Well, if you had already created the log4j.properties you would add its path to the classpath so it would be found during execution.
Yes, the thingy will search for this file in the classpath.
Since you said you looked into axis and didnt find one, I am assuming you dont have a log4j.properties, so here's a crude but complete example.
Create it somewhere and add to your classpath. Put it for example, in c:/proj/resources/log4j.properties
In your classpath you simple add .......;c:/proj/resources
# Root logger option
log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG, stdout, file
# Redirect log messages to console
log4j.appender.stdout=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.stdout.Target=System.out
log4j.appender.stdout.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.stdout.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} %-5p %c{1}:%L - %m%n
# Redirect log messages to a log file, support file rolling.
log4j.appender.file=org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender
log4j.appender.file.File=c:/project/resources/t-output/log4j-application.log
log4j.appender.file.MaxFileSize=5MB
log4j.appender.file.MaxBackupIndex=10
log4j.appender.file.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.file.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} %-5p %c{1}:%L - %m%n