Illustrator Sophie Coyle is one of An Táin Arts Centre’s Artists in Residence 2025. In this blog, she takes us through the latest chapter of her residency journey
I was so excited to begin this residency, having time to concentrate on and develop a personal project is rare in my life. This residency is precious to me also in that it is local which means I didn’t have to drop everything to get here, I can still work family life around it. The project I pitched in my proposal was to develop the story for a graphic novel. I’m an illustrator with a huge passion for comic books, ever since I was little. A graphic novel, which runs much longer than your average comic book, is quite an undertaking timewise and skills-wise. These three months will help me to lay solid ground work so that when the residency ends I can work away at illustrating the graphic novel in my own time, knowing how it will look, how the story divides up into chapters, what my characters look like, what colour palette I’m working with and the numerous other things to consider when creating a graphic novel.
The support from Paul Hayes and Marie-Claire Cowley and the rest of the brilliant team at An Táin Arts has been so appreciated. They are genuinely interested in the projects being undertaken and in the well-being of the artists-in-residence and have made sure we’ve all had the opportunity to get to know each other. I’m sharing a space off the Basement Gallery with film-maker Sinéad Murphy and find that it’s really nice to work alongside someone. We’re learning about each other’s practices and about potential crossovers and collaborations. The space is generally nice and quiet to work in – I love the white noise from the heating pipes – and I find it easy to get stuck into whatever I’m working on on a given day. Because it’s not a room anyone else uses I can put up pictures and timelines on the wall, and whatever else I need to inspire the work.
I began the residency with most of the story for my graphic novel written. I spent the first month completing and fine-tuning the story and sent a draft to Paul Hayes, who had offered to read through it and give feedback – another huge bonus to this residency is the support he and Mary-Claire, offering their own valuable creative skills and experience to give guidance or feedback. And this was also immensely helpful as there is nothing like having a bit of a deadline to complete a piece of work.
In the second month I researched printing companies, page layouts and guidelines for page sizes used in the comic book industry – I felt this was important to know and determine before beginning the artwork as page size will dictate what my layout will look like. I worked through the story I had written (which ran to over one hundred A4 pages in the end) and began picking out the scenes to give me an idea of what would happen page to page.All of this sounds very busy and focused and I realised at one point that a residency is also time to explore and play in a way you would never get in your working life. So there were mornings when that is all I did, enjoying getting reacquainted with my old illustration tools of pen and ink and watercolour washes and letting my imagination run free on the page. Mostly these days, for convenience sake, I use Procreate on my ipad and it is how I will proceed with this graphic novel. It means I can work out of any corner of our house or a cafe or wherever I happen to find myself and I find this is the way I can achieve projects alongside raising three small kids. But it has been lovely to feel paper under my hand and watch the dark ink flow from a pen nib, and unexpected, joyful things can happen in this “analogue” kind of way.
I’m now into my third month – I wish it could last forever! Happily I’m at the drawing stage, the story is finished (although I’m expecting further feedback from the kind friends and family who have offered to read it, so possibly a few more tweaks to happen). I have to say, the drawing of it was the part I felt most daunted by. I really enjoyed writing the story and that was unexpected, a pleasant surprise. What I find daunting about the drawing part is not the act of drawing itself but the committing to a style which I will have to stick to until the last page. This will be a big learning curve for me. I am prepared to discover that by the end of the graphic novel the layout will have settled into a much more confident, easy flow than at the beginning where I’m finding my way. These are rooky mistakes but as this is the first graphic novel I’ve ever attempted I’m going to be forgiving – if it doesn’t take me a lifetime to complete then the follow-up novel might go much smoother.
I studied illustration at an academy in Rome and when I went to look at colleges there I also looked at a comic book course. Now I wonder what would be different if I had gone that route. Comic books are a growing scene here in Ireland but a huge scene in France, Italy and Belgium. You walk into any bookshop there and they have a huge section of graphic novels, beautifully published, incredibly drawn, fantastic stories. I visited Paris for the first time with my daughter during this residency, it was the Easter holidays, and we dropped into a few bookshops so I could drool over the comic book section. I had to stop myself from buying all of them (well, the contents of my wallet, or lack thereof, did that for me).I’ve brought a stack of graphic novels down to the residency space hoping that if people drop by they will have a browse and see what is out there – there are so many styles and so many ways to express oneself through picture and word, it’s extremely exciting.
My interest in Marvel superheroes waned in my late teens and I’ve never really delved into Manga or its many sub-genres – it was discovering the Indie creators of comic books that really rocked my world. I think one of the reasons I chose to study illustration over comic book drawing was that it seemed a more reliable career – to become a comic book illustrator seemed maybe a bit whimsical. But they are such beautiful, portable works of art and so affordable – I’m an avid book reader but I still find it a real treat to buy a beautiful graphic novel.
As a bonus to the residency it’s so interesting to experience the workings of a busy and productive arts centre. They run a tight ship with a small core-team plus wonderful volunteers and achieve so much. The turnover of exhibitions and shows is high and this lends to the busy, positive energy of the place. Paul and Mary-Claire are happy to explain any aspect of it so I find I’m learning a lot.
A few people have been in to visit the space I’m working in, mostly friends and family – that’s mainly why I put pictures up on the wall, so we have a talking point, because otherwise it’s still mostly in my head! The week after next I will be giving a workshop to a group of secondary school students. One of the first things I did when I moved to Dundalk was to volunteer at the Dundalk Youth Centre and out of that I became artist-in-residence for a few months and ran comic workshops with young people there. I loved that time and met great characters and personalities. I think comic books are a great medium for young people in particular to express themselves through. I’m looking forward to having that opportunity again next week.
So here’s to the final chapter of the residency, I feel so grateful to have been accepted to do it. If you want to see what else I do you can find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sophiecoyleillustration/?hl=en