Blog | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

September 9, 2022June 8, 2024

It’s Corn

Corn collage by artist Megan Coyle — “It’s Corn,” Collage on paper, 5″x7″
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The other day I decided to breakup my flow of working on portraits by creating this still life collage. It was inspired by a song that has been blowing up on social media these days, and I figured I might as well make a collage of corn, film my process a bit, and share my process while playing the song in the background. The most challenging part of this collage was cutting out every little tiny piece of corn and pasting it down. I was alternating between a few different shades of yellow, and I’m pretty pleased with how it looks. The husk is rather simple and the background is really embracing the textures/fragments of photographs that I found, cut, and then layered.

August 29, 2022July 24, 2024

Twyla Sands

The other night, I finished the eighth portrait in my Schitt’s Creek portrait series. This will be my final portrait for now, however, I may revisit the series in the future to add a few more characters. For the last piece, I figured I’d tackle a portrait of Twyla so I’d have a portrait of each of the Levy’s that starred in the show.

Working on this series was a lot of fun. Some portraits turned out better than others, although that’s only to be expected when you’re feeling rusty with a particular subject matter. Or actually, that’s only to be expected with art in general. Some works of art you’ll really like, while others, not so much.

So, what’s next? I’m planning to work on another series inspired by another favorite TV show of mine. So stay tuned for some more portraiture!

August 2, 2022July 24, 2024

Patrick Brewer

I only have one more portrait to go (for now) in my Schitt’s Creek series. Working on Patrick Brewer’s portrait was a lot of fun. I did a little bit of live streaming for this piece, but for the most part tried to work on it here and there. I ended up using more solid colors than I expected to, but that’s just how my process goes sometimes. Sometimes, my work seems to have a mind of its own…

In other news, I may be a little slow to create new art in the upcoming weeks. I’ve been going through a couple of personal issues right now, so I may need to dedicate a little more time than usual to self care and a different sort of routine. But don’t worry, I’ll be back at being an art-making machine soon enough!

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, 2022July 24, 2024

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, 2022July 24, 2024

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, 2022July 24, 2024

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, 2022July 24, 2024

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, 2022June 9, 2024

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.