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

December 13, 2023June 8, 2024

Phyllis Vance

“Phyllis Vance” (Phyllis Smith) is the eleventh portrait in my series inspired by The Office. Some of my portraits have been a bit of a struggle to complete, but this portrait of Phyllis flowed together. I always enjoy when my process is smooth, although there’s no telling if one portrait will be easier or more difficult to tackle than the next. I think part of the reason behind these inconsistencies is the inconsistencies with my practice – I’m not always able to practice my art that often during the week, and as a result, I can get a bit rusty.

This year was a year devoted to running, although I still managed to complete at least one new collage each month. Next year I’m planning to focus a lot more energy on my creative work, so you will most likely see more new artwork in the new year.

November 30, 2023June 8, 2024

Stanley Hudson

I can’t believe I’ve made it to the tenth portrait in my series inspired by The Office. “Stanley Hudson” (Leslie David Baker) was another fun piece to tackle. It took me a little longer than expected to complete this one simply because I’ve been pretty rusty and out of practice with my art-making. I hope to stick to a more consistent schedule in the future.

The majority of this year, I was pretty slow at piecing together new collages since I was marathon training for quite a while. And now that the marathon is behind me, I’m looking forward to putting more time and energy into my creative work. I want to create a few more portraits in this series but I also plan to work on some other subjects simultaneously. I think I should bring back my live streaming work since it was a great way to keep myself accountable and motivated to stick to an art-making schedule.

October 20, 2023June 8, 2024

Meredith Palmer

“Meredith Palmer” (Kate Flannery) is the ninth collage I’ve completed in my series inspired by The Office. Is portraiture getting any easier for me? It doesn’t feel like it, but when I compare some of my latest portraits to the work I was doing a couple of years ago, there is definitely an improvement. And that’s part of the art-making process – the more you practice your craft, the better you get at it. And even though the progress can be slow at times, there is indeed progress through practicing.

This piece was a little bit of a struggle after I blocked out all of the color. I spent a decent amount of time adding in all the detailing to ensure that Meredith looked like Meredith. Overall, I’m pleased with the result, and I’m excited to get started on yet another portrait in this series.

September 30, 2023June 8, 2024

Kevin Malone

And now I’m up to eight portraits in my collage series inspired by The Office with the completion of this “Kevin Malone” portrait. Again, I continue to have limited time to work on collages for the next month or so as I continue to marathon train. However, I’m glad I’m still making time to work on these. It’s been a lot of fun to see this series coming together, and I’m looking forward to tackling quite a few more of these. Portraiture continues to be a challenge for me, but I’m doing my best not to get discouraged and to keep pressing forward even when a piece doesn’t quite turn out the way I was hoping it to.

Now I need to head off and figure out who I’ll make a portrait of next…

August 31, 2023June 8, 2024

Kelly Kapoor

Kally Kapoor collage by artist Megan Coyle — “Kelly Kapoor,” *Collage on paper,* 7″x5″
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It may have taken me until the very end of the month, but I did manage to complete one more portrait in my The Office series. I took my time with the seventh portrait, “Kelly Kapoor,” since again, marathon training has taken up most of my free time. I have two more months of training until my schedule will free up again.

What I’m really enjoying about this series is striving to get the likeness down of so many characters. Since the TV series has a fairly large cast, it really is pushing me to tackle a number of personalities while doing my best to maintain some consistency with how the portraits are constructed.

July 30, 2023June 8, 2024

Angela Martin

Little by little, I’m completing portraits for my series inspired by The Office. It took a while to complete my sixth portrait, “Angela Martin,” simply because life has been a bit hectic these days. I’ve been training for the NYC Marathon which has been eating into the time that I used to devote to my craft. But have no fear, once November is here and gone, I’ll have more time freed up for art-making. In the meantime, I’m continuing to strive to complete at least one new collage every month.

June 29, 2023June 8, 2024

Oscar Martinez

June has been a slow month for my collage-making since I’ve been doing a little bit of traveling and recently started my marathon training. However, I did manage to complete my “Oscar Martinez” collage inspired by The Office. This took a little longer to complete than usual, primarily because life has been hectic these days. Again, portraiture doesn’t come easy to me, so I’m glad that I’m working on tackling this series.

May 31, 2023June 8, 2024

Pam Beesly

Again, life has been a little hectic for me and I haven’t had a chance to make as much art as I was hoping to, but I managed to tackle this portrait of Pam Beesly this month. This is the fourth portrait in my series inspired by The Office. I’m having a ton of fun challenging myself to work on portrait illustrations, striving to get the essence of a given figure captured in a collage.

I’m planning to complete several more in this series. I may only have a new portrait to share once a month since I’m going to start marathon training soon, and that will consume a lot of my free time. However, I’ll still find time to make art, even if it’s not as much time as I used to devote to my craft.

April 30, 2023June 8, 2024

Jim Halpert

This month I haven’t had a lot of time to focus on my art since I spent a couple of weeks traveling. It’s always nice to take a break from your routine and unplug and unwind. But now I’m back and I had a chance to finish up the third portrait in my series inspired by The Office – and this time I completed a portrait of Jim Halpert (played by John Krasinski).

I spent a good amount of time working on layering the cutouts for the shadows and highlights of Jim’s face. Again, these series that I keep working on are helping me grow and get better as an artist. This type of work also makes me a bit uncomfortable since portraits don’t come easy to me, and I think that’s a good sign that I’m focusing on this type of subject matter. If it’s a challenge, that means there’s a lot of room for growth.

March 25, 2023June 8, 2024

Dwight Schrute

My new collage series inspired by The Office is definitely going to be a fun series to tackle. This is my second portrait in the series, and it had to be Dwight (played by Rainn Wilson) since he was one of my favorite characters from the show.

Portraiture continues to be a subject matter that’s outside my comfort zone, especially when it comes to sharing my work online. If I’m making a portrait of a well known figure, there’s even more scrutiny about whether or not my portrait looks like that person. And honestly, that scrutiny makes me nervous. So working on portraits over the course of several months has slowly taught me how to be okay with depicting portraits my own way. After all, I’m not a photorealist, my works are illustrations. I’m depicting my work with my own style, my own vision, and that doesn’t always mesh with how things appear in real life.