Lucky Lefty

Hey Punk!

2011-12-13T15:57:00.000-08:00

My newest piece, wrestler CM Punk- marker on an acrylic background.

FREE(!!!) Giveaway Contest!

2011-11-17T09:26:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody, is it your dream to own a piece of Lucky Lefty art but not have to pay for it? Well, I'm giving you an opportunity to make that dream comes true with this contest!

I'm giving away a 16 x 16 inch Lucky Lefty Box Canvas Print to the winner of this contest. That's $100 bucks retail value!

You get to decide which 1 of these 3 prints you want:

How do I win this, you may be asking yourself? Simply:

A) Follow @DAVEKUSH on the Twitter

B) Tweet this exact phrase:

"Follow @DAVEKUSH to win 1 of these

http://davekushner.blogspot.com/2011/11/free-giveaway-contest.html"

C) Sit tight, and on Wednesday, November 30th I'll randomly select a winner!

Jose Jose Jose Jose Joseeeeeee Joseeeeeee!

2011-07-14T13:24:00.001-07:00

Like most met fans, one of my favorite current Mets (hopefully for a long time) is Jose Reyes. I remember back in the summer 2002 when I first heard about "the Mets most exciting prospect since Darryl Strawberry". By '04 he was in the big leagues, but not without some injury troubles. By 2006 he had put it all together, and was fulfilling his potential as one of baseball's best players. Injuries caught up to him again, but this season he came out firing on all cylinders. Now he's the National League's probable MVP and his contract is ending. If the Mets can't retain him I can honestly say it could be too much for me to handle as a fan. Hopefully Alderson and co. know what they're doing.

For whatever reason, I haven't tried capturing any of the current Mets with my art. Reyes, however has been one of my most heavily requested subjects. The fanbase is simply inspired by him, and I am too. Along with being my first piece of a current Met, this also another first for my Lucky Lefty line- a collaboration with the photographer of the picture that served as the basis for the drawing. I hit up Mets photographer extraordinaire, and Metsblogger Michael Baron on Twitter (@michaelgbaron) and was into it. A couple emails later and I was drawing away. Check out Michael's website here. When working on my Lucky Lefty pieces I strive to capture sports' personalities in dynamic lighting, I sense that is Michael's goal with his photographs, which made using one of his photos a perfect match.

The Piazza Man Delivers!

2011-07-12T08:18:00.001-07:00

Just finished this new Lucky Lefty piece. This is something new I'm giving a whirl- doing smaller pieces in mixed media, mostly marker. The background is orange acrylic paint, which had the unintended result of reminding me happily of Shea Stadium. The paint I used was transparent, so in order to get it even I had to put a ton on. Kinda like how Shea used to not actually get anything fixed every year, they just slathered on new coats of orange paint every season.

I love the source photo of Piazza that I based the piece on. Piazza looks so intense, but a little forlorn in it. The American flag patch on his hat (and blonde highlights) place this picture in 2001, after 9/11.

Updated 07/13/11: This is now available as a print on my Etsy shop: CLICK HERE

Own a Piece of LUCKY LEFTY!

2011-06-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

After multiple requests about prints and buying my art I've finally got it together and started up an Etsy shop.

So check it out, I've got products available at various price points- high quality giclee prints for 30 bucks, and box canvas prints starting at $80.

All of the Lucky Lefty prints are available, including BIGGIE, KEITH, SANDY, GANGSTA, and more!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LuckyLeftyArt

Life After Death

2011-04-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've been touching up the painting today, and finishing up the sides of the canvas (as seen in the the post before this). Sometimes the hardest part with painting isn't painting- it's stopping.

There's always imperfections that will drive you crazy, but as my buddy Matt Fried told me, "That's why it's a painting" as opposed to a photo.

This piece is for sale, by the way, so hit me up if you want Big Poppa up on your wall.

"Check it, we can do this every weekend. Keep banging."

Oh, I just remembered to spray varnish on it.

How I Do

2011-04-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

I recently read a great blogpost by Austin Kleon called "How to Steal like an Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me)" that really inspired me while working my latest painting

(read it here: http://www.austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/).

One of Kleon's points is that artists should share their processes. He says, "Artists aren’t magicians. There’s no penalty for revealing your secrets... I get a lot of inspiration from people like Bob Ross and Martha Stewart. Bob Ross taught people how to paint. He gave his secrets away. Martha Stewart teaches you how to make your house and your life awesome. She gives her secrets away."

I agreed with this, and for a while had been thinking about putting together some posts not just documenting my work, but detailing a little about how I make the work.

Which leads me to masking tape.

