The Picture Book Buzz - Interview with Nikkolas Smith
- Maria Marshall
- 3 minutes ago
- 8 min read
After designing theme parks at Walt Disney Imagineering for 11 years, Nikkolas Smith is now an ARTivist, Concept artist, Children’s Books Author, Film Illustrator (Space Jam 2, Black Panther Wakanda Forever) in addition to creating movie posters for many films.
Many of Nikkolas’s viral and globally published sketches that have sparked important conversations and inspired meaningful change are included in his book Sunday Sketch: The Art of Nikkolas. He speaks on his Artivism at conferences, workplaces, and schools around the world, and he also leads workshops about digital painting. Born in Houston, Texas, Nikkolas lives in Los Angeles, California.
Nikkolas is the author-illustrator of USA Today bestseller The Artivist (2023), My Hair Is Poofy & That’s Okay (2017), and NAACP Image Award nominated The Golden Girls of Rio (2016). And he’s the illustrator of Captain America: Brave New World: A Hero Looks Like You by Kwame Mbalia (2025), That Flag by Tameka Fryer Brown (2023), I Am Ruby Bridges by Ruby Bridges (2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: The Courage to Dream by Frederick Joseph (2022), and the New York Times bestselling The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, by Nikole Hannah-Jones & Renée Watson (2021), and World Cup Women: Megan, Alex, and the Team USA Soccer Champs by Meg Walters (2019).
His newest book, The History of We, is his 10th picture book and his first hand-paintedone, was released on May 20th.
Welcome Nikkolas,
Tell us a little about yourself. (Where/when do you write? How long have you been writing? What is your favorite book to write?)
Hello! I’m an Artivist, author, illustrator, film concept artist, and movie poster designer. I’ve been making picture books since 2016. I don’t think I can choose a favorite book that I either wrote or illustrated or both. Every picture book is a special one for me because they’re all connected to a personal part of my history, America’s history, or human history, all with the underlying theme of bringing the world closer together and in harmony. Obviously, The Artivist is very important to me because I’ve been making Artivism for many years and to compile all my work in a picture book form was very special. Born on the Water is probably the hardest book I’ve illustrated, given the subject matter of my ancestors from central West Africa who were stolen from their land and forced into enslavement, but such an important book about what true freedom and democracy means.
It is such a pleasure to meet you. What is one of the most fun or unusual places where you’ve written a manuscript?
Being that I’m a concept artist first, there is no ideal or unusual place where I’ve made art or have written about it. I can make art anywhere, from my office to an airport lounge or on a flight or Uber ride. I tend to write notes for inspiration to make art or book ideas on my phone whenever the inspiration arrives. I don’t think you can contain creativity in any one place!
What was your inspiration or spark of interest for The History of We?
Fossil records show that the first humans were born in Africa. Meaning, every person on Earth can trace their ancestry back to that continent. The History of We celebrates our shared ancestors’ ingenuity and achievements and imagines what these firsts would have looked and felt like.
What was it like for the first person to paint, to make music, to dance, to discover medicine, to travel to unknown lands? It required courage, curiosity, and skill. The History of We takes what we know about modern human civilization and, through magnificent paintings, creates a tale about our shared beginnings in a way that centers Black people in humankind's origin story.
Many young Black children growing up in the United States, myself included, have learned what society values and does not value based on the information that school history lessons include and omit. I recall the textbooks I used in Texas erased the beginning of the modern human era, claiming that true civilization didn’t begin until hundreds of thousands of years later. Despite decades of research and the scientific community’s wide consensus that every person on Earth today can be traced back to a handful of traveling tribes from Africa, I was only ever taught this by my parents at home. My goal from the beginning of this book’s journey was to create something that could teach those lessons we were never taught in schools.
I see this book as a truly universal one, meant for every human connected to the modern humans in this book, which is every human on Earth. More specifically, this book is great for young elementary school/middle school students learning about human history. I’ve had the great pleasure of speaking to high school students as well about 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒆, and it has been extremely well received.
You've created such a powerful and stunning look at humankind's journey. What was the hardest or most challenging thing about writing The History of We? And what was the most fun?
When painting The History of We, I used a wide variety of tools on the canvas, from brushes and sponges, to sticks and leaves, to the original method of fingers and palms. Being hand painted, this book was a very therapeutic experience in comparison to my previous projects. Here, I was able to mirror our first ancestors’ art style, while paying homage to the creativity that they cultivated hundreds of thousands of years ago.
I often create art to be a voice for the voiceless or silenced. In this case, it is art not only for my own, but for all of our ancestors. With paint in hand, I wanted to leave a mark on my canvas that mirrors our early family members in the Blombos cave in South Africa, full of expression and storytelling that reminds the world we were here.
