About

It’s was Friday morning, April 5, 1968, and my mother was upset, very upset, crying. When asked what was wrong, she said Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot and killed. I thought to myself, why was my mother crying for this television actor. I thought Peter Lorre, (yes, the white character actor) was Martin Luther King.
I had no idea who Martin Luther King was. None!

At my youngest, when able to hold a pencil, I’ve always drawn pictures. At six or seven years old, while casually in my bedroom, I would draw on the walls. My mother would discipline me and then 'Go to your room!' Bored and now stuck in my room, I would draw on the walls.

There was no paper to draw on. It wasn’t until I was away in college when I realized that, up until about age 10, we were essentially poor. Our fortunes started to change around 1968, when mama started working for the Social Security Administration. She started saving the white rounded cardboard backing from her pantyhose packages for me. Later, she would bring home spent computer punch cards and I would draw on those.

In high school in the 1970s, I had art and drafting classes. I also joined the high school newspaper staff as a reporter. I considered going to college for writing and journalism. Then one day the school had a career day and I picked up a brochure for the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Participles . . . Paintbrushes . . . Hmmm?

After coming home from Pittsburgh in the early 1980s, I promised myself I was going to draw something every day to get better. One spring day, I heard there was going to be an ethnic festival downtown featuring Jamaican culture. The day before the festival I drew a picture of Bob Marley. I took it to the festival sat down on a bench with it and in short order it sold. I went home that night and drew two more with the same results.

That Autumn, I drew a pen and ink portrait of a notable person, made 11" x 17" poster copies and my brother-in-law and I sold them around Baltimore. The following summer, I drew five more illustrations and we sold them at AFRAM and in Washington D.C. during the 20th anniversary of the March on Washington.

From pencil, pen and ink to airbrush and computer, I’ve been doing these illustrations in some capacity ever since.

James E. Smallwood
Historicatures
Founder

So . . . who is this Smallwood!?!

James Smallwood is a graphic artist from Maryland. He has more than thirty years experience in newsroom art departments from the Baltimore Sunpapers to the Washington Post, with stops at Knight-Ridder Tribune Graphics and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution along the way.

James has experience with conventional art and graphics from pencil, pen and ink and airbrush to computer graphics and illustrations using software such as Adobe Illustrator, PhotoShop, Dreamweaver, PowerPoint, iMovie, wordPress and animated gifs. He also has a lengthy history of graphic production and problem solving, while meeting very tight deadlines in pressure situations.