Masking tape is my secret weapon while painting. Every time I need a clean edge I use masking tape. I didn't learn this in art school, I learned this in preparation for a floor hockey tournament at summer camp. This tournament was a big deal at my camp, and a big part of it involved the painting of the boards that surrounded the rink. I was painting lettering and wanted to have a colorful background behind it that I spray-painting. Instead of painting around the letters first (this I learned in art class: ALWAYS paint the background FIRST), I simply covered the letters in masking tape and went to town with the spray paint.

While painting Biggie I used masking tape to achieve straight lines in the background for the "red and black lumberjack" pattern. I didn't want the edges to be too clean for, I wanted to emulate the texture of fabric so I didn't put the tape down completely flush to the canvas.

It's a simple little thing, but boy it helps.

Another important piece of advice I'd like to give to artists is: Listen to other artists. Not because you'll necessarily learn something new, but because you'll come across something you knew but forgot.

I was reading an interview with comics legend Jim Lee, the definitive X-Men artist for my generation and current Co-Publisher of DC Comics, and in it he mentioned turning his pieces upside down to make sure the composition works. I learned this in 9th grade and probably forgot it sometime around 12th grade. It works.

And Another one...

2011-03-31T16:14:00.001-07:00

Starting laying down the gold for his chain. Tightened the shading on the figure, it's coming together.

BIGGIE Update

2011-03-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

This Goes Out to You, and You, and You...

2011-03-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago it was the anniversary of the death of the greatest rapper ever-Biggie. It's hard to believe it's been 14 years already, and it's even harder to believe that the dude was only 24 years old. I guess it's because I was only 17 at the time, and he was so larger than life, but it's easy to forget he was so young.

I've been considering branching out from painting athletes for a while, into musicians. With the anniversary of my man B.I.G's death, I was inspired to use him as the subject of my first music themed painting.

Originally the background was going to be plain red, with a little red mixed into the figure as an accent, but after the first day of working on it, I was inspired with a better idea for it. It took a lot of time of the past couple days but I was able to change it into the "red and black lumberjack" pattern immortalized by the man in "Juicy". Plus, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I love rocking the plaid, so it was a lot of fun to paint it.

Obviously, I'm only about halfway done at this point, should be finished sometime next week.

What do you think? How should I handle his chain? I'm thinking a metallic gold, do you think silver would work better? What's your favorite Frank White song? Are you a Tupac fan, and disagree that Biggie's the best ever?

Choose Your Weapon

2010-10-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJEa2c_939o

Everybody's gotta remember this right? Magic vs Bird, and the classic Cons that they came out with in Lakers and Celtics colors. I remember really wanting the Magic ones. I don't know why, but for some reason when I was a kid I liked the Showtime Lakers. Don't get me wrong, I was always a Knicks fan, but for a little while there I liked the Lakers, too. It was probably an attempt to differentiate myself from my Michael Jordan/Bulls loving older brother, Zac.

I even had a James Worthy poster up in my room.

So a few months ago I got commissioned to do a Larry Legend piece for someone (Do you want a commission? You can have one! Email me at LuckyLeftyArt@gmail.com). It was my first foray into leaving baseball and painting other sports (not counting the sweet Mark Clayton on a jean jacket I painted for my little brother Perry when I was like 12). I had a lot of fun painting Bird and I got inspired to do a companion piece of Magic.

The Bird painting there is actually a print since I sold the original (it was a commission remember? Do YOU want a commission??).

Hey, if you like my art (why would you be reading this blog if you didn't?) now there's a chance to see it live and in person!

The art will be displayed at the sneaker and apparel store WEST on November 4th for about 2 weeks, or maybe longer.

That's WEST at

147 W 72nd St

New York, NY 10023

http://www.westnyc.com/

Check them out, cause they've got some ill shit there.

"METS Fans for YANKEEEEEEES!"

2010-10-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

As my boys Boomer and Carton say on the morning show on the the WFAN (and now on TV on MSG!) Well, sort of.
My hopes for the playoffs this year basically are:

A) Anyone to beat the Phillies.

and

B) No ALCS Game 7 on October 23rd because I don't need the Yankees fans at my wedding running out to check the score of the game.

I started this piece during the season, and then stopped because the Mets went on a losing streak and I was convinced I had jinxed them with this bit of artistic infidelity. Good thing they started winning again as soon as I shelved the piece, right? Nope!
But as the Fall came around again and the Mets faded (or disappeared instantly) from contention I was inspired once again by the ageless majesty that is Mariano Rivera.

So I'm rooting for a quick series (which isn't helped by the fact that as I write this they are tied 1-1). I do like the idea of the Texas Rangers winning, especially since I am told Ian Kinsler is some kind of distant cousin of mine, or something. But I gotta be honest, I loved that shot of George W. Bush looking like he got the Florida election results back (before they changed them) when the Yankees came back to win Game 1.

So once again, I'm left with just hoping the series doesn't go 7 and most importantly- Phuck the Phillies.

