Ghana Trip

Hey guys, I just wanted to switch it up a bit and share pics with you all from a recent trip (that I was very lucky to take!).

I want to give a huge thanks to The Picture Book Project, whom I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Ho, Ghana with this summer. It was a true honor to represent the artists who donated their time and their art to the ‘Art Blocks for Ghana’ auction and PBP’s coloring book. Seeing first hand the extraordinary contributions everyone made was humbling. The impact is evident and the kids benefiting from all of it are so appreciative. They’re filled with endless amounts of energy, curiosity, excitement, and a desire to learn and absorb. Not to mention loads of creativity... all while growing up in an environment that can be very challenging. Their perseverance to keep moving forward is contagious and I can’t express how humble and proud I was to be a part of it all.

neighborhood kids swinging by to say hi

showed him one of my handshakes =)

that's sammy

edem, noble, constance, ema, sammy & patricia

alolo scoping out the bus

on our way to a monkey sanctuary

alolo dressed to impress on the field trip

the monkey king

noble feeding the monkey a banana

making our way to wuli falls

wuli falls

the rock faces were spectacular

romeo having a good time

emanuel and richard

sammy taking a break from futbol

wulasi better late than never ;)

precious and I hanging out on the sidelines

george (the ice cream man) and sister!

storm clouds looming

this guy got caught!

'mama josephine' of the hopkins foundation

sammy and crew eating lunch at the local futbol stadium

ema having a great time

sammy up close and personal

having fun with the kids

showing noble some of my new jams

these kids were fast! hard time keeping up with them

princilla had the right idea

sika

evelyn

precious

playing a round of simon says

richard dancing in the rain

ema taking a break from using his 'man-power' to pound out fufu

richard

edem

some of the kids waiting around for a big group shot

sam the man & will the thrill

100 Cats...

It started as a doodle and turned into a party of 100 cats... and maybe a few of them squirrels that snuck in =] 

p.s. I sit next to a 'goddess of good news' who just brought the post on Drawn to my attention! :) 

la llorona...

soo this project has been on the shelf for years. i was working on it when i was in school way back when. pulling it off the shelf and exploring a bit :)

drawn!

i'm absolutely honored and humbled by this... i think i know who's responsible =] anywho, here's a link to a nice spread of the stuff i do at google. (thanks jake!)

leonard, lawrence, leopold, leroy???

Swordmonger

So here's that 'dude with fur and 10 swords' that was recommended by a friend at work. There all there... one of them in his lunch. I'm soo excited, I've finally gotten my hands on Game of Thrones! I'll see you guys in a few months ;) I kid, I kid.

By the way I didnt forget... I just broke my new years resolution of updating my header every month =[ I'll do some digging tonight. See you soon!

sneak peak...

... of this guy... who owns a few swords. A 'swordmonger' I guess. I've been itching to do something raw and rugged of late so a bud at work recommended I draw a guy with a ton of fur and swords... which I could not say no to. A perfect suggestion! Maybe it's all of that game of thrones hype that's around every corner (grrr...i dont have cable). Anywho, I'll draw him out a bit more and get some color going! stay tuned

-willus realus, of the lands where giants roam (major geek out! i love it)

Bay to Breakers!

Above is a nice change of pace and completely mindless fun... a shirt design for our team at this years B2B. I'm excited to get my hands dirty and print them myself along with some friends at a studio in town. We wanted something funky with a little nod to our childhood =] The feet were actually drawn from life and belong to members of our clan.

new banner, new post!

Hey gang! Don't mind me just updating the banner above and posting a random bunch of sketches and drawings below.

the death stare

I've been sneaking into workshops here and there

which feels real nice to draw clothed figures again.

assortment of sketches

Hey gang... Here are a few sketches I've arranged from recent doodling sessions, random outings around town and some figure drawing workshops I've attended (which feels great). Stay tuned, more (colored) work is on it's way!

p.s. ... the piece (previous post) I did for the seuss show at nucleus is still up for grabs! If you'd like to purchase it I'll gladly throw in an ink drawing/sketch of your choosing. Just email me and I will work something up for you =] -willie

Look At This! Look At That!

Hey all, I'm super excited to announce that I'll be participating in a very cool show in honor of the whimsical, rhythmical literary giant, Dr. Seuss! The opening is being held this Saturday by the fine folks over at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, CA.

It was a lot of fun diving into Seuss' visually rich worlds again. The first feature film I worked on was Horton Hears a Who back in 2005 (wow, a long time ago)... and it was cool to see what I could come up with nowadays. I dusted the paints off and went at it. After a failed attempt in gouache I resorted to acrylics =]

'faithful, one hundred percent' - 12x18 - acrylic

a close up...kept it simple (lines to a minimum) and focused on shapes

framed and ready to go

bread

sooo... this piece was started last year =] it was the last drawforce blog topic before everyone went their own way and/or lost interest etc etc. it never made the light of day. until now. it's still a wip but i kinda like where it's going and i promised more posts (hope you dont mind if they're a little rough) anywho, it's about a bread shop... with some mysterious happenings. but the pigeons don't care =]

life sketching at work

more vehicles... boats!

sketching/riding bikes w los on sunday (amazinglyclearday)

bikes.2012

happy new year everyone! hope your 2012 gets off to a swell start =] here are some bikes i drew in my sketchbook just before the holidays.