INFINITE WORLDSDonato Giancola
1967 - by Vincent DiFate
| The contemporary science fiction artist is one whose work is distinguished by a devotion to craft and a high level of technical competence. At no time in history have there been more artists in the Science Fiction specialty who can draw and paint with so high a degree of excellence. What many of these artists lack, however, is an extrapolative keenness for narrative picture-making that carries Science Fiction to a higher level. Great Science Fiction illustration should be as good as, or better than, the story it illustrates, and it should also build on an understanding of the author's ideas.
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Happily, Donato Giancola has both the technical excellence and the love and knowledge of Science Fiction to make his work special indeed, for after only a few years in the genre, he stands at the very vanguard of contemporary Science Fiction art.
Born in Colchester, Vermont, he studied electrical engineering for two years at the University of Vermont before becoming a fine arts major at Syracuse University. He graduated in 1992, secured a staff position at the Society of Illustrators in New York City, and within two years had taken on so much freelance illustration work that he became a fulltime contributor to the Science Fiction and fantasy paperback markets.
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| Donato presents his clients with a comprehensive drawing which, subject to editorial changes, is copied to size and mounted on board with a layer of acrylic mat medium. The copy then functions as an underpainting, with the artist building up glazes and empastos in oils until the painting is completed. The results are stunning, but more importantly they are conceptually sound and are consistently among the best paintings now being done in the genre. |
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