Hope you like the piece, and I'm sorry to any of my Mets fans who I just pissed off by posting this painting.

Oh yeah, this piece is for sale so if you want it holla at your boy.

Sandy's Premiere

2009-11-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday evening I attended the second Young Leadership Gala for the Jewish Children's Museum in Brooklyn, NY. I debuted my first print, my portrait "SANDY" for the occasion. I print was donated to for the event and raffled off in a silent auction. The night was a blast and it was really exciting to show my art. I think it all went over really well. A very unscientific measurement/ comparison of the my box vs the one for New Jersey Nets tickets resulted heavily in my favor- so bite me Eduardo Najera!

I've gotta give more thanks to my buddy JAAAASSSSSSHHHHHUA (Josh), without whom it wouldn't have been possible. Josh got the print made and transported us (the print + me) to the Museum and worked to have it included for this terrific charity. That's Josh and I there posing with the print.
Also happily, my good friend Brad won the print, so I can still visit with it.

On Second Thought, Let's Do Something About the Guyliner

2009-11-12T06:08:00.000-08:00

When posting completed paintings, I always tease the possibility of reworking certain aspects. (see: "GANGSTA") but then I'm usually contented and leave them alone. Call it anxiety over putting my piece out into the world, or as my buddy Josh says "sending your kid to their first day of school". Well, in this case I realized that the dark line under Sandy's eyes made him look like Richard from Lost. Luckily the problem was pretty easy to rectify and I was left with a painting that looked better than it did the day before. So here it is, da! da! da! da! the completed image!

If you dig this painting and you find yourself wanting to own a high quality reproduction of it, now's your chance! The Jewish Children's Museum in Brooklyn will be raffling off my first ever print at their Young Leadership Committee Fall Gala. For anyone that lives in the New York area, this is a great party for a great cause and you should totally come. Here's the link for the event: https://www.jcm.museum/ylc/ylc_gala_09.asp

I would be remiss not to mention the amazing, brilliant and one-of-a-kind Matt Fried, who generously photographed my painting and made it look better than I could have imagined. Check out more of Matt's brilliance at: http://www.gradientmagazine.com/

New Painting- Complete!

2009-11-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

Thanks to those playing along at home, hope you've enjoyed following my progress on this painting.

New Painting-Update 11/9/09 pm

2009-11-09T16:16:00.000-08:00

Well, it's starting to look pretty close to finished. I may or may not add some of the line work that I have used on the last paintings.

New Painting-Update 11/9/09 am

2009-11-09T08:17:00.000-08:00

I worked on the highlights in Sandy's jacket yesterday:

New Painting-Update 11/6/09 pm

2009-11-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

Update before I start to get ready to go out tonight. Drinking a Scotch.

Oh, happy Bar Mitzvah to me. This is my Bar Mitzvah date I just realized, way too many years ago.

New Painting-Update 11/5/09 pm

2009-11-05T18:56:00.000-08:00

Here's another update before I pack it in for the night.

For any viewers of HBO's 'Bored to Death': I'm at a good stopping point.

New Painting-Update 11/5/09

2009-11-05T06:09:00.000-08:00

Now it's starting to really come together. The patches of grey are gelling into facial features, and I'm pretty happy with how the neck is shaping up.

New Painting-Update

2009-11-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

Hey hey. I've got an update on my Koufax painting. I've been busy with a lot of other artwork (comics and stuff) so I put Sandy on the bench for a couple weeks. I'm now working on it in earnest though. Right now it looks like this painting will be donated to a charity, and that's a pretty cool feeling.

Originally I was going to go in a different direction for the background, but the background concept I had in mind didn't work as well as the one we see here. I was going to use this background for another player painting down the line, but I like it here. It should look good when I put that Dodger Blue into his jacket.

New Painting

2009-10-06T09:04:00.000-07:00

Pretty psyched about the positive reception to "GANGSTA". Thanks for being patient all those who contacted me about buying prints. There will be information very soon. Thanks again for the support, this has been a lot of fun.

I started a new painting yesterday, this time a non-Met. As a left handed Jewish kid, obviously I'd have to a pretty strong affinity for Sandy Koufax, so here's the beginnings of "Sandy":

It's Done! (Mostly!)

2009-10-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

I've completed "GANGSTA", my new painting of Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden. These guys were favorites of mine growing up, and I'll always love them. Hope you like it!

I may tweak a little, but it's mostly completed.

Wolvie style

2009-09-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

In honor of my beloved Michigan Wolverines' 4-0 start of their season, here's a drawing of a different Wolverine.

I'm finding my "Sidney style" of drawing is becoming a more natural fit for me when doing established superheroes. I go a little more detailed for the superheroes than I would drawing the Sidney characters, but besides that, it's pretty much the same approach.

I've been listening to the new Jay-Z, and I think its his best since The Black Album. It reminds me of late 90's Jiggaman from around my senior year in high school (I'm olllldddd!
), in the variety of beats and how Hov adopts a different flow for all of them. The only stinker on the album, in my opinion, is the track by the usually reliable Pharrell, although that's growing on my too.

Wuddup GANGGGSTAAAA

2009-09-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hi pals, remember me? Sorry I've been away for a while. Been pretty busy lately. Won't go too much into the real life stuff, but I moved, left my job, went back to school and got engaged, so I can kinda get a pass on my slacking a little bit yes/no?

Well anyway, for anybody who first was alerted to this site through Brooklyn Met Fan and Metsblog due to my painting "Keith" (see below) here is the painting I am currently working on, working title "GANGSTA".

So again, sorry for the long time, no blog. Hope the painting is liked enough (so far) that I am forgiven. The good news is, this time the painting is not being composed for my wall ,so if you want to buy the original, you can! Also, details are currently being worked out for reproductions of both this and "Keith" to be made, for anybody interested in those, as well as future paintings. Thanks!

The Evolution of Mex

2009-07-01T09:17:00.001-07:00

Hello and a pleasant good afternoon to everyone. That was Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen's greeting at the beginning of games to viewers. If you follow baseball at all you know that afternoons and evenings have not been pleasant nor good for anyone who's a fan of New York National League Baseball. I think the Mets have 70 something million dollars on the disabled list and it shows. The only bright part of the Mets dismal season so far is the broadcast team of Gary, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez, among the best in all sports, if not the best in baseball. The three of them bring stellar combination of intelligence, candor and wit that is unmatched in the game.

Keith Hernandez is the man, plain and simple. His excellence extends past baseball and into popular culture thanks to his classic role on Seinfeld. As a kid in the 80's my favorite Met was Darryl Strawberry. No offense to the Strawman, but as an adult I'm all about Mex. When Michelle and I moved into our new apartment there was a spot over our TV that I scouted out immediately, and I declared that I would be painting a portrait of Keith. Michelle, reasonably so, thought I was insane. But sure enough, last week I went over to Pearl Paint and bought a whole bunch of supplies and began my first painting in years. I documented my progress via webcam and Twitter (DAVEKUSH, follow me) and now I put it all here.

This is my preliminary sketch, based on an awesome photo of Keith from, I think, the '87 or '88 season:

After that I put it on to the canvas. I had to rework the composition a little, to make it tighter. The first sketch was on 5 by 5 inch paper, below is what was on the canvas, which was 30 by 30 inches. After that was done I began painting the background:

Next up,, I got to the fun part, which was painting Keith. I was trying to approximate the look and style of my work on Sidney, which I do in markers. This I was doing with acrylic paints. I started off using a wash of very light grey paint and mostly water. I then began to build over that, adding darker layers. Also, you can see I began filling in the dots in the background with orange.

And there it is, the completed painting. I added more darks, some line work and of course the awesome 80's Mets racing stripe on his sleeve.

I Do Requests!

2009-06-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

Hi all in Internetland. In my post about moving uptown I mentioned my running path downtown, and how I would now be running in Central Park. I began running in the park recently, and it's been amazing. I run around the Reservoir Path, which is absolutely breathtaking. While you're running at certain points you're surrounded completed in trees, and in other parts you can see the skyline of the city on the horizon. The entire time you're running around water. It's great. You can't zone out completely though, you gotta dodge tourists who are oblivious that the fact that they are wandering across a running path in the wrong direction, but that's the city for you. Also, I barely managed to avoid getting my ankle bit by an evil and gigantic goose that was waiting along the path to try and merc me out. This has the potential to be way worse than it sounds, trust me.

So as I was running I was thinking (activities where David thinks: running and pooping) about the comment section here and how barren it is. So I thought I'd open it up to requests.

What do you want to see drawn by me? I'm not saying I'll get to all the requests right away, or even at all in some cases (like if your request sucks*), but I'll give it the ol' college try.

Yesterday I inked page 22 of Sidney, which I'm very happy with. I started inking it prior to the move and it wasn't looking great. I think I saved it though. I'll try to get that posted tomorrow.

In the meantime, hit me up with some requests. Also, as you can see I've posted a drawing of Spider-man I did a little while back. I just don't like when posts don't have a drawing attached.

*translation: I can't draw it.

Thursday was Thorsday

2009-06-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been away for a little bit. As you may know we moved a few weeks ago, so I haven't been doing much drawing lately. My creative energies have been focused on putting together Ikea furniture. Putting together Ikea furniture reminds me of playing with Legos when I was kid, except when I'm done instead of having a pirate ship or a space station, I have a dresser. Not really as cool.

