This is an original abstract artwork entitled “Falling Apart (process)”. The artwork is approximately 4′ x 5′, and was created with a mix of acrylic paint, spray paint, charcoal, chalk, and pastels in 2012. Small photographs are aligned in a row below the artwork, documenting the painting process over the course of about an hour per image until the final artwork was complete.

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This is an abstract drawing of a face. The artwork is 9″x12″, drawn and painted with colored pencils, pens, markers, paint pens, watercolors, and oil pastels.

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This is an abstract portrait of a man with a blue beard. The 9″x12″ drawing was created with pens, markers, watercolors, oil pastels, and acrylic paint.

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The following drawings of faces are a series of abstract portraits of women and girls. The 9″x12″ artworks were created with a variety of mediums, including watercolors, colored pencils, oil pastels, pens, markers, acrylics, and paint pens.

Blue Woman
9″x12″

Lips
9″x12″

Hair
9″x12″

Lightning
9″x12″

Toof
9″x12″

Red Woman Glare
9″x12″

Yellow Eyes
9″x12″

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The following drawings of sad faces are abstract portraits of girls with different types of grief. The 9″x12″ artworks were created with colored pencils, pens, markers, oil pastels, watercolors, and acrylics.

Drawing of a Grieving Girl
9″x12″

Drawing of a Depressed Girl
9″x12″

Drawing of a Melancholy Girl
9″x12″

Drawing of a Sad Girl
9″x12″

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This is a portrait painting of a screaming baby entitled “Lemon Drop”. The 9″x12″ artwork was drawn and painted with colored pencils, watercolors, pens, markers, and acrylics. I think the baby feels a headache.

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This is a drawing of a burro with children. The 9″x12″ artwork was drawn and painted in 2011 with a variety of mediums, including colored pencils, watercolors, gouache, oil pastels, and acrylic. The children and burro were initially sketched with colored pencils, followed by meandering wisps of white oil pastel and acrylics in the background. As layers of watercolors and gouache were applied, the oil and water repelled each other to reveal an energetic flow of light throughout the painting.

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These are two self-portraits of/by artist Michael D. Edens. The 9″x12″ artworks were drawn and painted in 2011 with a variety of mediums. The first self-portrait, entitled “Self-Portrait”, was drawn with pens, oil pastels, paint pens, watercolors, and gouache. The second self-portrait, entitled “Uneasy Self-Portrait”, was drawn with colored pencils, oil pastels, and watercolors.

Unique layering and coloring techniques were used in each self-portrait in order to create interesting visual styles. For example, watercolors are painted over naturally repelling oil pastels to create an uneasy imbalance of organically flowing swirls and pooling colors amidst irrepressible lines.

Related Artwork
This is a previous 9″x12″ self-portrait created as part of the Rainbow Color Portraits – Series 1.

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This is a portrait of a man with glasses. The 9″x12″ portrait artwork was drawn in 2011 with a variety of mediums, including colored pencils, pens, oil pastels, paint pens, watercolors, gouache, and acrylics. The man was sketched with colored pencils, and layers of other dry and wet mediums were applied in layers. The intense and expressive lines meander throughout the artwork, creating a wholly connected portrait from foreground to background, top to bottom, and side to side. The use of unique shapes, gradients, and vivid and muted color combinations help to convey a sense of whimsical creativity and imagination surrounding and emanating from the man.

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This is a portrait drawing of a young man with a hat. The 9″x12″ portrait artwork was drawn in 2011 with colored pencils, oil pastels, pens, and acrylics. The young man was sketched with colored pencils and smudged with oil pastels in order to convey a youthful healthy glow. Additional mediums were used to create subtle surrounding details and textures that support the pensive yet innocent smile. This particular young man was about to embark on his service-oriented journey as an American soldier in World War II.

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