These two artworks depicting lions blur the line between drawings and paintings. Each artwork started as a drawing of a lion, which was then augmented with watercolors, ink, or paint pens. The first lion drawing was sketched with a pen and thick black markers. A wash of watercolor and ink was used to add shadows and blend the crisp lines, resulting in a statuesque portrait of the lion.
The second lion drawing was initially sketched with pen in an impressionistic style, and layers of paint pens were subsequently added over the initial sketch. The resulting painting of a roaring lion fits the energetic style, and the discord between the primary colors add tension between the lion and the background.
Just a few samples of other unique stylistic approaches to lion drawings and paintings include these lion drawings, a portrait of a lion drawn with charcoal, an abstract lion painted with markers and paint pens, close up charcoal drawings of roaring lions, and a digitally drawn cartoon lion.
This is a charcoal drawing and acrylic painting of a skull attached to a skeletal corpse. The artwork was initially sketched in 1998 with black charcoal. Then black, white, and brown acrylic paint was energetically brushed onto the canvas board with a palette knife. The dark colors reflect the morbidity of the subject, and the way the paint colors are pushed, pulled, mixed, scraped, and twisted around the canvas add a tension and unexpected life to the art. The composition of the skull on the skeleton, with eyes slightly above the horizontal midpoint, help suggest that the subject was posing for a portrait.
A variety of stylistic approaches have been applied to other skull drawings, such as this Skull Drawing Still Life, and this Painting of a Skull.
This still life drawing of a Shoe was sketched with colored pencils in 1997. The artwork is approximately 9×12 inches, and the old shoe takes up a lot of space on the paper, thus appearing to be large and solid. An initial sketch of the shoe was drawn with light grey pencil, and then black was used to fill in shadows and indents in the cloth and rubber materials. Faint traces of brown color were used to add some warmth to the drawing, and highlights were added by scraping away the colored pencil medium, revealing the white paper beneath. To see similar artworks, visit the Pencil Drawings and Sketches Art Gallery for a Drawing of Shoes.
Interview with artist Michael D. Edens
by Kelly Jones and Jamie Murdock
[KJ] Where are you from?
[MDE] Rochester, Minnesota, USA
[KJ] How old were you when you decided to make a career out of your artwork?
[MDE] Art is my hobby; I currently work in the closely related field of advertising and marketing, however art has always been, and always will be, an important part of my life. I was 12 when I saw Bob Ross painting a landscape on TV, and he introduced art to me as a joyful experience. I have focused on art related careers and creativity ever since.
[JM] How long have you been doing art, and besides Bob Ross who interests you?
[MDE] I have been drawing since I can remember, but it wasn’t until I was 12 or so that I labeled my expressiveness as “art” and myself as an “artist”. In 2008, I turned 28, so my humble interest in “art” has survived for about 16 years. Lately I have been interested in multiple artists that influence creative artistic movements, for example, I’m inspired by the concept artists Andrew Jones and Justin Kaufman.
[JM] Where did you go to college, and for what?
[MDE] In 1998, I attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in New York NY, with an intended BFA in Film/Television. After attaining Certification for Film/Television Production in 1999, I transferred to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in Minneapolis MN, with an intended BFA in Interactive Design. Then in 2001, I transferred to the University of Minnesota to broaden my educational experience, and graduated in 2003 with a BS in Media Arts & Computer Studies.
[KJ] What inspires you?
[MDE] Originality. I appreciate when people express themselves in a unique way, no matter the art form.
[KJ] Do you have any artist influences in your work at all?
[MDE] Yes. In order to build up a visual vocabulary it was helpful to imitate artists I appreciated. Also, just viewing any other artist’s work affects my own work in some way. Some of the stylistic elements of Franz Kline appear in my abstracts, while Claude Monet and Craig Mullins influenced my impressionistic work. I also drew comics for a while, and the stark black and white pen style and expressive color palettes are a persistent theme.
[KJ] What media do you prefer to work in?
[MDE] My preferences change constantly. Lately I have preferred mixing media such as pen, marker, watercolor, acrylic, colored pencil, and crayon.
[JM] What is your favorite piece of art work, or most passionate piece?
[MDE] I don’t have a favorite. Over time my connection to various types of art or artists changes, whether it’s the work of another artist or my own. I am most passionate about the art I am creating in the moment.
[KJ] What is your theme/concept behind your work?
[MDE] Themes and concepts change constantly as well. I am inspired by many different subjects that I like to express in many different styles. However, I tend to enjoy painting and viewing impressionistic and imaginative art, as it is not so constrained by the rules of the real world in Realism Art nor completely open to the subjectivity of Abstract Art.
[JM] Have you traveled for art, or to do art?
[MDE] After studying classical Renaissance art and architecture in high school and college for years, I decided to see as much of the original art as I could with my own eyes. So I traveled to Italy for 3 weeks, taking in every museum, church, and artwork I could find around Rome, Florence, and the surrounding communities. It was a great experience in many ways, and from an artistic standpoint it helped solidify my understanding of the environment and historical context within which Renaissance art was created.
[KJ] Has your work changed due to other artist influences or things that happened in the world?
[MDE] Yes, all of my experiences influence how I express myself. I often see changes in my style and artwork that I am not always aware of as I am creating, but the changes signify growth, both as an artist and a person. For example, seeing graffiti-style art for the first time inspired bold shapes, vibrant colors, and thick outlining in some of my work.
[KJ] Can you explain what you try to get across from your abstract expressionism paintings? As one who feels most drawn to these, I would like to know and understand more.
[MDE] My abstract art generally expresses an emotion or feeling that is difficult to explain via other forms of communication. Any emotion, or combination of emotions, can be expressed, from wild and energetic, to boring and calm. For example, instead of writing or talking about a unique joy I felt when I started to draw with colored pastels after a long hiatus from color, I drew a series of expressive abstracts with vibrant bursts of color and slight variations in texture. Retrospectively, the drawings were a visual representation of the “Big Bang” of an awaking awareness of color, which has been consistently applied in a more orderly fashion in subsequent artworks. For example, in this colorful drawing of a face or more abstract surreal paintings.
These four pen and ink portrait sketches of children and kids were drawn on cardboard in 1998. The style is minimalistic and loose which allows the drawings to “breath in” the textured and grainy card board background. The drawings have a fragile quality to them, as the pen was mostly used to sketch the darkest shadows and lines around the children and kids’ faces, leaving most midtones and highlights to be filled in by the canvas and imagination of the viewer. A wash of water was also used to blend and blur some of the crisp edges left by the pen, which also adds a little bit of gradient depth.
