Blog | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

June 8, 2017June 18, 2024

Mark and Sophie

“Mark and Sophie” is a portrait that I was commissioned to make for the wife of a former boss of mine – she wanted to give it to her husband for their anniversary.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a portrait collage, so this piece was definitely a bit of a struggle for me. Usually my collages are relatively flat when you look at the surface – I don’t usually use that many layers. However, for this piece, there are definitely sections where I built up the layers more so than others.

Here’s the sketch that this piece started off with:

You can see that it looks a lot different than the final piece. Sometimes my sketches don’t exactly look the way I want the final product to look, but they do give me an idea of how to block out the entire composition.

Anyway, although this piece was a struggle, eventually all the pieces fell into place. Just goes to show that if you keep at it with something, eventually you can accomplish your goal.

June 3, 2017

Collages from London, England

Jennifer, a teacher from London, England, sent along images of her students’ artwork. The students are Year 1 at a London Primary School, and are five and six years old.

The class learned about my artwork and then made their own collages.

It was a lot of fun seeing what the kids made. And it’s wonderful to hear that at such a young age, they are learning all about how to paint with paper.

May 31, 2017June 1, 2017

Bosty goes to SFMOMA

While visiting San Francisco, Bosty decided to check out the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

He especially wanted to see the Matisse and Diebenkorn exhibit.

So right after he bought his ticket, he went straight to the Matisse and Diebenkorn show. Wow, just look at those bright, beautiful colors that Diebenkorn used!

Next, Bosty wandered around the permanent collection for hours. He loved seeing some of Chuck Close’s intricate portraits.

And Ellsworth Kelly’s bright, abstract paintings were another favorite, especially the painting that looked like painted pixels.

He also liked Ellsworth Kelly’s large, abstract paintings on panel.

Bosty enjoyed seeing all the geometric minimalist work. He saw several pieces by Frank Stella that he just had to have his picture taken by.

He was also surprised to see that Gerhardt Richter had made some colorful, minimalist paintings.

And Bosty liked seeing some of Gerhard Richter’s work in his usual style.

There were some pretty interesting sculptures in the museum too, like Antony Gormley’s “Quantum Cloud VIII,” which conveyed the body as a swarm of chaotic energy, and Richard Deacon’s “For Those Who Have Eyes,” which was a bulb shape based on the anatomy of the human eyeball.

Gunther Forg’s colorful, minimalist pieces were also fun to study for a while.

Bosty really liked Roy Lichenstein’s comic book style art, since it was like looking at life-sized comics.

Bosty ended his visit by walking by Sol LeWitt’s installation art. The simplistic lines and shapes were pretty amazing to see. Overall, Bosty’s museum visit inspired him to want to visit more museums when he heads home to DC.

May 25, 2017May 23, 2017

Wine Glasses

I made this mixed media piece back when I was in college. The assignment was to pick an object, and then repeat it multiple times while treating each version of the image in a different way. Since I was studying painting at the time, whenever I had assignments in my other studio art classes, I turned them into opportunities to work with collage. Here I used magazine cutouts, as well as fabric, thread, acrylic paint, color pencil, graphite, and oil pastel. I also remember having a lot of fun trying to come up with different ways of tackling the same subject. This might actually be a good exercise for me to explore sometime this year, just to kickstart and inspire my art-making process.

May 24, 2017May 29, 2017

Animal Collages from Japan

Coyle-inspired collage made by a student in Japan — Collage by Bella

Erica’s Grade 3 class from Japan made their own animal collages after using one of my online collage lesson plans. It was wonderful getting to see images of their work – I like how several of the students incorporated magazine cutouts that had bits and pieces of text.

I always enjoy hearing from students and teachers who study my work in school, and I enjoy it even more when I get to see what the students have made. It’s a lot of fun seeing how each artist has their own unique style and adds their own bit of personality to their art.

I hope these students continue to make artwork. Their work is already very impressive, just imagine what they could accomplish in a few years!

May 23, 2017June 5, 2024

Foxy

The other day I had a chance to finally finish a new collage – this fox portrait. I also was able to make another time lapse video, which was a lot of fun to put together:

What’s actually a little amusing is that for the previous time lapse videos I made, I used to sit underneath a tripod that held the video camera, trying with all my might not to bump into it while working on the collage. With this one, I realized I can just film the whole process upside down, then flip it when I edit the video. That way I’m free of working under a tripod. In the future, I’d also like to work on using better lighting for these to make it easier to see my process.

May 18, 2017May 19, 2017

Brokenhearted on the Floor

This is a mixed media painting that I made back when I was home for the summer during college. I used magazine cutouts, acrylic paint, a broken CD, thread, and felt. I made this during a time when I was going through a phase where I’d stitch cloth or other canvas onto paintings, sort of creating a collaged painting in a way. This painting has always been a favorite of mine, and to this day it hangs on a wall in my home.

May 16, 2017May 16, 2017

Bosty goes to San Francisco (Again!)

Bosty went to San Francisco again so he could escape the humidity on the East Coast. He decided to start his trip off by visiting the seals at Pier 39.

Then he stopped by the Aquarium of the Bay to see all the underwater creatures. He’s always curious about what other critters look like.

Next, he strolled around outside and got to see Alcatraz Island in the distance.

Then he walked along the Embarcadero, where he stopped by the huge Ferry Building.

There were all kinds of food stands to take a look at. It sure made Bosty feel hungry!

At the end of the day, he sat back, relaxed, and enjoyed the view of the bay. The sun looked beautiful as it was getting ready to set.

The following day, he got to ride a trolly car across town.

And after being lazy on the trolly, he just had to hike across the Golden Gate Bridge again. Just look at those views!

Next, he rode one of the cable cars across town to see the San Francisco Zoo. He was really excited to see all the giraffes there, but didn’t know what they were looking at just now. Are you trying to find me? I’m right here!

After wandering around the zoo for a few hours, he walked up the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps to enjoy the gorgeous view of the city.

But why stop there? Bosty wanted to take a look at a few museums, so he stopped by the de Young Fine Arts Museum to see the Stuart Davis exhibit.

And since he was so close to the Golden Gate Park Japanese Tea Garden, he figured he might as well take a look at all the beautiful plants and flowers there.

He ended his excursion by heading over to Ocean Beach . He noticed that he could see one of the Golden Gate Park windmills from the beach, and just had to get his picture taken in front of it.

Overall, he had one exciting West Coast visit. And he was pretty exhausted after checking out so many touristy places in the city.

May 11, 2017May 11, 2017

Self Portrait – Pondering Walk

Here’s a self portrait mixed media painting that I did during my freshman year of college. If you look closely, you can see that I incorporated magazine cutouts in the hoodie. I also layered paper and painted over it to add texture to the street, buildings, and background. I used a lot of thick paint, and added even more texture with my palette knife.

This was made during a time when I was trying to find ways to incorporate collage into my paintings. At my college, I had to pick a specific concentration in art, and since collage wasn’t an option, I went for the next best thing – painting.

May 4, 2017

Reflective Still Life Study 1

This was the first painting that I did in a series of still life paintings back in college. I call them the “Reflective Still Life Studies,” since I played around with painting glass and the reflection of objects in mirrors. Since this was the first painting in the series, you can see that the strokes seem a little forced and uncertain. I was just getting the hang of mixing colors and painting still life, so it wasn’t until I got to the second painting in the series when the compositions flowed together a little better.