Yesterday I put pen (and pencil, and various markers) to paper and drew Thor, as I mentioned I would a bunch of posts ago.

I think Thor is pretty awesome, who wouldn't? He's got a hammer, he speaks vaguely Shakespearean, and he wears red and black Chicago Bulls wristbands (seriously, look one post down at the colored-in Thor on the cover of the "How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way" book). Yeah, Thor got into following the NBA in late 80's and totally became a bandwagon fan for Michael Jordan but so did my older brother Zac, so it's understandable.

I love Thor, but I have to admit one of my great failings as a kid who grew up drawing Marvel Super Heroes is that I always had a really hard time drawing his helmet wings. I'm as happy as I'll get with that here. I also think that Thor should always have a beard because he's a Viking and what kind of Viking doesn't have a beard? But as I was drawing it, I decided to go classic with it and there's actually something kind of awesome about a clean shaven Viking.

The typical Jack Kirby figure is pretty broad, but in Kirby's first issues of "Journey into Mystery" he actually made Thor kind of lanky. He was tall and muscular, but not nearly as broad as the Hulk, the Thing or any other typical early Marvel strongman. Nowadays, everyone is huge which is cool because it translates into powerful looking figures, but it's also pretty uniform. So I thought I'd try to give Thor back his tall and lanky, but muscular figure. I also tweaked his Chicago Bulls wristbands so they looked less like wristbands, and more like Chicago Bulls gauntlets.

Okay sorry again about the lapse in posting. I'll definitely be more regular with it now, again. I should have more Sidney pages up soon, and I'm also in the middle of something really cool that I can't talk about yet (ooohh, secretive!), but I thought I'd tantalize you all with that tidbit.

I got some new music lately that I'm digging: Phoenix, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" (which I'm listening to now), Rancid, "Let the Dominoes Fall" (which sounds like it was recorded in 1998, in an awesome way) and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "It's a Blitz" (which is the best dance rock album Chrissie Hynde never recorded).

Time to get ready, I'm going to the Mets game!

How Not To Draw Comics The Marvel Way?

2009-05-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while waiting for Uptown train home from work (an experience weird in of itself, for this longtime Denizen of Downtown), I was thinking about How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. I first came accross this book in 4th grade at the Maplewood Elementary School Book Fair. I was amazed, it was like "Holy Shit! There's motherfucking books on this shit!? Fucking Awesome!" (apparently I had I cursed up a storm in 4th grade). Suddenly, I was studying this book, learning "the Marvel Way" of drawing comics. The book was incredible, teaching me my first lessons on proportions, anatomy and perspective. Lessons I apparently immeditatly forgot, but that's not the book's fault. I think the first encounter of this book is something that every American artist, from wannabes to pros, around my age would count as a seminal moment in their artistic lives. I also think this is a reason why a lot of American comic artists have fallen behind their international counterparts. Now let me explain, this is nothing against this book, which I believe really was a great help in teaching a lot of great artistic fundamentals.
This is also not a dig on American comic artists of my generation, many of who do amazing an innovative work. I'm just saying that there's a lot who are not, and while this book isn't the cause- it is in some ways the beginnings of it.

I've recently been reading The Neal Adams Sketchbook: Notes From A Master Storyteller . I wish I had read this 15 years ago. There are simple concepts that solve compostion problems that I've been struggling with for years that this book lays out simple solutions to. While The Marvel Way teaches you to, indeed, draw superheroes in the fashion of popular American publishers, it does little beyond that. That's not the book's fault, that's exactly what it advertises. The problem is, that many aspiring comics artists haven't read or tried to learn much more beyond that. As a result, we've got a generation of comics artists best suited to pin-ups done in a style canibalized from what came before it. Meanwhile, international artists are influenced by a multitude of sources, many from comics never really seen in the US, and from all types of artists and designers. The second coming of Will Eisner and Neal Adams didn't come from America, he came from Scotland. While many popular American superhero artists have been aping Art Adams for since the 80's, the Europeans have been studying Alphonse Mucha.

Actually, the biggest innovation in America's comic artists since the publishing of The Marvel Way was the impact that Japanese manga and anime artists had on them starting in the late 90's. I look at this as the beginning of us moving past recycling the influences of the past, of expanding our visual ouevre. Unfortunately, in many ways this extends to visual style only, and not to storytelling. Back in the day, the Marvel way (as in the way that Marvel actually made it's comics, not the title of the book) of drawing comics had a heavy emphasis on stroytelling, as well as style. Artists like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, Jim Steranko and John Buscema (co-author of the book) would present stories in dynamic and clear ways. The tradition continued in artists like John Byrne, George Perez, Walt Simonson and many others. Then there was a long period where there weren't many new artist breaking in and leaving new quality marks on the medium. Of course there are exceptions, but many of these exceptions are older than my generation, even if their rise to prominence seems relatively recent- like Mark Bagley, Patrick Zircher or the late Mike Wieringo.

