American Finger

"American Finger," February 2011, in Johnny's second frame.

"You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was 12. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way.” -- Johnny Cash

This is country music, and it's rock and roll.
The iconic finger photo of Johnny Cash was shot at a 1969 concert at California’s San Quentin prison. Legend has it that the photographer, Jim Marshall, had asked Cash for a shot "for the warden."


“Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.”

 

I have had this picture in a small frame, in various places in my home office, for probably 15 years.  I'd cut it out of a Rolling Stone magazine. Always thought it was cool, always wanted to draw a great big version and finally did. I've been advised not to hang it up at work, aimed at certain desks.

Some people just won't appreciate the art of it.

“I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God.”

I was 8 years old in 1969 (thereabouts) and I first heard the San Quentin record in my Aunt Maxine and Uncle Stu's family room in New Bethlehem, Pa. I didn't really know what I was hearing. I just knew that I liked records, loved record players -- and that the relatives had a pile of 'em that were new to me. So, Johnny. And 'A Boy Named Sue."  Cash cut the Shel Silverstein-penned song live at the prison.


"After about three lessons the voice teacher said, "Don't take voice lessons. Do it your way."”

Some decades later I discovered another Cash classic, "Ring of Fire." It was Frank Zappa's version, at first. And Frank was talking about a whole 'nuther type of ring. ("It burns ..." )   I do have the original Cash Ring of Fire album on Columbia Records, however, in glorious monophonic sound. Love that record.

Growing up, the only Johnny Cash record we ever had at home was my mother's copy of Orange Blossom Special, which I liked mostly because it had a boxcar on the cover. My dad, brother and I had a thing for trains. Still have the album. Long ago sold my electric trains (and miss 'em.)

“My father was a man of love. He always loved me to death. He worked hard in the fields, but my father never hit me. Never. I don't ever remember a really cross, unkind word from my father."

Cash was popular, and prolific. The pile of vinyl below only begins to hint at his output. He also was troubled, and his career waxed and waned until a final resurgence in 1998 and his American Recordings albums. Producer Rick Rubin paid $20,000 to place a full page ad in Billboard: The finger to Nashville.

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”
 
I did acquire a lot of Johnny Cash music at two times in the last decade, both from friends passing forward their own, or a loved one's, collection. Mostly these records looked very much played, but some are pristine.

 “When I think about country music, I think about America.”

A former neighbor, who was ailing and is now deceased, also had me tape record his entire collection for him (plus Hank Williams Sr.) so that he could play the cassettes at his bedside. I made open reel tape copies for myself, too. Talk about a treasury. 

There are just a handful of Cash CDs in my library, a two-disc Best Of deal and three of the American Recordings. But I play those tapes and the vinyl most. They release the most memories.

"I have no illusions about who I am and how old I am—but that has nothing to do with it when I'm in that studio or on that stage and that thing is coming out of me. That fire is just as bright and hot as when I was 23. I and the song are one—and whatever I was meant to do with my music, I'm doing it."

AMERICAN FINGER
February 2011, pencil, 2' x 3'
$150

For inquiries: hankbonesman@embarqmail.com

Which One's Pink?

DAVID GILMOUR(s) hangs in the Vindy.com broadcast office of Louie Free, March 2013.

"The band is just fantastic,
that is really what I think.
Oh by the way, which one's Pink?" 

 -- PINK FLOYD "Have a Cigar"

David Gilmour, 65, is a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to music and philanthropy. In fact he is a Commander of the Order. He's also approaching 45 years as an amazing guitarist as well as "The Voice of Pink Floyd." He's  also an experienced pilot and aviation enthusiast.
Can you sing "Learning To Fly" ?

His main guitar, much modified over the years, is a 1969 Fender Stratocaster. He also owns the first to be given a serial number, Strat # 0001.

 

Click on illustration to enlarge, then click again.

I first met David Gilmour in 1973 in Dennis Brady's bedroom atop an apartment on the East Side of Warren, Ohio. Not Gilmour so much as Pink Floyd, though for a long time I thought he was a guy named Pink Floyd. Dennis' dad had the album "Dark Side of the Moon" and a very good stereo, and we played it very loud. Airplanes crashing, clocks ticking, hearts beating. Synthesisers! A cool prism pyramid on the label, pyramid stickers, a gatefold vinyl LP. How cool is that, even now?

 

I never really equated Roger Waters with the heart and soul of Pink Floyd, because it was Gilmour who sang the best songs, had the better voice, looked cooler (he once was a model) and played that guitar so well. Roger Waters just seemed like a crank who used big words and had strange dreams. David Gilmour by comparison seemed normal. From most accounts he is a gentleman and a scholar, too.

 

The idea with this drawing was to capture the David Gilmour I remember from seventh grade playing a duet with Gilmour 2011. Long hair long gone white, but still in good shape and even better now. Want proof? This is a beautiful song ("A Great Day For Freedom"), might make you cry -- and may be the best guitar solo ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HmC-RgTECE

So which one's pink? Both are, but the name's not Floyd. Got it now?

Lyric P.C. 1975 Pink Floyd Music Limited
"Which One's Pink?"
Pencil, 3' x 4' (approx.)
A Tom Wills Production, 2011.
To inquire about purchasing: willstom01@gmail.com

No. 40: Taste, Tone & Tenacity

                              Bill Nelson (Taste, Tone & Tenacity). Pencil, January 2011.

I want my drawings to look like watercolor paintings in black and white, somewhere between a photograph and a sketch. The actual lines are not as important, most times, as the degree of shading. Dark to light, thick to thin. That's usually how these things fill in. That's what eats up the time.

Click on photo, then click again to enlarge.

