Notes on the original art for Delphine
https://hereliesrichardsala.blogspot.com/2009/09/notes-on-original-art-for-delphine.htmlThe DELPHINE series was always intended to be printed in sepia tones. However, I created the original art using blue washes, which, for some reason I found allowed me to "see" the values - from light to black - more clearly than when I was working with brown washes (yes, there was some early hit and miss experimenting). Working with blue washes seemed easier on the eye and each panel appeared more spacious and atmospheric in shades of blue. As one of my art teachers pointed out many years ago, "blue is the color of infinity". Perhaps it is this quality that made it easier for me to see the range of values as I painted.
When I painted in browns, the darks never seemed dark enough and the light areas seemed too close to the medium range. At worst the brown washes would appear flat and solid -- which I knew wouldn't necessarily be the case in the printed version (especially with the warm cream colored paper). When I realized I was beginning to overwork panels to make them "finished", I went back to blue and did the rest of the art that way. (I realize that this may just be a personal quirk -- but I've learned that "going" with personal quirks when they show up is often a good idea!).
I then scanned all the art myself and adjusted the color from "full-color" blue and black to the duotone of brown and black. In order to fit the art for each page on my scanner, I divided each page into three (with the exception of a few pages that had larger panels) -- each painting representing one of the page's three tiers.
https://www.tcj.com/somebody-has-to-pay-for-the-sins-of-our-great-great-grandfathers-a-richard-sala-interview/When I interviewed your friend Dan Clowes last year about The Complete Eightball, he spoke about how much of his early work, no matter how outwardly outlandish and non-realistic, often had many autobiographical details hidden in it that he could only recognize in retrospect. How autobiographical is your work? Not just in terms of reflecting your personal concerns and psyche, but your actual circumstances?
Sala: I would say there is almost zero relationship between any actual details of my life and the details in my comics. Psychologically - that's another story. Psychologically, something like Delphine is a self-portrait. It's a depiction of how it felt to be me at a particular time in my life. There may be some small real life details throughout my books simply because I lived in a certain town or worked a certain job, but nothing close to autobiography - which I wish I could do, but can't. I just don't have the right temperament. Everything I create is a plummet into my subconscious - it's all comes out of childhood repression and sublimation and displacement and wrestling with demons.
