famous figures | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

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.

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.

January 14, 2024June 8, 2024

Ryan Howard

My first collage of 2024 is now complete – it’s also the twelfth portrait in my series inspired by The Office. “Ryan Howard” (BJ Novak) was another fun piece to tackle. I’m hoping that as I continue to build out these portraits, the more comfortable I’ll get with making portraits in general. I am also planning to make at least five more portraits in this series. This series is also taking me a little bit longer to complete because of how many portraits it’s consisting of.

Once this series is complete, I think I’ll explore making portraits of musicians before I start tackling more portraits inspired by TV shows.

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.