I really do work from dark to light, thick to thin lines, top to bottom. Once the black is in, there's no going back. But it provides a guide for where to put the other shades, gradually going lighter and lighter.

I have several boxes full of pencils of various sizes and degrees of hardness, many sharpened all the way down. Somewhere along the line I picked up one of those old-fashioned elementary school wall pencil sharpeners. I have a couple kneaded erasers (like Silly Putty) for the whitest whites, and a few rubbing sticks for blending the grays together. A lot of the shading is actually done with the side of the pencil tip. Yes, I break a lot of leads.

I do my own framing, too -- even to the point of painting the wood and the mats, if needed. Sometimes the house smells like a paint shop!

Most times I have two or three pictures in the works, in various stages. I like to draw on weekends, or days off, when I can devote a good five or six hours. I turn on the music in my so-called "Man Cave" and sketch away, in between loads of laundry and other mundane house tasks. After an hour or so I can generally tell if a picture will "work" -- or not. Some take a day, others take a week.  Winter seems to be a good time for drawing, and there's usually an uptick in requests for illustrations of friends' family members, including dogs and cats! Recently I completed a CD cover.

The drawings I keep for myself are generally of my daughters, or my two dogs and two cats. Mostly I draw musicians: Miles Davis, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa, Pete Townshend. All are on display on this site, and some are for sale.

The cool jazzy fella featured here is Bill Nelson -- not really a jazz player at all. In fact he was once a "glam rocker" fronting Be-Bop Deluxe in the 1970s. Extremely prolific, although you've probably never heard of him. A one-man band operating out of his home studio in England, he does it all. I think he's great.

This picture hangs in my office at my "real job," and I look at it to remind myself that there's still a creative flame inside of me.

 

Welcome to Tom Wills Productions and thank you for spending some time on my site! 

To inquire about ordering and pricing: willstom01@gmail.com

The Gift

My youngest daughter Emily and Corleone, New Years Eve, 2010. Emily is 19 and Corly is 12 months. She purchased Corly for me in March 2010, and dispatched oldest kid Kara to Berlin Center, Ohio to fetch him -- a complete surprise, though I'd wanted a German Shepherd for some time. I guess the girls got tired of me talking about it. I knew, as soon as I snapped the original photo, that I had to draw it. The last of many drawings for 2010.

Although there are a lot of folds, creases and hair here, I still got off easy: The eyes are closed! Eyes are tough. Hands are worse. I think this is the first good hand I've done. Practice, I guess.

Finished but not yet framed.

He really did fall asleep in her arms!

Here's where it happens.

"The Gift"
December 2010, pencil, 3' x 4'
For inquiries on creating or purchasing sketches: hankbonesman@embarqmail.com

The Sisters

This was certainly a challenge! The curly one on the right is my neighbor Janet, with her sister Debbie. Janet had a scratchy black and white photo from the early 1960s that she wanted sketched for Debbie.

Click on illustrations to magnify; then click once more for greater magnification.

Much guess work was involved here, but I think it's a very close approximation. Janet chose a black frame and she hand-painted the matte. This will hang upstairs in her sister Debbie's home.

You can follow the process and compare the sketch with the original photo.

It was nearly finished here, save for some final highlights.

The faces and hair are finished. A good sign that the REST of it will work, too.

I think it was at this point where I knew it would come together OK.

The faces are roughed in. The basic geometry is there.

The Sisters
P.C. 2010 Tom Wills Productions
SOLD
For inquiries: hankbonesman@embarqmail.com

The Glimmer Twins

Click on images to enlarge, then magnify.

Jim Marshall, the photographer who captured some of rock & roll's most unforgettable images, died March 2010 in New York at 74. He took this great photo of two Rolling Stones, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger in Los Angeles, in 1972. They are The Glimmer Twins.

Marshall also shot the photo of Keith smoking a cigarette and playing the guitar, which I have also drawn (see "Mr. Richards.") I think the contrast in his black and white photos is stunning, and very hard to capture in a sketch.

 I took a big liberty here by incorporating the Rolling Stones Records logo on the back of the music stand. Otherwise I felt the drawing would have been too black, too empty there. Hope I am forgiven.
I found a suitably 1972 country honk vintage frame for these boys, too. It's got all kinds of dents and gashes in it. If the frame fits ...

Rolling Stone, the magazine, says "Marshall spent his heyday working with some of the most influential artists of his day, artists that remain indescribably influential to modern rock. From the iconic shot of Johnny Cash with his middle finger to the world, to candid backstage shots of The Beatles, Marshall developed trusting relationships with many of the artists he worked with all the way up to recent days."

This photo was actually cut out of a Rolling Stone magazine article, probably in the early 1980s. I had found the most unique leather frame somewhere, and no family photo ever looked right inside. But this shot looked perfect. I still have it, and every now and then it falls over because the back is bad. But I prop it up and it hangs on a bit longer.

Sound familiar?

The Glimmer Twins
From a photo by Jim Marshall
Sketch by Tom Wills / December 2010
THIS PICTURE WAS SOLD 7/10/11
Inquiries: hankbonesman@embarqmail.com

The Bad Elves (Are Good)

Bad Elves. Pencil, 3' x 4' November 2010.

Happy Holidays

From Tom,
Bella, Corly, Waylon and Weez.

Clockwise from left, Weez, Corly, Bella and Waylon.

"This is not a dunce cap." -- Corly

"Was this really necessary?" -- Bella

Frame and matte salvaged and painted by TW.

"I curse the artist." -- Weez

It is, after all, the holidays.

"Bad Elves" Original art P.C. 2010 Tom Wills Productions. For inquiries about commissioned work, hankbonesman@embarqmail.com
Now, let's have some fun out there.