Boerum Hill artist Donato Giancola has turned his obsession with outer space into a livelihood - illustrating the covers of hundreds of science fiction and fantasy novels.
Over the past two decades he has designed dozens of best-sellers, but his art entered a whole new universe today when the U.S. Postal Service released 60 million stamps bearing two of his cosmic paintings.
"I'm blown away. It's an honor to be a part of this," said Giancola, 44, a father of two who has lived and worked in his Pacific St. brownstone for 18 years.
Two stamps designed by the local artist are being released today at post offices around the country.
One stamp bears a portrait of Alan Shepard, a NASA astronaut from New Hampshire who became the first American in space in 1961, and 10 years later visited the moon.
The other stamp shows NASA's Messenger spacecraft, which launched in 2004 and is currently orbiting Mercury and collecting data on the faraway planet.
Both stamps cost 44 cents and will be good for mailing a first-class envelope forever.
"The images he's created really capture the drama of space flight," said Layne Owens, manager of stamp development for the U.S Postal Service, which worked with NASA to make sure Giancola's designs were historically accurate.
For the artist, the stamps are the product of months of hard work.
Post office officials commissioned Giancola for the job about two years ago after they saw some of his cover illustrations for classic science fiction novels such as H.G. Wells' "Time Machine."
Giancola immediately began an exhaustive research process, reviewing hundreds of photos of the astronaut and spacecraft he would depict on the stamps.
He created dozens of rough sketches that he refined with input from post office art directors working with NASA.
Once the final designs for the two stamps were selected, Giancola created small oil paintings for each of them, which were scanned and transformed into stamps by post office designers.
The whole process took about nine months.
"When you're creating art that's going to be a historical record like these stamps, there's no room for mistakes," said Giancola.
"You've got to make sure you get the details right. It's a lot of work - but totally worth it," he said.
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Over the past two decades he has designed dozens of best-sellers, but his art entered a whole new universe today when the U.S. Postal Service released 60 million stamps bearing two of his cosmic paintings.
"I'm blown away. It's an honor to be a part of this," said Giancola, 44, a father of two who has lived and worked in his Pacific St. brownstone for 18 years.
Donato Giancola shows illustration for Alan Shepard stamp (below, with other stamp he created).
One stamp bears a portrait of Alan Shepard, a NASA astronaut from New Hampshire who became the first American in space in 1961, and 10 years later visited the moon.
The other stamp shows NASA's Messenger spacecraft, which launched in 2004 and is currently orbiting Mercury and collecting data on the faraway planet.
Both stamps cost 44 cents and will be good for mailing a first-class envelope forever.
"The images he's created really capture the drama of space flight," said Layne Owens, manager of stamp development for the U.S Postal Service, which worked with NASA to make sure Giancola's designs were historically accurate.
For the artist, the stamps are the product of months of hard work.
Post office officials commissioned Giancola for the job about two years ago after they saw some of his cover illustrations for classic science fiction novels such as H.G. Wells' "Time Machine."
Giancola immediately began an exhaustive research process, reviewing hundreds of photos of the astronaut and spacecraft he would depict on the stamps.
He created dozens of rough sketches that he refined with input from post office art directors working with NASA.
Once the final designs for the two stamps were selected, Giancola created small oil paintings for each of them, which were scanned and transformed into stamps by post office designers.
The whole process took about nine months.
"When you're creating art that's going to be a historical record like these stamps, there's no room for mistakes," said Giancola.
"You've got to make sure you get the details right. It's a lot of work - but totally worth it," he said.
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