The EW alum explains the creative process behind Illustrated Black History.
“I just went with the feeling of who I wanted to know more about.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What inspired you to create this book?
Artist George McCalman.Baidi Kamagate
GEORGE MCCALMAN:The origin of this book was less inspiration than urgency.
So I felt a deep sense of agency and urgency.
I had to do it.
Baidi Kamagate
How did you find your own illustration style?
I’m a classically trained painter.
It’s been stored inside of me for the 20 years that I focused on my design career.
So when I started making these portraits, I felt fully formed on the inside.
What I learned all those years later is that I don’t have one singular style.
I apply the context of what I’m doing to the art that I’m making.
How did you choose the Black pioneers you highlighted?
[It was] nerve-racking.
I learned to rely on my instincts and curiosity about the stories that each pioneer revealed.
I just went with the feeling of who I wanted to know more about.
This book is actually more about the unseen than the iconic.
I really wanted to focus the telling on stories that most people didn’t know that much about.
Do you have a favorite illustration from the book?
I hope I never do.
I’m just too close to all of them.
So many incredible subjects!
Too many to list here.
Names for the second volume ofIllustrated Black History.
What do you hope readers will take away from this book after finishing it?
That this is American history.
Period and full stop.
It is for every single person.
These subjects all contributed to the fabric of the America that we all take for granted.
I wanted there to be an accessible Bible that celebrated them.
