Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Dragon Attack!







Shivan Dragon   Donato Giancola  2001  copyright Wizards of the Coast


by Donato



Having a little fun today with this post, tracing back the years and my various approaches to dragons.  If there is anything to be learned from this, it is that your first drawings and paintings of dragons will never come out the way you see them in your mind's eye, you need to revisit the theme again, again, and again....and again. And again. Did I mentioned revisiting the theme?



With each interpretation, I find a new quality or characteristic I wish to emphasis about my particular relationship with dragon mythology - Are they an adversary? Companion? Recluse? Beast? Threat? Weapon? Mystic?






Hidden Kingdom   Donato Giancola  2012, private commission

As the years pass, I am more interested in portraying a dragon as an intelligent, mindful individual, representing tremendous potential energy, withheld, but ready to be released.  I think this expression of power in reserve, rather than power outwardly amplified is what I love best about dragons.  I also find these qualities of checked power a theme running through many of my other works.



Keep an eye out for me and my dragons this summer as I return to GenCon for their 50th Anniversary convention and my appearance as the Artist Guest of Honor!  I am honored, and thrilled to be attending!









Green Dragon   Donato Giancola  1981 Inspired by, and copied from, the D&D Monster Manual drawing by David C. Sutherland






Dragonrider   Donato Giancola  1989, first dragon painting in oils






Dragon Warrior   Donato Giancola  1990, personal project while attending Syracuse University




Dracologist   Donato Giancola  199, personal project






 Dragon Egg   Donato Giancola  1991, personal project






Dragon Hunter  Donato Giancola  1991, personal project while attending Syracuse University








St. George and the Dragon    Donato Giancola  1991, portfolio project






The Pen and the Sword   Donato Giancola  1992  One of my first samples to land book cover illustration work after college






The Road Home   Donato Giancola  1994   First published dragon novel cover illustration 




Sacred Seven    Donato Giancola  1996, book cover for novel by Amy Stout






DragonSight   Donato Giancola  1998  Cover for a Science Fiction Book Club Edition






Ebon Dragon   Donato Giancola  1998,  Portal Expansion for Wizards of the Coast





Wyvern Hunting   Donato Giancola   1999  Cover for David Drake's novel The Mirror of Worlds




Cromat  Donato Giancola   2000   Magic: the Gathering card for Wizards of the Coast




Dracopaleontology   Donato Giancola   2000  cover art






DragonFlight   Donato Giancola   1999 cover art






DragonShadow   Donato Giancola   1998 cover art








Smaug the Golden    Donato Giancola, 2000, cover for Science Fiction Book Club edition of The Hobbit






St. George and the Dragon    Donato Giancola  2010,  DragonCon promotional image




Vanguard - Saga of Heroes  Donato Giancola  2008   Kieth Parkinson makes a guest appearance in the group of adventurers on the left side.






Adventurers  Donato Giancola  2008, private commission




Silk Road  Donato Giancola  2010, private commission






Fall of Gondolin    Donato Giancola  2011, Middle-earth book project






Daenerys in Meereen   Donato Giancola   2016,  inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire






Road to Meereen   Donato Giancola   2015,  personal project inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire








Mother of Dragons    Donato Giancola  2014, cover to the 2015 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar




Sack of Nargothrond   Donato Giancola  2016, Middle-earth book project & personal piece











Nienor and Glaurung    Donato Giancola  1991, personal piece 




















Shivan Dragon   Donato Giancola  2016  Copyright Wizards of the Coast 




Voyager    Donato Giancola  2016, private commission




St George and the Dragon - Fear    Donato Giancola   2016


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