3d Collage Character Study: Birdy in a Tree

Birdy animation by Megan Coyle

A few days ago I mentioned that my brother (an animator in NYC) and I worked on a 3d collage character study (Birdy). Recently I collaged a background for Birdy, and worked on some bark texture and a few collaged leaves. Above you can see what Birdy looks like in his new environment.

Birdy animation by Megan Coyle

Above is another image of Birdy, although this time a filter has been applied to the image.Now all we need to do is animate the little guy and have him say a few lines.

Papirmasse in the Mail

Collage artist Megan Coyle

The other week I got my copy of Papirmasse in the mail, which is a publication based in Canada that features prints of artwork alongside writing. I was thrilled to be part of the September postcard edition, and was happy to get ten postcard-sized prints of artwork in the mail. Just look at them all! Looks like I have quite a few more prints to add to my bulletin board.

Collage artist Megan Coyle
Collage artist Megan Coyle

On each postcard, there’s a print of a work of art on one side (above is a print of my “Snorkeling” collage).

Collage artist Megan Coyle

And on the other side is a short piece of writing.

Birdy Animation

Birdy by Brendan and Megan Coyle

About a year ago my brother (an animator in NYC) and I got started on a collaborative project. We put together a 3d character study of a bird. Now we’ve decided to revisit the birdy character and give him an environment. We might even animate him and have him say a few lines. Anyway, above is an image that my brother created to help plan out the birdy’s environment. Now the ball is in my court and I need to come up with collaged texture for the tree branch, leaves, and create a collage landscape scene that we’ll add into the background.

Papirmasse: The September Issue

Megan Coyle art in PapirmasseHere’s the image that Papirmasse put together to advertise all their artists in the September issue – can you tell which one is mine? You can take a look at all the art and writing in more detail on their website.

At the moment, I’m still working away on some commissioned portraits. The dog portrait has been a lot of fun – it’s an image of two Boston Terriers (I hope Bosty doesn’t get too jealous). The reference photos the client sent me are just fantastic – these dogs are so expressive! Can’t wait to share the progress pictures!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Studio Update: Keeping Busy

Drinking Coffee All Summer Long by Megan CoyleThis image says it all – aside from working away on artwork all summer, I spent quite a bit of time drinking cups of coffee to stay awake and alert. I have a tendency of not sleeping very much, mainly because I’m a busy body – I always have something on my plate that I’d like to work on. And oddly enough, the less sleep I get, the more alert I feel in the morning, whereas the more sleep I get, the more tired I feel. Anyway, what were you up to this summer? Any traveling across the country/world? I just made a trek to North Carolina for a long weekend so I could install my artwork in the “Out of the Wild” exhibit. Other than that, my travels have been limited to wandering around DC.

My blog has been a bit quiet this year – I’ve been bogged down with work for Duck & Fish and recently I took on several commissioned projects. I’ll post progress pictures of the commissioned pieces sometime in the future. I’m also going to take a few classes this year in graphic design and web design – I’m always eager to learn more about other creative outlets.

Megan Coyle's Coffee Thoughts
In other news, the “Out of the Wild” exhibit received a bit of press coverage from a local news station. Also, a writer from my college Elon University wrote an article on my work as an artist – “In The Spotlight: Megan Coyle ’08.”

Anyway, I’m off to get started on a commissioned dog portrait. I hope to post a progress picture or two somewhat soon.

Postcard Artist for September Issue of Papirmasse

Megan Coyle Collage Artist

This is being re-posted from Papirmasse’s interview with me that was posted on their website today. I’m excited to be one of the featured artists in the September issue of their publication. Papirmasse’s postcard contest garnered entries from all over the world. If you would like to receive this issue, which consists of 10 postcards with art and writing, subscribe by September 10.

P: Who are you and what do you do?

