Today we’d like to introduce you to Madison Coyne.
Madison, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Looking back, it just seems to make sense that I would become an illustrator. Reading was a huge part of my childhood, and my illustration has always been very narrative based. I think of illustration as my way of interpreting the stories that are important to me. However, I didn’t realize that illustration was a real career that I could do and make money doing. I thought of it as a hobby until I was in my last year of high school.
I began drawing seriously when I was fairly young, for a very silly reason- I had a friend who was good at art and I wanted to be able to draw like her. However, once I started, something just clicked and it definitely became about more than that. I remember the first time I “saw” a drawing idea in my mind before making it- it felt transcendental. The creative process that I now sometimes take for granted was new and incredible to me as a child.
Over the years my knowledge has increased and my process has changed a lot, of course. The first digital art I made was with a very old version of Photoshop and my parent’s scanner, and I colored it all using a mouse. Through middle school and high school, I filled pages and pages of note paper and homework sheets with drawings and doodles.
At first, I just copied styles that I had seen, but eventually branched out and started making things in my own style. I became involved with comic conventions and the fan community, which was really helpful for a young artist- the people I met were very enthusiastic and supportive, and I was exposed to a lot of different art styles and ways of working.
I was nervous about deciding to go to art school, and just as nervous about deciding to major in illustration, but the time I spent at MassArt was an incredible experience, and I learned so much.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I count myself very lucky to have the advantages I have been given- parents who supported me in whatever I decided to do, and amazing mentors along the way. However, I don’t believe that any road could be without challenges. Much of a career in the arts involves focused solitary work and being able to weather a whole lot of rejection, which is never easy.
Sometimes it feels like I am constantly struggling against myself. I have anxiety, which manifests itself in my art process. Nothing ever feels finished, I never feel that I am good enough, and I never know if an illustration is actually working out. However, this pushes me to work harder to try to find the parts of my work that I’m proud of and makes me ambitious- I want to prove to myself that I can succeed.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Madison Coyne Illustration – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I do narrative illustration and usually work digitally, using Photoshop. The joy of the medium of digital art is that it can look as digital as you want, or as much like a painting as you want. My work is character based and semi-realistic. I don’t want to create a world that looks and feels exactly like the real world. There’s an element of escapism there, definitely!
As for subject matter, I’m inspired by stories of all kinds, but I find myself coming back to myths, legends, and historical stories because I enjoy the imagery the most. Art is a way to interpret the world, and stories are one of the best things to do that with. As humans, we have been telling the same stories over and over in different ways throughout all of history- stories about love and loss and struggle and community.
I’m drawn to illustrating stories which connect to me personally somehow, or which I can make connect to me. I like working with other people’s stories and making them my own, putting some of myself into them. One of the joys of being an illustrator is having a chance to do that! In narratives, I want women to be given as much chance to be heroic, to be meaningful characters, and have agency.
And personally, I find I really enjoy stories which involve LGBT characters, because as a bisexual person I feel connected to the characters. In that way, I want to illustrate stories that aren’t often told, or that might have been considered too “taboo” to tell in the past.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I’m always trying to learn and improve at my craft. In the future, I want to branch out more into entertainment design- concept art, character design, and background painting.
I’m in the early stages of working on a graphic novel based on the same story I did my senior thesis at MassArt on- a medieval French story called Yde et Olive. I’m collaborating with the translator of the story to develop it into a graphic novel narrative. It’s a fairly ambitious project, but I’m very excited to work on it!
Besides that, I hope to become more comfortable with writing my own stories and developing my own characters.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.madisoncoyne.net/
- Email: madisoncoyneart@gmail.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/suchbluesky
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