting thing is that each person who is following me gets an idea of me, of what I am, what I do, what I feel, through my works. Fascinating. And among other things, the fact that pushes me to continue is also that I've had to make very few compromises with clients, in the sense that they want me for my style, they don't ask me to adapt to something else. I think I’m lucky, I do what I like and in the way I like, moreover, I can communicate it to everyone in this era where internet allows you to reach people and places anywhere easily.

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

As I told you earlier, The Shining will have a special place in my heart till I leave this world (sorry for my fanboy attitude), which I am listening for more than a decade. I found agony and joy in their music. And, as seeing Niklas Kvarforth with you, both wonderful artists, my life is completed. About Shining’s album cover the ‘’IX’’, how did you both met and depict the album cover with your interpretation?

Daniele Serra: I remember that Niklas contacted me because he had seen my interview on Fangoria, he had seen my works and he had decided to ask me to work on the cover of his new album, of course I was very happy with the request! He asked for a cover with just my illustrations without any writing, he wanted my visual interpretation of the album’s themes, which were “despair” and “void”, those were the only indications he gave me. It was a time when I liked to experiment and I think that this cover represents very well that moment. I liked to be more expressive, using less shapes and more sensations linked to colours. I prepared some sketches and we chose the best one, so I started to work on it. As soon as I showed him the final painting, he was immediately happy and didn’t ask me any change. It’s a work I’m very linked to, also because I really love music, so it’ s a way to connect my job with another artistic expression I like.

With the thriving technology, artificial intelligence advanced new learning methodologies like drawing and painting. From my perspective, it is not possible to replicate and have in- depth quality that the artists create. The related technology cascaded into photo manipulation as well. My question is that do you think will it become a dangerous competitor for artists in the future?

Daniele Serra: Future is always difficult to predict, I am following the current debate regarding AI, I have not yet got a clear idea of the situation but I realize that there could be an important change. I have seen some illustration created by artificial intelligence and I must say that the quality is very high, it could be certainly very attractive for a publisher to be able to have excellent quality images at low prices and, above all, to be able to create them personalized. I am sincerely skeptical about the general use of AI in the artistic field, because I firmly believe that behind an artistic creation, there must be an emotion, a concept and a human urgency that leads you to create; causality and errors are also part of this process that leads to growing and inventing by filtering reality through personality. Having said that, I'm curious to see the evolution of this situation.

You become the Best Artist and received British Fantasy Award three times. Back in those days, did you think that I have to do more to challenge myself with new creations?

Daniele Serra: Yes, regardless of the awards, I still feel very far from what I would like to achieve, so every day I work as much as possible to find new solutions and continue to grow as an illustrator. The awards have always been a great motivation to try to do more and more, fortunately the passion and the desire to create have never leave me, I think this is fundamental for an artist. I hope I never reach the day when I will be completely satisfied with my work, because I think that, in that moment, I may immediately shut down artistically. I will try to get as close as possible to my possibilities but always in the hope there will be an improvement the following day.

Tell me the essential meaning of a family from your eyes, as you are from Italy. I know that your values and regional culture have crucial homage to the notion ‘’family’’.

Daniele Serra: I had the opportunity to grow up in a beautiful family I am very close to. It's a very intimate bond, I don't feel the need to have them physically close but we are ready to do everything for each other. Now my family are also my friends and the people who are close to me. I am very attached to my land and I have never felt the need to leave, in theory I could do my job anywhere in the world, but by my nature I've always been very sedentary, so I'm fine with short trips, always keeping my city, Cagliari, as a base.

Any last words or a message to share?

Daniele Serra: I wanted to thank you for this interview, it was a pleasure to have a chat with you. Well, I don't have big messages to give, I always prefer drawing instead of talking, haha! The only thing I can tell you, it’s to always keep trying to support art and artists because they are an important part of this strange world. The soul needs to be nourished.

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra / Dark Souls Comic Artwork)

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra / Dark Souls Comic Artwork)

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

(Courtesy of Daniele Serra)

Credits

To reach Daniele Serra's official web-page: tap Daniele Serra

To reach Daniele Serra's Instagram page: tap @daniele_serra_art