Vanguard - Interview @ Vanguard Spheres

Vanguard Spheres talks with Donato Giancola, the cover artist for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

Q:You were commissioned by Sigil, at Keith's request, to complete the box cover for Vanguard. Up until now, what types of art have you mostly been involved with?

I think what caught Keith’s interest in my work was the highly narrative images I had been creating for science fiction and fantasy book covers. For the first half of my career in the nineties, paperback and hardcover book jackets were the mainstay of my art: producing 25 to 30 covers a year. This cover work had been, and still is, evolving into higher complexity as I embrace multi-figural compositions and tackling dense architectural forms to flush out design aesthetics and abstract compositions. About 8 years ago, new commissions began to present themselves, from Playboy Magazine to Video Game advertising and box covers, from concept art to private commissions. These various venues helped expand my artistic interests as well as add variation in the narratives I presented in my portfolio. With each major commission, I found challenges, technically and aesthetically, to push me further afield to the artistic horizons. Thus by the time Keith and the Vanguard commission needed me, I was well immersed in a mature style and looking for new challenges to round out my portfolio.

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