He was principally known as an artist of Hollywood Film Posters and as an award-winning illustrator of 57 children's books including two that he authored himself, I wish there were two of me[1] and A special birthday.

[2] His fine art, developed throughout his life, includes the highly acclaimed mural Contemporary Justice and The Child created in 1936,[3] that took four years to complete.

[9] Shimin became a highly sought after artist painting large-scale murals for Hollywood films,[5] creating the original poster for Gone with the Wind[10] in 1939.

In other peripheral connections to the cinema world, he also worked on drawings and paintings for the promotional campaign of the 1960s The Magnificent Seven[11] and had a brief stint in the early 1940s as Howard Hughes’ personal artist.

In 1936, Shimin was awarded a contract by the PWAP, Public Works of Art Project, to paint the mural Contemporary Justice and the Child for the Department of Justice Building, Washington, DC[12] Shimin’s work in children's books began in 1950 when friends Hermann and Nina Schneider asked him to illustrate a revised edition of their How Big is Big?.