About William

Welcome To My Studio

Here are some of the places where I have created my drawings — in Westlake Village, California, Provence, France, and St. Baldolph in the Savoie region of France, nestled in the Alps.

I was trained as an architect and have worked with some wonderful architects, urban designers and entertainment companies, including Disney Imagineering and Universal Studios. I have lived between California and France since the 1980s.

My drawings help describe places that I long to spend time in. I draw buildings, streets and places that tell stories.

Impressions of Place

I am not so much trying to show how accurately I can draw a building or how much technique I can put into an image.

I want the drawing to be an invitation.

I want you to feel that you can come into the drawing and spend some time there. To discover something. To imagine yourself walking through the streets, waiting for a train, looking out over a city or simply being part of the life of the place.

For me, a successful drawing creates a world that feels inclusive. You are not just looking at it from the outside. You are invited in.

Influences

I have always been influenced by artists who can make a drawing feel alive and immediate.

Quentin Blake is one of those artists. His drawings have an extraordinary sense of movement, personality and spontaneity. They don’t simply describe a scene — they invite you into it.

Franklin McMahon is another important influence. His drawings capture people, places and events with an immediacy that makes you feel present in the scene.

These influences have helped me think about drawing not simply as a way of representing something, but as a way of communicating an experience.

Drawings, Stories & Animation

I also work on children’s projects and enjoy animating the drawings that I create.

A drawing doesn’t necessarily have to remain still. Sometimes a little movement, a change of viewpoint or a sequence of images can turn a drawing into a story.

That is what I continue to explore: places, people, stories and the feeling of being there.