Umbrella

© 2012 Madonna Davidoff 

Snow Game-walking in the snow ( step by step painting Process)

by Maria Madonna Davidoff

It's snowing heavily again today and so as a tribute to the weather, 

I created this painting entitled " Walking on a Snowy Day". 

Let me share you my step by step process:

1. I did a rough sketch with pencil on newsprint paper: 

( based purely on my imagination-no photo references or model was used here )

2. Using acrylic and canvas , I started painting the background using

mainly sky blue diluted with Titanium white.

3. Then I continued putting on other colors of yellows and cadmium orange with
bits or raw sienna and white for the skin tone

4. I continue to cover the whole canvas with colors:

5. I continued the painting by outlining all the elements with a brush. 

6. Finally, I painted the snow falling:

Voila! The painting is finished:  total time of work:  3 hours

medium: acrylic on canvas size: 16" x 20"

© Maria Madonna Davidoff

Maria Madonna Davidoff Postcard Art:

©Maria Madonna Davidoff

This is a watercolor painting I've done based on a story of a Little Girl and a Turtle. It was exhibited at the Society of Children's Book Illustrators 2003 conference in New York City. I was surprised and happy to find out that it won an award as one of the 10th finalist out of 250 submissions.

Here is an article about the award : Maria Madonna Davidoff at SCWBI Artist Showcase

The original water color painting was sold at the exhibit , but I had postcards of it printed professionally and they are available at my shop:CraftyMadonna

Maria Madonna Davidoff

Self Portrait in Old Age"

© Maria Madonna Davidoff

view my blog here

A Little Gift for all of You

Two days from now, I'll be leaving for Asia.

I've created A Traveling Paper Doll just for you:

By Maria Madonna Davidoff

I used to play and make my own paper dolls when I was a kid . I still enjoy making them for my daughter Bianca to amuse herself during long trips. Now that I will be flying solo for the first leg of my trip to Singapore and Bali, I have to amuse myself for the long flight by:

Drawing...... Journaling.... finishing a draft of a picture book dummy I'm working on:

Stretching and Walking around the plane ( when there's no turbulance):

Chatting with friendly passengers (I always meet interesting people on board) :

Meditating......

Watching lots of Movies, ...

Listening to good music....Drinking lots of water so I don't get dehydatred......

and of course Reading.....

Here's my travel reading list:

See you on board!

An Artist Morning Ritual

By Maria Madonna Davidoff

To have a good life, one must start the day making meaning -- I am currently reading : The Van Gogh Blues by Eric Maisel. There's a chapter about making meaning in an artist life and it made me think about my own life and that is :
Unless I start my day drawing, sketching, painting or writing or doing something creative first, I feel that I can tackle the rest of my day happily. It has become one of my early morning rituals. I am an early riser--very early sometimes even before dawn, I am already wide awake! And the first thing I do after I make myself coffee is to go to my studio and start "playing"--doodling, jotting down ideas and writing in my journal, painting freely and experimenting with colors, etc. After I mess around in my studio, I calm down . And only then can I start working on my real work seriously...my illos, picture book projects, my painting series..etc.

How about you? How do you start your day?

Maria Madonna Davidoff Spot Illustrations

So, I am starting again to update my portfolio and my website

Here are a few colored samples. I've created these in pen & ink and colored in Photoshop:© Maria Madonna Davidoff

More spots illustrations which I've created in pen & ink and colored in Photoshop:

© Maria Madonna Davidoff

Someone Has a Big Foot!

by Maria Madonna Davidoff

The foot of Ranji--a character in one of the picture books I've illustrated
entitled Ranji the Baker : A Malaysian Folktale

This Picture Book was inspired by my trip to Malaysia, while living in Singapore.

Tea Party

by Maria Madonna Davidoff

Very early just before dawn
a fairy appeared to have a tea party with me.

This is another painting for my Fairy Series which
you can view in my blog.

Winter & What I am Working on

By Maria Madonna Davidoff

Yeah, it's still winter here, but I am not complaining.
I love to hibernate in my art studio and work on my projects.
These are what I am working on today and you can also view them in my blog.

I am illustrating Magic on the Rooftop again
written by Mari Mine Rutka, published by Crane Publishing .
I have to come up with a newer updated version of Illos.
The first version was really an old style of mine.
You can see the evolution of my style.


Here is the old illustration version of Magic on the Rooftop:

Here is a my process for Magic on the Rooftop:

1. I sketched in pencil , scanned and inserted an image of the teddy bear:

2. I colored the lineart in photoshop for my color studies:

2. Then I imported the text and made more color adjustment:

I have fourteen more pages to work on for this project.

Happy New Year 2009

Happy New Year 2009!!

I was in Europe last December with my hubby and I did some sketches

using my new Moleskin artist book ( watercolor pad) Pencil drawings.

This one was done during the 7 hrs flight from NY to London.

As seen from the flight map screen in front of me.