I don't mean to come off as too pessimmistic about my countrymen, as I write this of course I'm now thinking of many American superhero artists who draw from many sources of inspiration. Ethan Van Sciver combines the best of Neal Adams with the polish of Brian Bolland and a unique emphasis on design and a willingness to get his hands dirty with some nightmarish designs. Scottie Young brings the energy of cartoons and combines it with the flavor and grit of grafitti. Scott Kolins brings an innovative approach to linework almost entirely new in American comics.

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way is a wonderful, and rightly beloved book. But the right now I'm more into How to Draw Comics the Frank Quitely, Bryan Hitch, Edourdo Risso, Steve Dillon, and Alex Maleev Way.

Time to Close the Clubhouse

2009-05-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

For the last two years Michelle and I have lived in a tiny four floor walkup in the Village that we nicknamed "the Clubhouse", because it was roughly the size of a child's clubhouse- if that child had a very small clubhouse. This has been our first apartment together, and tomorrow we move out. It was too small, too expensive and pretty loud. Coming home late at night on a weekend to navigate the stairs was always an adventure (I still don't know how Zac and Michelle got me up the stairs that night). I would constantly stub my toe on the coffee table because there wasn't really enough room around it in the livingroom. If I wasn't moving I'm pretty sure I'd have to stop reading because I long long ago ran out of any room on the bookshelves and there was no room to add another. Our new apartment is oging to be bigger, cheaper, and have a working fireplace. It's right next to Central Park. But man, I know we're gonna miss the Clubhouse for the rest of our lives.
Here's just a list of some thoughts off the top of my head, about what I'll miss and what I've loved about the Village in general, and our apartment in specific (in no particular order):

-Hercules, the Greek man downstairs and his amazing selection of beers. Hercules is a disapearing breed in New York City: a true neighborhood classic. He's had his store "Hercules Fancy Grocery" for 20+ years. Everyone in the neighborhood knows him. He'd accept packages from you, hold keys for a visitor, and just offer his ear and advice. Hercules is being threatened to be priced out of the neighborhood, but what his landlord doesn't realize is that people like Hercules made the neighborhood what it is.

-The running path at Hudson River Park. Remember the plane that landed in the Hudson because of the bird attacks? That was pretty much my view of the water when I go running (I was away when that happened though). On my path for my semi-regular runs I had a view that I could only dream of. I'd see the westside of Manhattan from one view, and the Statue of Liberty from another. I'd see people you won't find anywhere else in the world, pickup soccer games, families, dogs, and sometimes some man on man action (won't miss that last part too much, but do your thing, dudes).

-Hunching over the low coffee table, on our uncomfortable couch drawing "Sidney", next to Michelle. We'll have more room, maybe even an actual art desk, and a generally more comfortable work situation, but it'll never match this.

-W 4th Street and 6th Ave, which is the last frontier of crazy ass old school New York City.

-The best restaurants in the city, and maybe the country.

-Our dishwasher, even though it didn't work too great.

-The view of 7th Ave from our window. It wasn't a beautiful view, but it was often more entertaining than what was on TV.

-The way that crowded apt would fill up during a party. It was wayyy too small, but it always held just enough of the people I consider to be some of the best friends a person could have.

-The downtown proximity to Wo-Hop, the greatest Chinese food restaurant in the history of the planet Earth.

I'm looking forward to the new apartment uptown. We're going to love it, I know, but I know I'll always think of the West Village as my neighborhood in the city.

Sorry about having no art to go with this post, but I think every picture I've posted on the blog so far was done at this apartment.

MIGHTYDAVEKUSHNER.COM vs. MIKE TYSON

2009-05-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

Hey evwyone, dis is formah Heavyweight Champion and cwassic vidieya game stwar Mike Tyson guest-bwogging here to tell all'a yew about da new web addwess for Dave's website. Bwog, uh, bahwa, um blogspot was a widdle unweildly to have in 'a web addwess, so instead Dabe got a new addwess: WWW.MIGHTYDAVEKUSHNER.COM. Dabid had to go toe to toe with me, after he got the Mark of da Queensbury and we fought. I destwoyed him, but he pwooved that he had great power so I let him have the addwess 'cause he is indeed vewy mighty.

TRANSLATION: "Hey everyone, this is former Heavyweight Champion and classic video game star Mike Tyson guest blogging here to tell all of you about the new web address for Dave's website. Blog, uh, bloog, um blogspot was a little unweildly to have in a web address, so instead Dave got a new address: WWW.MIGHTYDAVEKUSHNER.COM. David had to go toe to toe with me, after he got the Mark of the Queensbury, and we fought. I destroyed him, but he prooved that he had great power so I let him have the address because he is indeed very mighty. "

If you like the blogspot address it will still work, or you can put in: WWW.MIGHTYDAVEKUSHNER.COM in order to get this blog. Thanks for your support, and more importantly thanks for putting up with my typed Mike Tyson impression.