MC: I’m Megan Coyle – a collage artist and illustrator currently based in the Washington, D.C. area. I grew up in Alexandria, Virginia and studied creative writing and painting at Elon University. Since then, I’ve focused on making collages by layering bits and pieces of magazine pages. I’m drawn to art that’s made from one material but looks as though it’s made from an entirely different material – something I try to do with my own work.My artwork has been displayed in various solo and group exhibitions around the U.S. And recently, my collages appeared in the national craft publication Somerset Studio magazine.

P: Sum up your style in one sentence.

MC: “Painting with paper” – where I recreate the look and feel of a painting through the manipulation of magazine strips.

P: What projects are you working on right now?

MC: I recently finished writing and illustrating my first children’s book, Duck & Fish. It’s a story about a mallard duck and flying fish that switch places – Duck goes on an adventure in the depths of the ocean, while Fish explores the sky.I made about thirty paper collage illustrations for the book, and now that it’s complete I’m working on promoting it. Later this year I’d like to tackle another children’s book, so I hope to start brainstorming more storylines soon. I’m also working on a few lesson plans. A couple months back I put together an education section for my website. It was inspired by the students and teachers that contact me every year asking questions about my work. So I decided I should make things easier for them by putting together some materials for bringing collage into the classroom. I’m working on expanding this new section by putting together a couple new online lesson plans. I’m also dabbling with video editing programs since I’m interested in putting together video tutorials that share my work and technique with others.And in between work for these major projects, I’ve been busy collaging commission work and new art for upcoming exhibitions.

Duck and Fish by collage artist Megan Coyle

P: What did you do on your summer vacation?

MC: Lots of traveling to neighboring towns and major cities along the East Coast. I like exploring new places for inspiration. I like all the colors and excitement that places have to offer, and I’m constantly taking pictures of the interesting things I find. I often use my photographs for references for future works of art. So even when I’m traveling, even after a long weekend in New York City or another big city, I still have art on my mind.

I find I’m happiest when I’m constantly busy, but every once in a while I venture off to the beach to take a break, sprawl out, close my eyes, and listen to the water. After all, when it’s summertime it’s nice to clear your head and lounge around.

Mallard Duck

Mallard Duck by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Mallard Duck.” Collage on paper. 9″x12″ Order a print

I had a lot of fun with this one – I focused mainly on texture and tried to stay away from solid colors (although I still went ahead and added a few solid color shapes to this). I didn’t take any progress pictures of the “Mallard Duck,” because I was in the zone while working on him. After I completed this piece, I realized that it may have been inspired by all the mallard ducks I collaged for Duck & Fish.

So in my last post I mentioned we had an earthquake here. Then this weekend we had a hurricane alert for Irene. I heard lots of people swarmed the stores for milk and bread, although I stocked up on books and green tea to read my way through the storm. Turns out it only lasted a day, and it wasn’t that bad at all. Just got a bit of rain and strong winds. The only casualty was our grill that got knocked over, but no damage was done to anything near us. Hope everyone else stayed safe during the storm!

Red Coffee Cup

Red Coffee Cup by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Red Coffee Cup.” Collage on mat board. 5″x7″
Order a print

I completed this piece a while ago and then I put a stack of magazines on it and forgot about it. While sifting through magazines as I worked on piecing together another collage, I found this one again. It was only made with coated paper, and for some reason the solid colors didn’t look right. So I went ahead and started cutting out bits and pieces of texture from magazines until the collage looked like the image above. Temporarily losing this work of art helped me in the end – I was able to look at it with a fresh pair of eyes and make adjustments that made the collage more colorful.

In other news…did you hear? D.C. felt an earthquake yesterday. I thought it was construction and didn’t think twice, but when folks started evacuating from all the buildings on the street, I decided I should follow suit. It was strange feeling the floor beneath me shaking. Reminds me of the earthquake we had last year – which was much smaller than yesterday’s. Last year, I stayed up until five o’clock in the morning working on a project – felt my chair vibrating and saw my computer monitor shaking, thought I must be hallucinating from sleep deprivation and decided to call it a night and go to sleep. Didn’t realize what had happened until I read the news the next day. Craziness.