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ELWOOD H. SMITH’S BIO
Elwood H. Smith was born in Alpena, Michigan on May 23, 1941. He studied art at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Institute of Design at IIT in Chicago. After spending eight years learning typography and design as an art director for a small publishing company and several advertising agencies, Elwood began his career as a full-time illustrator.
In 1976, heeding the advice of encouraging friends, Elwood moved to New York City, establishing himself as one of the most highly recognizable and well respected professionals in the field of illustration. His illustrations have appeared regularly in Time, Newsweek, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, to name but a small sampling of Elwood’s editorial clients. He has worked with many major advertising agencies world wide. In the field of animation, Elwood has worked on projects with R.O. Blechman and J.J. Sedelmaier at the Ink Tank. He is currently busy developing his own 2D animations using the Flash-based Toon Boom Studio
animation program.
In addition to applying his talents to a steady stream of editorial and advertising clients, Elwood has written children’s books and two musicals for children with his wife & representative, Maggie Pickard and has illustrated several children’s books for Viking. He has been featured in Steven Heller’s Innovators of American Illustration, The New Illustration, published by The Society of Illustrators, The September 1989 issue of American Artist Magazine, the 1998 Winter issue of Watercolor magazine, Craig Yoe’s The Art of Barbie, and his work can be found in many of the unique publications from Klutz Press. He has been the recipient of many awards and honors in the field of illustration.
Elwood has been playing guitar since the late ‘50’s and writing songs since the ‘70’s. During his five-year stint in Manhattan, Elwood was lead guitarist in Ben Day and the Zipatones, an all-artist band that included Lou Brooks and Mark Alan Stamaty. The band appeared in two dazzling performances of the “Artists and Models Ball” for the Graphic Artists Guild. A 12-song CD, featuring Elwood’s songwriting is available on his web page. The songs are sung by John Platania (guitarist for Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, Judy Collins & Chip Taylor), who produced & arranged the project.
In 1983 Elwood and Maggie moved from Manhattan to Rhinebeck, New York where they continue to live a chaotic life with Sophie, a Scottish Terrier; Girlie, an ancient feline nut-case and Luigi, the Best Cat in the World. |
