Megan Coyle | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

July 13, 2022July 13, 2022

Wildlife Collages from East Sussex, England

Wildlife student collage inspired by Megan Coyle

This week I heard from James, a teacher at Newick Primary School in East Sussex, England. His Year 3 class recently did a project about British wildlife, and they made collages inspired by my art. I had so much fun taking a look at their work and thought I’d share a few of the collages. The students did a wonderful job working with texture and solid colors.

You can see that they incorporated fragments of images from magazine pages, especially for the backgrounds. I think it’s really fun to see the mix of fragments of greenery from nature alongside some solid colors and colorful textures for the foreground.

I also loved seeing how the students recreated collages of wildlife like the owl and fox.

It’s so exciting to see the collage work of young artists. I hope these students keep at it, since after all, it’s an amazing feeling to see how much your artwork can grow the more you practice it.

June 19, 2022August 2, 2022

Ted Mullens

And the sixth portrait in my Schitt’s Creek series is complete. I have two more portraits that I want to complete for this series before I shift to another portrait series, but I may revisit Schitt’s Creek again to make collages of more characters at a future time.

This piece was a bit of a struggle for me. I thought I was getting the hang of portraiture again after being rusty for a while, but I kept struggling with getting the shaping down right. Also, his facial hair changed a few times before I was able to get it in a good place. Sometimes the creative process can take a while…

June 3, 2022September 12, 2022

Stevie Budd

The fifth portrait in my Schitt’s Creek series is now complete. In this picture, Stevie’s shirt looks a little more neutral than the actual piece looks like in real life – it’s actually a little redder. And when I started off with this portrait, my sketch was pretty rough, so I had to work on reshaping a lot of Stevie’s features with magazine cutouts to get things looking the way I wanted them to.

I’m excited to continue this series with about three more portraits. It’s been fun diving back into portraiture and exploring getting the likeness of different figures. It’s been challenging, but it’s also been a lot of fun.

June 1, 2022June 1, 2022

Animal Collages from The British School in Caracas, Venezuela

Student art inspired by collage artist Megan Coyle

Earlier today I heard from Becky, a teacher at a school in Caracas, Venezuela, who sent me images of her class’s artwork. Her students studied my art and then made their own animal collages. I’ve actually heard from Becky a few times over the years, and it’s always exciting to see the collages that her students have made each year.

Some of the students used cut paper, like the one above.

While other students used torn paper for their compositions.

You can also see that they used a variety of textures and solid colors in their works of art. I also like how you can see such a variety of collage styles from this class. I hope they had a wonderful time creating these collages, and that they keep making art – they did a great job!

May 28, 2022September 12, 2022

Moira Rose

This Schitt’s Creek portrait series is really demonstrating how the more you practice something, the better you get. I was feeling really rusty when I tackled the first portrait, and now on the fourth one, I’m really happy with the result. It’s still taking me quite a bit of time to complete these, but I’m happier that I’m feeling more confident with getting the likeness of the characters down properly.

I think I’ll make at least two more collages for this series. I may make four more, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Once I’m finished with the Schitt’s Creek portraits, I’m planning to tackle a New Girl series.

May 13, 2022September 12, 2022

Johnny Rose

This is the third collage I’ve completed thus far for my Schitt’s Creek portrait series. I’m beginning to get a little more comfortable with portraiture again, but it will probably take several more portraits before I feel more at home with it. I’m planning to tackle at least three more collages for this series before I turn to a different character series.

Getting back into portraiture after spending years away from it has definitely been a challenge, but I’m liking the routine I’ve gotten into. As an artist, I think it’s important to find different ways to challenge yourself, let that be via unfamiliar mediums or subject matter. I think after I complete several new portraits, I’ll start to revisit still life and landscape pieces.

April 29, 2022September 12, 2022

Alexis Rose

I haven’t been as active with making new art these days, but I am making an effort to make at least one new collage every month. What’s been going on? Well, I’ve picked up a couple of other time-consuming hobbies (like training for half marathons), which has made it a little more difficult to be as productive.

However, I’m currently focusing on a Schitt’s Creek portrait series, and this Alexis Rose portrait is the second one I’ve completed thus far. I haven’t done too many portraits these days, so I’m having fun with tackling a subject matter that’s pretty challenging for me at the moment. Hopefully the more I make these, the easier it will get. I’ve been pretty rusty, but it feels good every time I complete a new one.

March 31, 2022April 6, 2022

David Rose

Life has been hectic lately – I’ve shifted my focus on some of my other interests, so I haven’t been as active with my art-making. I picked up running recently, and have spent a great deal of time training for upcoming races.

However, I’m still planning to at least make one new collage per month this year. I completed this piece just the other night. It’s inspired by the show Schitt’s Creek, and I’m hoping to do more portraits of other characters soon. I started off with a portrait of David since he’s one of my favorite’s on the show. This portrait was definitely a bit of a struggle, and if you were to see it in-person, you’d notice that some sections have been built up with more layers than others. That’s a common occurrence when I’m struggling with a particular subject matter.

The tricky thing about making a portrait of a well known figure, is that it’s very easy to screw up the details and have the portrait not actually look like the person it’s supposed to be. I’m hoping that by picking up portraiture again, this process can only get easier over time.

February 2, 2022February 2, 2022

The Distinguished Penguin

The name for this collage was inspired by one of my viewers during one of the live sessions I had while piecing together this penguin the other day. The viewer said that the penguin looked like a distinguished gentleman, and I couldn’t help but laugh – thus I had to include the word “distinguished” in the title.

I’ve only completed a few penguin collages over the years, and it has been a while since the last time I completed one, so I was long overdue with making another one. Lately I’ve been on a kick with making these animal portraits. A few of my followers mentioned the other day that they didn’t realize that I did other compositions besides animal pieces, and that’s making me realize that I should probably tackle people portraits once more. They may take longer to complete, but it would be good to get back into it again.

January 18, 2022January 18, 2022

Later Alligator

It’s a new year, and I’ve decided to do my best to maintain more of a balance in my life. This time last year, I had already completed several new works of art, and then felt somewhat burnt out the rest of the year. So this year, I’m going to aim to complete about one new work of art every month so I can ensure that I’m pacing myself. And this is the collage I tackled for this month.

I’ve only ever created one other alligator collage, and it was a commission that was completed years ago. It’s fun to see how my style has changed over the years, while certain elements have remained the same. The challenge with this new alligator collage, was working on the scaly texture, as well as the teeth since this piece was one of my smaller sizes. Overall, I was pleased with the finished product and enjoyed tackling a new challenge.