Animal Art | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

May 26, 2020May 26, 2020

Owl Be Back

This past weekend I worked on a couple of new collages where I filmed the process so I could put together more time lapse videos. I’ve always liked owls, so I decided to make another Barn Owl collage. I also couldn’t help myself with using a pun for the name of this piece 🙂

Filming my process has helped me set more of a schedule for working on my artwork. I like how I can share how I’ve tackled various subjects with my technique. I’m thinking that up next, I’ll make a few still life pieces, since I’ve worked on so many animal portraits.

May 20, 2020May 20, 2020

Pug Life

Sometimes working on a work of art can be a bit of a struggle. For instance, this piece started out in one direction, but after completing the initial sketch, I ended up erasing it entirely and sketching a different version of the same subject. Then when it came to the layers of paper, it took a bit of reworking the details to get things looking the way I wanted them to.

I don’t know if I’m finished with this piece, but I’m done for now. The wonderful thing about art is that you can always revisit older pieces and rework them when you have a fresh pair of eyes.

I made a time lapse of this piece too that you can view below:

May 10, 2020May 10, 2020

The Soaring Sea Turtle

When I was growing up, sea turtles were one of my favorite animals. I’ve only made one other sea turtle collage before, so I figured I’d give it another try while filming my process for another time lapse video. I like how quarantine has gotten me in the habit of recording my process. I’m not always really excited with the finished product, but I was pleasantly surprised with this piece.

The title for this piece was inspired by how I feel like underwater creatures almost look like they’re flying. The ocean is such a magical and strange place.

Since I took several months off from making art last year, I’ve felt a little rusty. And by working on a time lapse video every week, it’s helped me get back into the groove of making artwork.

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

The Proud Giraffe

I wanted to make another up-close animal portrait this past weekend, so I decided to piece together a giraffe collage. Sometimes I like to keep the background simple, and sprinkle in pieces of texture on the subject.

This was another collage where I filmed the process and put together a time lapse video:

April 29, 2020April 29, 2020

Rocky the Raccoon

I’m having fun working on these time lapse videos. I decided to make a raccoon collage since I have yet to tackle that subject. And I’m hoping that at some point I’ll get the lighting right for these. But in the meantime, here’s the latest:

April 3, 2020April 3, 2020

Cockatoo

It’s a strange time right now. I never thought that I would ever experience a global pandemic, and now that I’m currently living in Brooklyn, in a city that’s been hit hard by COVID-19, I’m staying home in my apartment as much as possible and finding new creative projects to distract myself from the news.

I’m lucky that I have a lot of creative interests, and now I’m going to spend a lot of time exploring my art, writing, and coding. I’m looking forward to when this is all behind us, but at the moment, I’m doing my best to make the most of the present.

This past weekend I worked on another time lapse collage, this time I tackled a cockatoo portrait which was inspired by my recent trip to Australia (cockatoos were everywhere there). As I’m spending more time indoors, being creative, I’d like to produce more of these time lapse videos – so stay tuned to see more soon!

January 12, 2020April 3, 2020

Did Somebody Say Walk?

The other day I completed an Australian Shepherd collage, as part of my dog portrait series. I have a tendency of being drawn to animal portraits for my collages, so I feel a need to try to change things up this year by exploring landscapes/cityscapes and still life work. We’ll see what I end up piecing together next!

December 19, 2019December 19, 2019

An Otterly Good Day

I made this collage back in October since I decided to be Hermione for Halloween. I wanted to make an animal collage related to my costume, and since the otter is Hermione’s Patronus, it only made sense to make an otter collage.

December 3, 2019December 3, 2019

Corgi in the Wild

It’s been a while since I’ve made any new work. Life has been difficult for a number of reasons these days, and as a result, I’ve had to put my art on hold. Luckily my time has freed up a bit lately, and I felt a need to dive back into art-making. I figured what better way to get back into my creative routine than by making a collage of one of my favorite types of dog?

Anyway, stay tuned for more art. Previously I used to make something new just about every month. I’m thinking that I’ll alter this frequency a bit as I start exploring different creative outlets. After all, a big part of being an artist is exploring and experimenting with different ways of being creative. It’s good to change things up.

April 18, 2019April 18, 2019

The Distracted Pit Bull

Life has been a little hectic and chaotic for me lately, so I haven’t had a chance to make that much new artwork. However, I still managed to find some time. This is a commission that I completed the other day for a friend from high school. I used a pretty limited color palette for this piece, which was challenging and fun in it’s own way. I tried to incorporate a decent amount of texture in the background as well as for the dog. This collage was also a challenge in the sense that the dog’s head is tilted at an unusual angle. Anyway, I enjoyed tackling this pet portrait of a dog from Peru.