Another Page From "Sidney Abraham"

2009-05-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

This is a page from near the beginning of Sidney. The first panel features Joe, a childhood friend of Sidney's, and the next few are his sister Leslie. The last panel is Sidney's best friend Jerry. Note the placeholder "band poster" behind Jerry. This is like that Wolverine movie leak where the effects were left out, except instead of explosions and stuff, I'll be digitally adding a band poster. And an explosion. Check out that kitchen behind Leslie, man doing those tiles over and over again was a biznatch, but I love how it came out. Michelle designed it awesome.

The Mets are not awesome right now. I've got to address it. I usually tend to be pretty optimistic, which is really weird for a Mets fan, but the team is severely trying my optimism. Basically, I'm praying for the health of Jose Reyes. I'm feeling some deja vu from 2006 when the strongest Mets team in years hit a really bad time, healthwise, in their season and went to Boston to get swept the hell out of there. This has the makings of that, only this time Pedro Martinez isn't receiving any beer from Jason Varitek. And why the hell are the Mets playing the Red Sox in Interleague in Fenway again? Like they need help selling out their stadium? I went to one of the exhibition games vs. the Sox at Citi, but that doesn't count. Oh well, maybe I'll get to see David Wright put one over the Monster- but probably not.

Hey people, it would be awesome if you left some comments. I'm a little afraid to be writing that in a Mets-heavy post, but oh well it's not like I haven't heard (or thought) the potential abuse before.

You know what I hate? The blinking red light on my Blackberry. It's always freaking blinking. Leave me alone evil red light! Why couldn't they go with a color that doesn't remind me of the Terminator's eyes? Is this step 1 of Skynet taking over? I probably won't get around to seeing Salvation for a while, although word on the street is I'm not missing much.

Meet Cosmossus

2009-05-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

Say "hi" to Cosmossus. Cosmossus ('Coz' to his friends) is an ordinary guy looking for love, friendship, and planets to eat- like anyone else. Coz is the star of an webcomic called Hungry Space God Seeks Female, coming eventually from me and the brilliant Blake J. Harris (check out tyrannyrocks.com to see just how brilliant). HSG Seeks F is the adventures of Coz and his friends Star Skater (the lothario) and The Voyeur (the voyeur), as they take on all the perils of modern dating. In Space. With other space gods. It's our love letter to Jack Kirby and Jim Starlin and Seinfeld (right now brilliant Blake is thinking "Wait, who's Jim Starlin??"). So far we've got the two installments written and thumbnailed out, but I'm waiting to to finish Sidney before getting really into it. This is just a quick look at Coz for fun.

You know what else is fun? Method Man and Redman, that's what. Check this pretty awesome and hilarious interview with them from NYMag: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/05/method_man_and_redman_on_black.html

The "fellow emcee taking exception to Meth’s placement in Vibe (Magazine)'s ranking of the Best Rapper Alive" is Joe Budden. Joe Budden, who had a one marginally popular song like 6 years ago ("Do yo thing mama do yo thing! Fellas! Do yo thing Do yo thing, fo sho!"), is lucky that he can talk about Method Man so that someone, anyone, is talking about Joe Budden (Dave Kushner's got your back Mr Meth, Hot Nickels!).

A lot of people on the internets are talking about the Thor movie casting. I haven't seen Star Trek yet so I don't know much about the dude they cast as Thor (I haven't even seen Wolverine or Watchmen yet either, I'm a bad nerd) but he doesn't seem like a bad choice. Well, this has gotten me thinking about Thor (more than usual anyway), so expect to see a Thor drawing on here one of these days.

I'm not even talking about the Mets today.

More Pages From "Sidney" and an Explanation of Our Process

2009-05-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

I've got a couple more pages from "Sidney" for youse all to peruse. These are a pretty important couple of pages from towards the end of Act One. Featured are Sidney's best friend, Jerry and the object of Sidney's attentions, Cammie, along with the Sidster. We've also got the breakout character of the story, Angry Rabbi and Sidney's sister Leslie pops up again as well. Be sure to stay tuned for future announcements regarding the Angry Rabbi spinoff series*. Michelle drew Cammie and designed her outfit and I think she really killed it. The basic way we work is, we'll divide up the pencilling duties, with me taking the majority of the characters, and Michelle will pencil the backgrounds, and draw Cammie, as well as design her outfits. I'll then make some edits on the pencils to make sure everything looks uniform and then I'll ink it all. I ink with Copic Multiliner Pens (http://www.fineartstore.com/Catalog/tabid/365/CategoryID/16367/List/1/Level/a/Default.aspx?SortField=UnitCost,UnitCost) and I do the greytones with Prismacolor markers of various greys.

