Book Making & NYC Zine Festival

This weekend, I attended the NYC ZINE FEST '09 at
the Brooklyn Lyceum building.

Below is the official poster of the event:

The NYC Zine Festival are made of self-published, homemade,
independent and small publishers.

Some of the Zines I got from the festival:

By GBtran: A Vietnamese American Cartoonist

Below a handmade book by John Mejias:

spread and front cover

I drooled over the
Microcosm Publishing Catalogue below: ( love the illo on the cover) where they've got loads of Zines, books, posters,etc..

Another favorite of mine : Robin Enrico

she created the "Jam in the Band" below:

cover and inside pages:

Las Vegas trip, Day 2

Welcome to Las Vegas:

In Las Vegas, my hubby and I stayed at the Palazzo Hotel .

A view from the Hotel room:

I visited my childhood friend Gochi and Tifanny:

Tifanny prepared a delicious Chinese meal :

Duck & water chestnuts wrapped in Lettuce with Hoisin sauce

Delicious!

We visited the Springs Preserve

Gochi and Madonna at the Springs Preserve:

Cactus:



Gochi and Tifanny's dogs named CuCu and Euro:

These are the dogs wardrobe closet:
Tifanny and gochi holding CuCu and Euro:

Schoolgirl Memories Unfolding

Illustration Friday theme: "Unfold"

by © Maria Madonna Davidoff

School Girl Memories: Las Vegas trip, Day 1

There is nothing like re-uniting with childhood friends and schoolmates again. I sketched this inside the plane bound for Las Vegas where my Friend, Gochi, now lives. We were classmates in a school called Maryknoll, an all girls-private school in the Philippines. Maryknoll is now called " Miriam College" but I, of course, prefer the old name Maryknoll. I have lots of good memories from that School and as an illustrator, lots of nostalgic images appear in my sketches:

This is how our Maryknoll Uniform looked like:

We were such a disciplined bunch!

Oh the Joys of Lunch break:

That's me in our grade school picture below- what a hair!

And here is Gochi:

And here we are at present: Taken in Las Vegas:

Gochi and Mado( my nickname then)

Las Vegas

Wee, I'm flying a again for a short trip ---to Las Vegas,
not to gamble but to visit a childhood friend. See you then!

Illustration inspired by Bali

My entry for Illustration Friday's theme this week : CRAVING

I created this illustration based on a Balinese mythology, inspired by my travels to the island of Bali. I was in Bali last April and I rented a small bungalow which resembles the one in my illustration below. This is an illustration of a Balinese witch who likes to devour children. In the myth, the Balinese children saved themselves from being eaten by dancing.

by: © Maria Madonna Davidoff

After my Asian Trip, Events in New York

I'm Back!

It took me awhile to update my blog since I got back from my Asian trip.

For one whole month, I traveled solo to Singapore, Bali, and The Philippines, except in Vietnam, where I joined Bart, my hubby,who was already there to meet me.
During my trip I had a wonderful time sketching, sight-seeing, meditating and meeting old as well as new friends in Bali, Cruising in a romantic small ship through Ha Long Bay in Vietnam with Bart, taking a nostalgic visit to the city of Singapore where we used to live for a year from 2006 -2007, and then finally, re-uniting with my family in The Philippines.

When I arrived in the States It took me almost 2 weeks to recuperate from my jetlag.

But..... I had artwork to do, new projects to start on and several Books and
Art events to attend to in New York City.

The Book Expo America 2009:

The first event I attended was the Book Expo America held at the Javitz Center in New York.

Inside The Book Expo America at Javitz:
Madonna Davidoff in front of the Book Expo at Javitz Center NYC:

I joined some of my fellow CBIG (Children's Book Illustrators Group) inside the Book Expo:
Below, I am behind a lot of wonderful Childrens Books:

Some things I got from the Book Expo when I got back to my studio:

Bookmaks:

Childrens Books Publishers Catalogs!

My BEA badge and some Children's Book with authors signatures:

Some Totes to carry the tons of Publishers catalogs and books:

Comic & Cartoon Festival 2009:

Another Event I attended was the MoCCA (MMuseum of Comic and Cartoon)Art Festival 2009 held last weekend from June 6th & 7th at the Regiment Armory at Lexington Avenue and 25th Street in New York City.
It was in this same building where the first major exhibition of contemporary art in America was held and where for the first time many Americans saw the works of Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse and Picasso.

It was a great weekend of comic and cartoon art exhibitors, panels, lectures, sketches, autographs, and more! Some of the world's best cartoonists, animators, and graphic novelists were exhibited here.

Here I am with some Illustrator friends infront of the Regiment Armory Building:
Chris Margeson, Marilyn Pappas and (myself-Madonna Davidoff)

Chris Margeson is an illustrator from Baltimore who took these 2 photos inside the Cartoon Festival:
THANKS CHRIS!

Madonna Davidoff at the MoCCA cartoon festival 2009, Photo credit:Chris Margeson

Note: The Rest of the photos below where taken by myself:

I bought a graphic novel by Keenan Rubenstein-His graphic novel was done in a calendar format and I've never seen anything like it before: It has no text, just visuals using the different months to depict the development of his story. It's really cool and his line art were fantastic.

Here is Keenan's Booth with his Calendar/Graphic Novel which he signed for me:

Also met some of Chris Margeson cartoonist friends at their Twin Comics booth:
Cartoonists are fun people don't you think?

I also met Stephanie Ruble, author of " Sheila, The Zombie Cheerleader"
below signing her book for me:

Stephanie Ruble and Madonna Davidoff

Another amazing cartoonist is Ken Wong who does Origami Cartoon.
He taught me how to construct one below:

After the MoCCA Art Festival, together my other illustrator friends, Lisa Lavoieand Marilyn Pappas had a snack at Eisenberg Sandwich Shop which is a New York city landmark - a throwback to the 40's and 50's, right in midtown where they make a good egg cream and pastrami on Rye like the good ol' days.

Here we are at Eisenberg Sandwhich Shop:

Illustrators Marilyn Pappas, Madonna Davidoff & Lisa Lavoie