To see these paintings in progress, check out Nikkolas Smith's video - Behind the Creative Process The History of We.
It was really fun to be able to watch a bit of your process after reading this description. How many revisions did The History of We take from first draft to publication? How did this compare to your other picture books?
I honestly don’t number drafts and in this case this book required a lot of research and finding the rhythm to go with the illustrations that I first created digitally, along the way. Writing this book took about two months and then I painted the illustrations on canvas for another two months.
Image © VanessaCrocini, 2025.
Every book is different, but this one was definitely the most experimental, being my first hand painted picture book.
Thank you so much for sharing a glimpse into the book's progress! It actually sounds like a bit of a marathon! What comes first for you, the text or the illustrations? Which was tougher in The History of We? Which is your favorite spread?
For me, usually illustrations come first. For this book, I started with research, and writing notes which became the manuscript. Before finalizing the manuscript though, I had already sketched illustrations digitally and in my case, it always helps to visualize the book with words. So once the manuscript was already finalized, and the digital sketches were done, I began painting on canvas.
Text & Image © Nikkolas Smith, 2025.
I love all of the painting of The History of We. I absolutely love The Explorers painting. I love The Astronomers painting, but my favorite is the cover of the book, Queen Mother or Mawa. I wanted to capture this queen mother figure, the first, the oldest, known fossil of modern humanity. I wanted her to be the face of this whole story. Her staring eyes are asking “Do you see me? Have I been written out of the history books? Can we come back to this point in history collectively?”
There is a connection there that has been systematically broken, and I wanted to restore those bonds.
Image © Nikkolas Smith, 2025.
Check out the amazing Timelapse Video of Nikkolas Smith creating the cover painting.
Image © Vanessa Crocini, 2025.
All of the paintings are so amazing! Thank you for sharing more about the intriguing, gorgeous woman on the book cover! What's something you want your readers to know or learn about The History of We?
I feel that this book is a form of educational justice. It's books like these, that if brought to the forefront, they can be a way that we can reclaim our shared history. We shouldn’t be ashamed to talk about the fact that we all come from Africa. We come from greatness. We come from ingenious people. It is a scientific fact that these people, over 200,000 years ago, had the same anatomical structure as us. They had the same brain capacity as us, and they were as intelligent as us. It's part of getting back to us as one human race, as one group of collective individuals who at some point spread across this world and changed a little bit here and there. But at the core, we're all scientifically the same.
SCIENCE BASED
The beautiful thing about The History of We is that this book really is science based, it really is a scientific account of our history. The thing that I love about anthropologists, archeologists, and paleontologists, is that their job is really a fact-finding mission. They dig fossils and bones out of the ground, and they document. It really isn't based on some sort of belief system or a religion. None of this can be misconstrued in any way.
A TOOL OF RESISTANCE
In a way, this book can be a tool for resistance in the face of all of these book bans that are happening, where books are only being taken off the shelves because they have a Black protagonist, or they talk about parts of American history that might be sensitive, but they are important educational tools.
My hope is that this book can be a reminder of what an important gift we received from those who cultivated civilization on our behalf. May it compel us to draw even closer together as a global community of extended family.
I love that it weaves science and fact into the hope of greater unity and respect. Many illustrators will leave treasures or special items in the illustrations. Did you do this in The History of We?
There are many places throughout the book, where I’ve incorporated dozens of tiny hand painted civilizations that have their own interesting stories to tell, featuring people sailing, crossing bridges, climbing, just living, etc. You may need a magnifying glass for these easter eggs!
That was a lot of fun going back and looking for these mini stories in the illustrations! Are there any new projects you are working on now that you can share a tidbit with us?
I have a new picture book with Sam Cooke, A Change is Gonna Come, coming out on September 2nd! It was an incredible honor to illustrate the iconic Civil Rights era song by Sam Cooke. It follows a young boy in the civil rights era who uses his gift of photography when finding himself in the midst of the highs and unjust lows of the 1960’s leading up to the Civil Rights Act.
Wow, that is really intriguing. We will have to keep our eyes open for it! Last question, what is your favorite National Park or Forest, regional park, or city park (anywhere in the world)? Or the one you’re longing to visit. Why?
I love Yosemite National Park and definitely Zion National Park. I’ve made art about Yosemite that was published in a book meant to highlight our beautiful national parks. I love Zion National Park as well. My son’s name is Zion and when we went there with him, it felt majestic. We have incredible places in this country and I want to keep exploring them. Nature has an incredible way of inspiring me.
Thank you, Nikkolas, for sharing with us a bit about yourself and your new book.
To find out more about Nikkolas Smith, or to contact him:
Website: https://www.nikkolas.art/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikksmith/
Twitter: https://x.com/4nikkolas?lang=en
