Cooley Studios was founded in Worthington Ohio by Michael Cooley in February 2012. The original purpose was to use the studio for his medical illustration practice and to begin accepting portrait commissions. Feeling the need for more advanced fine art training, Cooley began studying classical academic art with some of the top realist and classical realist instructors in Ohio, New York, Chicago and with instructors from several of the leading classical ateliers and academies in America and abroad. During this time, Cooley began to accept students who wanted to learn from the same method he was studying.

With the training Cooley received from his earlier education which included drafting, medical illustration, commercial illustration along with his most recent study, classical academic fine art, he felt more equipped to take on portrait commissions. This study also helped him to improve as a medical illustrator. Now Cooley works daily on medical illustration assignments, accepts portrait commissions and teaches classical academic fine art to students in his atelier.