Willie's Words

I wanted to share a picture I did of Willie Nelson several years ago. To look at this picture from a distance you would think it was a pencil drawing of Willie....but when you get up close you will find that is all the words to his songs that I could find at the time I drew it. I chose Willie as my subject because I liked his music and he had an interesting face with lots of character. I thought he was perfect for this style of art. If you stand back as far as ten feet you do not see the words at all and the pencil blends so it looks like a drawing.

People who see the picture often ask me how long it took to finish the picture, and my answer is I really don't know. I did the picture for an assignment for a class I was taking. You had to turn a picture into a piece of word art. I started the picture by sketching Willie lightly in pencil. Then I used different hard and soft lead pencils and colored pencils to get the effect I wanted. After the intitial drawing, I put the picture on a table and would work on it when I had time. Sometimes it would be for a few minutes and sometimes a few hours. At the time I didn't know how much I would like the picture when it was finished so I didn't calculate the time.

The picture is composed with Willie's name and the words to his songs. His name is repeated many times and some of the songs are repeated and some are used only one time. I used them where I thought they fit on the picture.

For example, "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" had to go in his eyes. This is only picture I have done in this style and many have asked, "Has Willie seen it?" and my answer is ,"No." Someday maybe he will.