A painter and illustrator, Frederick Schwankovsky was from Detroit, where as a teenager, he worked in the family's piano business. He attended the Art Students League and the Pennsylvania Academy and moved to Southern California in 1917, where he painted stage scenery. From 1919 to 1947, he was head of the art department at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles and was an active member of the Laguna Beach Art Association. Later he moved to Humboldt County, where he died in 1974.