I must admit I have been really pleased when I red Riccardo's answers and discovered he was thinking I am a kind of god. Finishing with a "Thank YOU for the time and for the space", I thought there was a misunderstanding as I did not create time neither space, but if he thinks so... ;) Seriously I must thank Francesco for having introduced me to Riccardo!!!
Hello, of course as every Crewk interview, first question: what are we listening to when we come to visit you?
Hello and welcome! :)
When you visit me you’ll listen mainly to punk rock. Ramones, Screeching Weasel and similar. I love punk rock since I was a teen, and it has been, and it is, lotta inspiration to my works.
It may happen, depending on the day you visit, you might also hear some metal or old school rap too.
Can you tell us more about yourself, who are you, where are you from, what do you do?
When did you start drawing?
Hi all! Well, I’m Riccardo, I’m 35, I draw since I was a little kid ‘cause I wanted to draw Richard Scarry’s characters I had in the children books my mom used to buy me. I’m from La Spezia, northwest of Italy and I do Illustrations, Rock Art (both posters and album art) and Custom Toys.
Did you follow any course or did you improve by drawing in the margins of your schoolbooks?
Well, obviously the best course I attended has been drawing on the margins of my schoolbooks and on my classmates’ backpacks and agendas! Just kidding. My parents sent me to a Scientific Institute, but I wasn’t comfortable in there, so I retired from there after 3 years and went to an Art School, got a diploma in there and then attended a 3 years comic book school course. My dream was to work in the comics industry, but apparently I failed.
Most of what took me to what I draw nowadays is most DIY studying by the way.
There are up and downs. I used to do part time jobs to keep dreaming of turning my passion into a work, as I told you before I’ve been a barman for almost 7 years, worked in market statistics, did murals and Christmas decorations for shops and stuff like that. Since one year I started trying to do just “art” jobs, but well, I still live with my parents. I hope the next step will be living from my art also in the most professional way of doing it.
Are you collaborating with magazines/fanzines, regularly?
Not as much as I’d like to. I did some pieces for Color Ink Book (an U.S. publication) and some of my t-shirts got included in the book “Torso”, edited by Gestalten. When I was young I used to do “fanzine style” comics (pretty stupid ones, mostly one page panels or single illustration) and gift’em to friends at concerts. I got recently contacted by an Italian punk rock ‘zine to draw stuff for them, and I’m really glad to do that! It’s like comin’ back to my roots.
Ah! This one’s difficult! My main influence has always been comic books, from Mickey Mouse to Spiderman, since I was a kid I’ve always been influenced by comics. During my teens I started getting influenced by other stuff like Skate Art, expecially Jim Phillips, and early classic Rock Art, like Rat Fink. But I also get influenced by songs, movies, books…I tried to mix all of that and throw out something, even if I’m still working on a “style” which represents me at 110%.
There are many artists I like and love like Tara McPherson, Frank Kozik, Huck Gee, the Beast Brothers or Lori Earley.
In the posters field I really like Shepard Fairey’s stuff and the Firehouse’s stuff by Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan, that I met more than once and they’re nice guys all around.
I also need to mention Prof.Bad Trip, a great artist from my town that we lost too early.
The first step’s brainstorming. Thinking about what I need to do for that certain work, if it’s better to put focus on an illustration or on the colors, or on typography, or on a joke/quote, then trying to find the right way to balance it. Pencils and inks are the longest part if I’m working on something drawn by hand, then the coloring and the testing of the possible different color combos.
Everything varies depending on the job I need to do and for who I’m workin’ for.
Do you do everything by hand or on computer?
I try to mix the two things. Usually the main part is drawn by hand, but the whole typographic and coloring part is done on a computer. Depending on the work I have to do, or on the client’s requests, I did some works and posters just using only the computer.
How long does it take you to do a poster?
It may vary from a couple of hours to more than 4 days.
I think the most important thing is that I “feel” the job. I mean, I’d have no problems in drawing horses running on a seaside at sunset, beside I’m not good at drawing horses and I’m terrible at oil painting, but only if I can give my “touch” to it. I might end up with dead horses running on a post-atomic seaside with a purple and blood red sunset on the background. Mmmm…I think that the “somebody” wouldn’t be so happy about it.
For which band have you already worked for?
I worked for several punk rock bands, being lucky enough to do posters and album art for one of my favourite ones: Screeching Weasel. Other than for SW I did posters for the Riverdales, the Queers, the Muffs, Paul Collins and for some Italian bands like the Manges and the Peawees.
For which band would you love to work?
I’d love to do something for the Beastie Boys.
haha! No! I’m not that famous! I don’t even know if I’d ever do that even if I could.
What is the most difficult part in designing a poster ?
Personally the most difficult part is to make my own taste matching with the band’s one and with the people who are fans of the band. As a fan myself, I know the “crowd” is difficult to please, so finding and managing the right idea is probably the most difficult part, because you have to consider different eyes and minds looking at the same thing. For some bands the difficult part is also to keep/use/insert their mascotte/logo in a proper way or insert it in a proper “joke” or parody; thinking at more than 10 different ways to show the Screeching Weasel’s weasel was not easy, but I’m kinda glad on what came out in the end.
I’ve got contacted by IPRA before it was a website, for participating to a collective exhibition of Italian poster artists, unfortunately, for some work and family problems and because I was waiting some silk screened posters from the USA to bring there, I wasn’t able to partecipate. They did another exhibit which I had to pass by too. Then they start workin’ on the site, which is getting popular and popular day by day. And they deserve it. Websites like IPRA or gigposters.com are pretty useful to have your art shown around the web with a specific crowd of followers. Plus they added the voting part which gives a little more of “competition” to the gallery.
I think they’re doing a great job and I hope to be part of their next exhibits if jinx doesn’t hit on me again.
Do you think you are part of a "Graphic Scene", if so who else ?
A bit of self-promotion, take advantage of it, it's free, where can we see your work , on the web or in real life?
Aw ok! Thank you! Free stuff’s always welcome! You can take a look at my stuff on my “official” site : http://www.riccardobucchioni.com/ , which has not been recently updated, but all my latest posters and illustrations are in there.
I also used to have a myspace, but I think noone still checks it so I won’t give you the link.
The best praise you received lately?
A couple months ago I did a caricature/portrait of Franz Kozik and posted it on his facebook.
He told me it was “Awesome!” and that was a pretty satisfying thing. Getting positive feedback from one of my fave artists has been priceless.
What can we wish you for the future?
You could wish me to live from my art. That might be great.
And to reach some good goals professionally too. Becoming a “pro” in the real meaning of the word “pro”. And I’d love some brand noticing I exist and commissioning me some work. Thank you.
Thanks for answering my questions and see you soon on the website !!
Thank YOU for the time and for the space. Heh,it sounds like something scientific in this way.
have a great day. See ya! *hi five*
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