wildlife | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

July 28, 2017June 19, 2024

A Snail’s Life

With this piece, I decided to focus more on using texture. There are a few areas where I used solid color, although for the most part, I wanted to see how I could layer several different textures together. For the snail’s shell, I wanted to outline the shape with solid color so that the shell could stand out more.

This is my first time tackling a snail collage. I think it might be fun to rework this subject with arbitrary color – actually it might be good to play around with colors for a new series. Lately I’ve been making collages that use more realistic colors, so we shall see what I’m able to come up with next.

July 15, 2017June 5, 2024

Mandarin Duck

Birds are always a fun subject to tackle since there are so many different species out there. This particular collage is my first attempt at tackling a mandarin duck in collage form. I love how colorful these ducks are, and I definitely enjoyed piecing this together from so many pieces of bright magazine pages.

If you’ve been following my work lately, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve shared quite a few animal collages. I’m thinking I should probably change gears in a bit and try to tackle portraits or still life sometime soon. We shall see though…animals are always a favorite subject for me, although it is good to break out of your comfort zone every once in a while.

June 14, 2017June 5, 2024

Sea Explorer

When I was growing up, turtles were one of my favorite animals. I remember I had a number of turtle figurines, and even had a turtle jewelry box. But of all the different species of turtle out there, my absolute favorite was the sea turtle. I thought they looked like such elegant creatures.

The other day I decided to piece together my first sea turtle collage, and as I was working on it, I remembered all those years that I was in awe of this creature. I think I should definitely tackle this subject matter again in the future.

May 23, 2017June 5, 2024

Foxy

The other day I had a chance to finally finish a new collage – this fox portrait. I also was able to make another time lapse video, which was a lot of fun to put together:

What’s actually a little amusing is that for the previous time lapse videos I made, I used to sit underneath a tripod that held the video camera, trying with all my might not to bump into it while working on the collage. With this one, I realized I can just film the whole process upside down, then flip it when I edit the video. That way I’m free of working under a tripod. In the future, I’d also like to work on using better lighting for these to make it easier to see my process.