I was introduced to the artist, David Willardson, through “Overspray: Riding High with the Kings of California Art” a great book that our owner bought our designers as a reference for old school graphics and design. David was one of the featured artist of the book which showcased some of his monumental artworks from the 1970s. It was his piece on the back cover of the book that first caught my eye — Little Richard’s album cover The Second Coming 1972.
Recently, I was lucky enough to meet David at his studio in Glendale, CA with my friend Akilla, a photo editor for a Japanese magazine, where we were able to hear about his move into “commercial art” in the 70s through his airbrush technique. “It was a very minor technique at the moment in the industry. But the situation of my design studio changed after making cover art for West Magazine (1971),” said David. After that, he was offered more than 200 titles over the years from various record and movie companies worldwide.

The Second Coming for Little Richard album cover was one of David’s first creations after having his work published with West Magazine. He remembers getting the offer on a Friday afternoon like it happened yesterday. “I turned it into the art director the next day, late Saturday night. I already had an image when I got the offer because I had been listening to his music all the time.” I was surprised and a little awe-struck that he was able to produce such a detailed and conceptual piece in only a day. It took him only moments to create these mock-ups.

When computer graphics started taking over for hand illustration, David made a change and closed his design studio in 2003 for a new adventure as a fine artist. Lately, he has been creating artwork inspired by Disney characters and icons like The Beatles and Marilyn Monroe. With this new inspiration in hand, he was explored new and different techniques outside of airbrushing.

Now, curious about David’s new direction, I really wanted to find out which other icons would inspire him to create great pieces like the Little Richard album cover. When I asked him, he laughed and just said, “That’s is really hard, Yoshi.”

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