Carmichael, the son of a carriage maker, was born in Orillia, Ontario on May 4, 1890. He arrived in Toronto in 1911 with some training in commercial art, and soon found himself the associate of Tom Thomson and a number of other commercial artists who were teaching themselves to be serious painters. In 1913 he went to Paris to study painting but was soon back in Ontario to participate in the founding of the Group of Seven. In 1932 he was appointed Head of Graphic and Commercial Art at the Ontario College of Art.