In the Studio: Original Art | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

November 26, 2024November 26, 2024

Schmidt

Lately, I’ve been enjoying the challenge of tackling different portrait series. I’ve been pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, and I’m also excited to start some new still life and landscape pieces that have been in my backlog for a while.

This is the third portrait in my series inspired by the TV show New Girl: “Schmidt” (played by Max Greenfield). He’s one of my favorite characters from the show, which made it especially enjoyable to take my time and focus on capturing his likeness. I’m planning to create at least three more portraits in this series, making it a much smaller body of work than the one I created inspired by The Office.

September 17, 2024September 17, 2024

Winston Bishop

The other night, I completed the second portrait in my New Girl series: “Winston Bishop” (played by Lamorne Morris). I had a lot of fun working on the colorful pattern of his shirt and enjoyed the overall challenge of tackling another portrait.

Winston is one of my favorite characters from the show, so naturally, I had to create his portrait early on in the series. I’m planning to make at least four more for this collection. Right now, I’m aiming to complete one new collage each month, since my schedule has been pretty hectic lately. Keep an eye out for more New Girl-inspired collages!

August 14, 2024August 14, 2024

Jessica Day

New Girl has always been one of those shows that I can rewatch and still find myself laughing out loud. The characters are so unique and relatable in their own weird ways, and I knew I wanted to capture that in my art. So, I decided to dive into a new portrait series inspired by the show, and I kicked it off with none other than Jessica Day.

Creating this portrait was a bit of an adventure. I used upcycled magazines to piece together the vibrant, quirky essence of Jess. There’s something really satisfying about taking old materials and giving them new life in a way that captures the spirit of a character I’ve enjoyed watching for years. This portrait took some time, but it didn’t feel like a grind—probably because Jess’s infectious energy kept me going.

While I don’t plan on making as many portraits for this series as I did for my The Office collection, I’m excited to see where this journey takes me. I’ve got a few more New Girl characters in mind, and I’m looking forward to bringing them to life with this technique. Stay tuned—there’s more to come!

July 23, 2024July 23, 2024

Andrew McMahon

Andrew McMahon has been one of my favorite musicians for years. Ever since I was a teenager, I’ve put many of his albums on repeat. Even now, as an adult, I continue to enjoy listening to his new and old music, as well as seeing him perform live. I thought it would be great to create a portrait of Andrew since his music has meant a lot to me.

It took me a decent chunk of time to complete this piece, although it wasn’t as much of a struggle as some of my other portraits. I think it would be fun to work on a series of musician portraits, although I might start working on another series inspired by a TV show soon. We shall see…

June 30, 2024July 1, 2024

Gabe Lewis

This weekend I finished the 18th, and last (for now), portrait in my collage series inspired by The Office, “Gabe Lewis” (played by Zach Woods). I may revisit this series again in the future, but for now, I’m putting it aside and turning to something new. It’s been fun tackling so many characters, and I’m happy with how many I was able to complete. This series was definitely a challenge, and I’m happier with some portraits more so than others, but overall, I like how I challenged myself for this one. With my next portraiture series, I definitely want to work harder at being completely happy with every work of art.

Up next? I think I’ll explore making some portraits of musicians before I dive into more portraits inspired by another TV series. And I may alternate between working on a portrait and a collage that can be part of a still life or landscape/cityscape series. To be determined…

May 31, 2024June 10, 2024

Erin Hannon

I can’t believe I’ve made it all the way to portrait number seventeen in my collage series inspired by The Office. “Erin Hannon” (played by Ellie Kemper) wasn’t the easier portrait to tackle, although I may have my recent travels and half marathon training to blame for that. I’ve noticed that some portraits may be more of a struggle than others, especially when I haven’t been able to dedicate a consistent routine to working on them.

And now, I just have one more portrait left in this series before I pivot and work on a new series. Perhaps I’ll revisit this one to add more portraits of supporting characters, but for now, this series is nearly complete.

April 30, 2024June 8, 2024

Andy Bernard

“Andy Bernard” is the sixteenth collage portrait in my series inspired by The Office. This one took a little longer than expected to complete since I was doing a bit of traveling earlier in the month. Thus I wasn’t able to devote a lot of time to collage-making. Hopefully I’ll be able to changes things up in the upcoming months and carve out more time to work on art.

This piece wasn’t as much of a struggle as some of the other portraits have been. I also enjoyed collaging a colorful shirt and sweater vest for him. I’m excited to see what the completed series look like. I believe I’ll have things wrapped up within a couple of months and then I’ll most likely move on to a musician series.

March 14, 2024June 8, 2024

Toby Flenderson

“Toby Flenderson” is the fifteenth portrait in my series inspired by The Office, and I was surprised how easy it was to piece this one together, especially after my last one was a bit of a struggle. Sometimes you have good days and bad days with art. And sometimes you have a piece that’s a struggle while other times you have one that flows together well.

I’m beginning to think about what my next series will be. I’m thinking I may do a portrait series that involves fewer portraits than this one so that I can finish it a little quicker than it took me to work on this one. We shall see…

February 29, 2024June 8, 2024

Karen Filippelli

I cant’ believe I’m up to portrait number fourteen in my series inspired by The Office. “Karen Filippelli” was a rather difficult piece to tackle since my initial sketch was a little too rough. It’s definitely helpful when the initial sketch is more accurate. Otherwise, I end up spending even more time trying to reshape various features of the figure’s face.

Regardless of how much of a struggle this one was, I’m looking forward to continuing the next few pieces in this series. I have about four left that I’d like to work on before shifting gears and starting a new portrait series.

January 29, 2024June 8, 2024

Creed Bratton

I managed to finish one more portrait this month for my series inspired by The Office – this one is number thirteen, “Creed Bratton.” It’s yet another portrait made entirely from magazine cutouts and I mainly focused on using solid colors, with the exception of a bit of texture for his hair. This one took a little longer than usual to get all the details in place. Again, I don’t feel as though portraiture comes naturally to me, and it’s something I’ll continue to work at so I can continue to grow and improve.

I’m planning to make at least five more portraits in this series, so it will be a little while before I start my musician series.