stranger things | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

January 24, 2023June 8, 2024

Nancy Wheeler

This is the tenth portrait I’ve completed in my Stranger Things-inspired collage series. I’ve really enjoyed illustrating a number of characters from the show, and now I’m ready to move on to a new series. I’ll have to revisit this one in the future to add more characters, but for now, this is the final piece.

I had a lot of fun with this portrait and managed to complete it over the course of a few days. I’m a little surprised at how many portraits I’ve managed to complete this month. Life outside of art has been pretty busy, so I’m doing my best to make time for art. And again, this collage involved using fragments of images of jeans for her jacket, as well as fragments of photographs of hair for her hair. I also used the same texture for the background that I’ve been using for a number of the portraits in this series. The remainder of the piece involved layering a variety of solid colors.

And now I’m off to sketch out a portrait for my next collage…

January 16, 2023June 8, 2024

Steve Harrington

I’m getting closer to finishing up my Stranger Things inspired portrait series for the time being. I’m planning to make one more piece, before I set this series aside for a little bit. I recently completed this collage this past weekend. Again, I focused more on using solid colors. Even though this collage came together relatively quickly (when compared to other portraits in the series), it felt like it was a bit of a struggle.

I suppose that’s why they call art a “practice.” I’m constantly practicing my craft. In many ways my collages never truly feel finished, since I’m constantly striving to improve and grow with my work.

January 5, 2023June 8, 2024

Erica Sinclair

It’s a New Year, which means it’s time for some new art. This is the first collage I’ve completed this year, and I’m still working my way through my Stranger Things collage portrait series. I think I’ll do at least three more before I move on to another series.

I had a lot of fun working on this piece. Erica is one of my favorite characters and I enjoyed working primarily with solid colors to complete this one – focusing a lot on different shadows and highlights. I especially like her colorful outfit.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a happy holiday! I’m looking forward to another year filled with art-making and adventure.

December 4, 2022June 8, 2024

Maxine “Max” Mayfield

Max Mayfield collage portrait by Megan Coyle

As requested, I tackled Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) for the next collage in my Stranger Things portrait series. This piece came together relatively easily, even though the sketch wasn’t entirely accurate. Often times I find myself working on reshaping areas of the subject’s features by layering magazine cutouts, especially when the sketch is really simple.

I enjoyed incorporating a little bit of texture for this piece with the stripes in her shirt and fragments of red hair from various magazine ads. Again, I used similar texture for the background that I’ve used for the other portraits. And I continued to use quite a few solid colors for her shirt and face.

Up next, I’m planning to make a portrait of Lucas Sinclair’s sister, Erica.

November 22, 2022June 8, 2024

Will Byers

Another day, another portrait completed in my Stranger Things series. “Will Byers” is now the sixth portrait I’ve made for the series, although this one didn’t come together that smoothly. Portraiture continues to be a bit of a struggle for me, but hopefully the more I practice it, the more I’ll approve.

This piece involved a few more patterns and textures from magazine pages than my previous pieces used, especially when it came to the flannel pattern for Will’s shirt. When this was a work in progress, there was a bit of struggle and reworking of the shape of Will’s face, but eventually I shaped it in such a way that I felt I could deem the portrait complete.

November 2, 2022June 8, 2024

Dustin Henderson

Last night I completed the fifth collage in my Stranger Things portrait series. I had a lot of fun tackling Dustin since he’s got a really unique smile. Again, this portrait felt like a bit of a struggle, but the struggle wasn’t as rough as it was initially. It’s getting a little easier, but not much easier…I also focused on using mainly solid colors for this piece, but continued to use a similar texture for the background that I’ve used for the other portraits in the series.

Up next, I’m planning to make a Will collage. Then I think I’ll have at least four more to make before I’ll deem this series complete for the meantime.

October 12, 2022June 8, 2024

Mike Wheeler

My “Stranger Things” series is slowly coming together. “Mike Wheeler” (played by Finn Wolfhard) is the fourth portrait in the series, and I’m noticing that this one came together somewhat easily when compared to the last three collages. Hopefully that means with more practice, these portraits will only get easier to do.

For this collage, I also live streamed part of the process. I think the initial sketch wasn’t entirely accurate, so a lot of the detailing and shaping came later after I blocked out all of the colors. Again, I primarily used solid colors, with the most texture being implemented with the background and Mike’s hair. I’m definitely looking forward to working on more pieces for this series.

September 22, 2022June 8, 2024

Lucas Sinclair

I had so much fun working on this portrait of Lucas Sinclair (played by Caleb McLaughlin) that was inspired by the series, Stranger Things. This is the third collage I’ve completed in a series of portraits inspired by the show. While working on this piece, I ended up reworking his jacket so it would have more texture in it instead of consisting of only solid shapes of color.

I also managed to complete this portrait within a few days. The overall composition came together quickly, which is not always the case with my portraits. The piece I did of Eddie Munson was actually more of a struggle, while that wasn’t really the case with this one.

September 16, 2022June 8, 2024

Eddie Munson

Portraiture is definitely a challenge for me, but I’m having a ton of fun working with improving on it. This piece is the second portrait I’ve completed in my “Stranger Things” series, and “Eddie Munson” was a top request that I received from my followers online. I’m looking forward to working on the other characters in the future. I also figured working on this series during the fall was very fitting with Halloween coming up.

Again, I wanted the background to look dark and reminiscent of the Upside Down, and again I used fragments from images of jeans for Eddie’s jean jacket (similar to what I did for the portrait of Eleven). For his hair, I used fragments of images of hair in magazines. This portrait took a little more time than the portrait of Eleven since I was really focused on getting all the shadows and highlights down properly.

September 12, 2022June 8, 2024

Eleven

“Eleven” is a portrait that I completed a few weeks ago right after I binge-watched the fourth season of Stranger Things. If you aren’t familiar with the show, Eleven is one of the main characters and I wanted her to be the first portrait completed in this series. Then I continued to work on finishing up my Schitt’s Creek series before I wanted to revisit this series to work on more characters. This particular piece was completed over a weekend, and I wanted the background to be somewhat reminiscent of the Upside Down. I also cut up images of jeans for her jean jacket.

And stay tuned, I’ll have more portraits of characters from this show being posted soon. Again, portraiture is definitely a struggle for me, but hopefully the more I make them, the easier they’ll get.