Still Life | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

January 28, 2021June 9, 2024

You’re a Breath of Fresh Air

This is part of my new anatomy series. Previously I made a heart and brain collage, and this was another fun challenge. I like how abstract and interesting different organs are, and I enjoyed figuring out the composition for this one. I also like coming up with interesting titles (like figures of speech and puns) that go along with these pieces, instead of titling them they are and leaving it at that.

Lately I’ve been feeling really inspired. It’s amazing how one month you can feel so uninspired and then the next you can’t seem to have enough time in the day to make all the things you want to make. Even though I have a really small following on TikTok, the community there has helped motivate me to constantly work on new projects every week. I’ve been enjoying going live and streaming my process as well.

January 25, 2021January 14, 2025

Cherries

Earlier this month I made a “Citrus” collage, which made me realize I should tackle more interesting still life compositions. Completing that piece inspired me to work on this “Cherries” collage. I enjoyed the challenge of working with variations of red within the entire composition. I also worked on this piece while live streaming my process on TikTok, and I had a blast answering questions while working on various stages of the collage.

Lately my color palette has been really bright, and I’m enjoying how my live streaming sessions have inspired me to make so much new artwork this month. “Cherries” is my eighth piece completed so far in 2021.

January 15, 2021June 5, 2024

You Took My Heart

This piece is part of a new anatomy series that I’m working on, and lately I’ve been striving to tackle subject matter that I’m unfamiliar with. I’ve never really worked on anatomy pieces before, and I’m really enjoying this whole process. Actually, this entire month I’ve made more art than I’ve made in quite a while, and this piece is one of my favorite pieces that I’ve made in a while. That just goes to show that challenging yourself can lead to pleasant surprises.

January 12, 2021June 5, 2024

Citrus

Still life is a subject that I generally avoid. Previously I’ve felt uninspired by most compositions I’ve come up with, although with this piece, I had a lot of fun with it. I think I need to continue to challenge myself with still life. After all, I just might find another composition that excites me.

January 9, 2021June 8, 2024

You’ve Got Brains

This piece was inspired by some tragedy that my family was faced with in the beginning of last year – my father passed away from glioblastoma (GBM) which is a rare and very aggressive brain cancer. Most patients diagnosed with it don’t live longer than twelve to eighteen months.

I made this to help communicate GBM awareness and I wanted to call attention to this organ that we don’t really spend much time thinking about on a daily basis. It does its job and we go about our lives, occasionally thinking about its existence. And here’s a reminder to take good care of your brain. It’s doing so much for you that you don’t really realize until something goes wrong. So here’s to celebrating our brains!

August 4, 2020June 10, 2024

Caffeine Fix

It’s been a while since I’ve made a coffee cup collage, so I figured I might as well film the process of making one. I’ve had so much fun making time lapse videos in quarantine, and this piece is number sixteen in the video series. I plan to take a break from making these for a little bit so I can focus on other areas of my art. I’m looking forward to finding new ways to share my art and technique with others.

June 26, 2020June 10, 2024

Go Bananas

Another day, another collage made so I could put together a time lapse. Still life has always been a struggle for me, so I’m trying to challenge myself by working on subjects that I don’t ordinarily work on. This piece was especially difficult to piece together, and perhaps it’s simply because I’m not used to making too many food-related collages. Anyway, I’m not sure if this is entirely finished, but it’s finished for now.

June 15, 2020June 10, 2024

Avocado Time

I’m generally drawn to making animal portraits, but the other day I decided to do a still life collage. I wanted to film the process again to create a time lapse video (you can see the results for this one below). And I thought it would be interesting to tackle a simple shape that could be made to look more abstract.

This was my first time making an avocado collage, and although the finished product turned out a lot rounder than I intended it to be, I’m still pleased with the overall look. The shadows and highlights played nicely this time.

May 30, 2020June 10, 2024

Donut Give Up

I have to admit that it’s difficult for me to focus on subject matter other than animal portraits. What can I say? Animals are my favorite subjects to make art of. So this past week, I ventured off and made another donut collage. And of course, I couldn’t help myself but use a pun in the title.

This was another collage that’s part of my quarantine collage series, where I film my process and create a time lapse video:

April 18, 2020June 10, 2024

Berry Nice

It’s been a while since I’ve tackled still life, so this was my attempt after a long break. I definitely felt rusty. I’m liking how I’m trying out more of a variety these days. I think I might take a couple of weeks off from collage-making so I can experiment with some other mediums. There’s no better time to work on getting creative than the present, especially when we’re all staying indoors these days.

Anyway, this piece was also part of my recent time lapse video series. Here you can see the collage getting pieced together from start to finish: