The Cuckoo Studio

Where there’s He-man…

Mark — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 02:20:15 +0000

…there’s Teela. Just wanted to balance out the testosterone with another drawing. I wish I was able to show you some of the great projects I’m working on right now, but I’m sworn to secrecy. This is just a fun exercise to keep my pencil loose. Well, stylus pen I suppose.

He-Man going Berserk

Mark — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 18:45:50 +0000

I grew up in the 80s. Cheesy sitcoms, knee-high tube socks, feathered haircuts, Reagan, and Saturday morning cartoons. Here’s my spin on (an apparently BALCO-enhanced) He-Man.

Almost There

Mark — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:07:55 +0000

Wow. It’s been a long time coming, and the studio is probably about 80% ready to roll. There’s still the little issue with the sub-site that will be presenting the new comic strips. I’m primarily a print and pre-press oriented designer, so I’m having a tough time deciding what to do with this page. If you look at certain web comics, they tend to be extremely cluttered with all kinds of excessive elements scattered around the page. The themes available for these sites are also somewhat limited. I’d like to present the strip in two varying sizes – a “weekly” format, like what you’d find in your local newspaper, and a Sunday-sized strip. Here’s where it gets interesting.

I’m not limited by size limitations here. There are some wild examples of side-scrolling websites too. And while those are pretty cool from a novelty standpoint, I think the lack of a side scrolling button on most mice might kill the return traffic. If I decided to draw a comic that was 20 feet high and required you to scroll for hours just to get to the end, I could.

But I’m not Jack Kerouac, and this ain’t On the Road.

So while I work on figuring out how to go about this stuff, I hope you enjoy looking around at the galleries and, whatever you do, don’t forget to bookmark us! There’s a lot to come!

The Patent Lawyer

Mark — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:08:36 +0000

If ya think lawyers are scary now, you should’ve seen ‘em back in medieval times.

Incidentally, I really don’t know how he bends his arms at the elbow. And does the Ren and Stimpy influence shine through here? John K.’s the man.

Mesa Verde

Mark — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:58:57 +0000

Have you ever heard the story of the cowboys in the old wild west that went off-trail to track down some stray cattle, only to stumble upon a lost city built into the cliff walls they were standing upon? That’s now known as Mesa Verde National Park, located in SW Colorado. I visited the park with my dad a few years ago, and the guided tour was great. This is a poster made from several shots taken while looking down upon ‘Cliff Palace’. It’s an amazing place. If you find yourself in the area, I’d highly recommend stopping and taking in the sights.

Springfield Junior Blues

Mark — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:21:38 +0000

Ah yes. This was a t-shirt design I was commissioned to do for the Springfield Junior Blues a few years back. I was a junior in high school when this team was in its inaugural year in Springfield. I still chuckle when I think back to when we’d see some of those guys walking around with inverted mohawks after suffering their rookie initiations. They’re a fun team to watch play.

Beat the Goalie

Mark — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:11:07 +0000

This was for a t-shirt design a few years ago. Goalies really are fun to draw. All of those huge pads, cool helmets, and crazy poses when they make saves (or miss, in this case) really offer up some prime illustration potential.

Sales Toolkit

Mark — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:09:48 +0000

This was done for Fellowes® annual sales meeting. The disk contained all of the materials that the sales force needed to rely upon throughout the year (I.E., sellsheets, rebate forms, price guides, PDFs of the marketing materials, videos of the current marketing campaign advertising blitz, and more).

Designing CDs & DVDs are always pretty fun jobs. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to be a designer back when LPs were in style, and you had all of that real estate to play with..

Random Fact for ya: Phil Hartman of Saturday Night Live fame was actually a successful graphic artist before he made it big as a performer on SNL. He was responsible for designing the logotype for Crosby, Stills and Nash.

The Comic Page

Mark — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:40:27 +0000

Along with the rest of the website, there’s still some work to be done. And plans are set. Sterno will be making its debut as soon as the site design is ironed out, but rest assured that when they are, you’re going to have some fun stories to read.

Just consider this a teaser, if you will. Don’t worry if you can’t locate the comics page – It’s not there yet. Down to the last phase. Almost set.

Identity Thief

Mark — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:09:46 +0000

Here’s a fun little guy I created for an identity theft prevention flyer and poster. Vector art created in Illustrator.