portrait | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

January 26, 2011February 10, 2018

Nancy Pelosi

And here’s the finished piece – as you can see it’s much different than the first progress picture. When my client reviewed progress images of this one, she decided she wanted Nancy wearing a dark jacket instead of blue. She also made a few suggestions here and there. Her feedback was pretty helpful with shaping this into a Nancy portrait that looks more like Nancy.

I’m kind of excited about the idea of making a series of political leader collages, especially since I live in the DC area. We shall see how that goes when I get to it…

And now I’m off to work on my children’s book illustrations as well as another portrait for a client. It’s snowing like crazy outside – good weather for staying in and making artwork!

November 30, 2010May 3, 2018

Claire

“Claire” is a commissioned portrait that I recently completed and shipped over to a woman in Texas. I have a couple of other commissions at the moment that are going to be given as Christmas gifts by my clients. Thus I’ll refrain from posting images of these projects until the holiday season has passed.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Mine was filled with family get-togethers and lots and lots of food. I didn’t bother with shopping on Black Friday – I think I’ll finish my shopping online so I can avoid the crowds. Anyway, I’m off to try and finish another commission – I’ve decided I won’t work too much on my personal projects until these commission are complete, however I’m anxious to get back to my children’s book illustrations.

Have a great end of November!

November 18, 2010February 10, 2018

Karim’s Father

And here’s the finished piece. You’ll notice that it looks much different than the last progress picture. My client supplied me with a low res photograph taken with a cell phone camera. After a bit of dialogue back and forth between us, the portrait began to change bit by bit as I merged elements from other photographs that the client sent. Eventually, this was the result.

Anyway, I’m off to continue working on another commission – when it rains, it does indeed pour. And sometimes I wish I could clone myself so I could work on all the projects that are on my “to do” list.

December 31, 2009February 10, 2018

Snowflakes

And I’ve finished the Alice Childress quote piece. For X-mas, I received a light-kit and a nice Nikon camera, so now my collage pictures should look much brighter and more detailed. “Snowflakes” is the first collage I’ve taken pictures of with my new camera and kit.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a fun holiday!

May 29, 2009February 18, 2017

Lost in the City

And it’s complete (for now)! I just started another collage–I’ll post my new progress pictures soon.

March 2, 2008March 22, 2017

Scott

Here’s the completed collage for my senior thesis exhibition. This portrait was inspired by my cousin Scott, who passed away from cancer back when I was in high school. He was thirteen at the time, but now he lives on in our memories and the artwork made by my family (there are a lot of creatives in my family).

January 11, 2008February 18, 2017

Senior Thesis Planning

I’ve been trying to work on my senior thesis a bit by creating a few pieces for my next committee meeting. These pieces probably won’t make it to the actual show–I’m pretty sure they’ll be butchered at my next meeting. Nevertheless, I’ll continue onward.

Jean by collage artist Megan Coyle — “Jean Reading.” Collage on paper. 18″x24″

Anyway, for my show, I’ve decided to do collages, with portraits as the subject matter. During my winter break, I took advantage of the free time I had and got started on a sample piece to show my committee. This piece below is how far I got along with the portrait of my mother. It isn’t finished because it needs more shadowing on her face and better work with the wall in the background. I’m not satisfied with the composition either–I’ll probably have to take new pictures of my mother the next time I see her so I can make a better portrait of her.

Sketch of Ali by collage artist Megan Coyle — “Ali (Sketch).” Graphite on paper. 18″x24″

Today, I worked on a sketch for one of my future collages, of my cousin Ali. I like this composition a lot better and I hope to get started on it later this week.

And that’s everything for now. I’ll probably work on a few more sketches tonight of other portraits I plan on collaging.