science

Malcolm Smith (artist)

Malcolm Smith (artist) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Malcolm Smith (artist) rather than just read about it. In short: Malcolm H. Smith (1910–1966) was an American artist identified with the retro-futurist tradition.

Key takeaways

Malcolm Smith (artist) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Malcolm Smith (artist) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Malcolm Smith (artist) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Malcolm H. Smith (1910–1966) was an American artist identified with the retro-futurist tradition.

Early life Malcolm Hadden Smith was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1910. He displayed a talent for drawing and painting at an early age. He also enjoyed reading pulp sci-fi books and was a world-class target archer, winning many trophies and medals. He studied art at Southwestern Junior College in Memphis. In his early 20s, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, and attended the American Academy of Art and the Art Institute. While attending college, Malcolm worked as a haberdasher and a cabinetmaker. After graduating from school, he immediately started work as a commercial illustrator. He did illustrations for newspapers, magazine ads, posters and billboards.

Career In the mid to late 1930s, Malcolm started working as a freelance artist for the various pulp publishers in Chicago. He did illustrations and paintings for mystery, romance, detective, western, and sci-fi pulps. He was, for a while, the art director at Ziff-Davis Publishing. At other times he worked in a Chicago-based artist's cooperative called Bendelow and Associates. Malcolm often used himself, his friends, and family members as models for his works. In the later part of 1959, Malcolm moved his family to Huntsville, Alabama, where he worked as a concept artist and animator for the Marshall Space Flight Center of NASA. While at NASA, Malcolm worked with Fred Ordway who became the technical adviser for the Kubrick movie 2001:a Space Odyssey. Fred suggested to Arthur C. Clarke that they use Malcolm for the concept and design work for the movie. Arthur C. Clarke sent a letter to Malcolm requesting his assistance on the movie, but, at the time, Malcolm was busy illustrating a book called "In Search for Life on Other Worlds" and he was unavailable for the movie. Also in the 60s, Malcolm was asked to appear on the show "I've Got A Secret" as a famous sci-fi artist. Throughout his career he became friends with many other artists, writers, scientists and engineers including: Virgil Finlay, Ray Paul, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Wernher von Braun. Malcolm H. Smith is considered by many Sci-Fi fans to be one of the founding fathers of this genre of art. He died in 1966 of lung cancer, and is buried in Huntsville, Alabama.

References

External links Field Guide To Wild American Pulp Artists Works by Malcolm Smith at Project Gutenberg

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Malcolm Smith (artist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Malcolm Smith (artist) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Malcolm Smith (artist) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Malcolm Smith (artist) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Malcolm Smith (artist)

In research: Malcolm Smith (artist) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Malcolm Smith (artist) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Malcolm Smith (artist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1910 births, 1966 deaths, 20th-century American artists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Malcolm Smith (artist) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Malcolm Smith (artist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Malcolm Smith (artist) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Malcolm Smith (artist) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Malcolm Smith (artist) in simple terms?

Malcolm H. Smith (1910–1966) was an American artist identified with the retro-futurist tradition.

Why does Malcolm Smith (artist) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Malcolm Smith (artist)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Malcolm Smith (artist).