It's a good thing I decided against staying up for that Mets game last night. Yeesh.

*Do not stay tuned for that.

Street Force!

2009-05-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

I can remember it like it was yesterday: Sitting in math class, intently behind a pencil and a piece of paper. Naturally, I didn't have the faintest idea what was going on in class. I wasn't paying attention, I was drawing. I had made up my second superhero* in 4th grade, the Super Pirate and now I was expanding my "universe" to give him a team of allies, Street Force (not to be confused with a street team, as in volunteers for a record label who puts up posters prior to a Jadakiss concert). Pictured to the left are Super Pirate (background, in case the Jolly Roger didn't give it away) and Street Force member Fireball (foreground). Super Pirate was a little kid that could turn into a magic pirate (clearly!), and Fireball was an escaped prisoner from the the secret civilization of fire beings that live below the surface of the planet Mercury (naturally!). Recently I was contacted for a potential gig, and they wanted to see if I could draw superheroes, so I decided instead of drawing existing characters I'd dust off a couple of my old creations. I don't think the gig is happening, but it was fun playing with some old toys. Also, it was a good feeling to work in a pseudo 90's Jim Lee-esque style.

The Mets are continuing their West Coast road trip, beginning a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers- which means the game doesn't start 'til 1o, which means I will not be staying up to watch it, because I am old and I require sleep.

*My first superhero, Bolt, was clearly influenced by the then airing awesome Flash TV show. Later the Flash would go on to become Dawson Creek's dad.

Yum, Falafel!

2009-05-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hello, three existent readers I now have. Here's a piece of unsolicited advice: after eating food with exotic spicy, uh, spices, make sure you wash your hands well if you are prone to itching your eyes. Granted, you should pretty much always wash your hands prior to itching your eyes, right? Pink eye, random doorknob gunk, random subway pole gunk and the Swine Flu (topical!) have nothing on your eye continuing to itch and burn from the aforementioned spices. This happens to me way more than it should. So I guess the real lesson here is: wash your hands after coming into contact with me.

What was I eating? I was eating falafel from Sam's Falafel, on Thompson Street in the Village. I went for a walk to clear my head (Dave's feeling a little stressed these days) certain that the streets of New York would brighten my day. Or at least provide me the opportunity to ignore a bunch of well intentioned people on the sidewalks with clipboards. I came across Sam's, and realized that in addition to clearing my head I should fill my stomach. I had a nice little chat Habdid, the guy making my falafel (Sam is his friend who(m?) he runs the store with). I had a nice little chat with Habdid about NPR, which he was listening to. We talked about why he liked NPR and the world in general, and New York in specific. I left with my head cleared and my faith in humanity a little more strengthened. I hope he doesn't hate Jews.

Speaking of Jews, I've got a page to show you that's plum full of them!

Pictured are: Sidney's mom, Estelle, Sidney's sister Leslie, Sidney's friend Danny and Sidney himself (along with a much younger Danny still with his luxurious flowing locks)

Also on my walk I went to take a look at Thompson Comics, but it was closed. Hey Thompson Comics! It's was 12:30 on a Monday, shouldn't you be open?

New Blog, May Soon Have a New Name

2009-05-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hello to all the nonexistent people who are reading this blog. This is the first post of Karate and Flying: The Blog of Dave Kushner. The purpose of this blog is to post about the progress of the various art projects and whatnot that I am working on.
The main project is "Sidney Abraham", a graphic novel that I wrote and am co-illustrating with my amazingly talented girlfriend, Michelle.
"Sidney" is the story of, well, Sidney Abraham ( pictured left)- an ex Yeshiva boy (that's like Catholic School for Jews, minus the skirts but plus rabbis, for my non-semetic friends) making his way as a pitcher in Minor League Baseball, in the 1970s. It's got religion, baseball and Jewfros.
Beyond that, I'll post the sketches and doodles that I'm always drawing of various superheroes and things that amuse me, that I usually throw away. Hey, if it's good enough for the garbage pail, then it's good enough for the internet!
I'm sure I'll also post what's on my mind on any given day (translation: The Mets).

Have fun not reading this, all you imaginary people*!

*I had an imaginary friend when I was little. I named him Petey and he was Woody Woodpecker but with a different color scheme. I never actually imagined him or anything, but I decided I was the kinda kid who should have an imaginary friend, so the best I could do was rip off a pretty annoying already existing character. I drew him and decided he was imaginary friend and that was it. Which is okay really, because the alternative would be that I was a weird lonely child who made up friends.