Art Degrees Online

The field of illustration is one of the most demanding occupations of the visual arts. The artist-illustrator must think both of the conceptual nature of the image being presented and of the range of technical possibilities dealing with the reproduction of the art. An understanding of the relationship among the illustrator and the art director, editor, author, and production personnel is an essential element in the cultivation of the complete illustrator.

The illustration student concentrates upon drawing, painting, and design. A high degree of facility in these skills must be achieved before moving on to the consideration of specific illustration problems, and it is encouraged throughout the program. The specialized courses deal with various aspects of the field: general illustration, editorial illustration, book illustration, typography, reproduction, graphics, perspective, with specialties in these categories such as the writing, designing, illustration, and production of children’s books. Job opportunities in illustration are varied and substantial. Large greeting card firms, for example, employ illustrators in staff positions and maintain entry-level training programs for the inexperienced graduate with a major in illustration. Other staff positions exist in publishing houses creating books, magazines, and newspapers. Beyond the salaried staff illustrator is the freelancer who markets skills on an individual, contractual-assignment basis creating paperback book covers; institutional advertisements; book jackets; postage stamps and a myriad of philatelic materials; textual illustrations for periodicals, books, and newspapers; corporate reports; TV commercials; and publications of every description including retail catalogs, advertising brochures, and “how-to-do-it” manuals.

The beginning role of Paier Illustration graduates will depend upon the nature and size of the organization that they join, or the nature of their free-lance work. Important also to their advancement will be the professional contacts that they establish in the commercial and fine arts fields.

In addition to studies in their program major, all of our students puruse a well-rounded education in foundational design, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Art History, and interdisciplinary and special studies.

Here are the course requirements for this major:
KCIL 120 – Introduction to Illustration – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCFN 110, KCFN 131 or KCDS 142

A survey of contemporary and historical illustration techniques and movements. Career options will be covered, along with the fundamentals of composition and color, the application of media, and the basic elements of picture making.
KCIL 203 – Special Topics in Illustration – 1 to 3 Credits
KCIL 222 – Three Dimensional Illustration – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCFN 132 or KCDS 143, sophomore standing

Introduction to the techniques, tools, and the personal expression in sculptural illustration.
KCIL 234 – Illustration II – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 120

Exploration of color media and processes within specific illustration assignments. Problem solving is encouraged through creative investigation.
KCIL 242 – Rendering – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 234, KCPH 120

A drawing and painting course in super realism using various media.
KCIL 252 – Watercolor for Illustrators – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 120, KCIL 234 or program consent

A course in watercolor using various themes linking text and image.
KCIL 291 – Illustration Painting I – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCFN 112, KCFN 132, KCIL 234

Painting illustrative subject matter using fundamental water-based painting techniques.
KCIL 292 – Illustration Painting II – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 291

A more advanced course in water-based painting media whose subject matter will include various illustration genres: editorial, advertising, corporate and institutional, book, and scientific.
KCIL 305 – Illustration Professional Practices – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 120, KCIL 241 or KCDM 241

Students will study current illustration markets, learn essential business practices and create the printed collateral necessary for doing business as an illustrator.
KCIL 306 – Sequential Art and Illustration – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCFN 132 or KCDS 143, junior standing

Students will learn to create storyboards, comics or graphic novels for print media, using a combination of traditional and digital techniques.
KCIL 317 – Illustrating International Literature – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 234, KCIL 323, faculty recommendation or approval of instructor
Co-requisites: KCHU 317

Students must be enrolled in KCHU 317, International Literature, to be admitted into this course. Reading assignments from KCHU 317, International Literature, will be used to explore the parallels between literature and the visual arts. Appropriate, creative illustration solutions will result from this research.
KCIL 323 – Illustration Life Drawing III – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCFA 222

Advanced study of the human figure, especially in relation to the needs of the illustrator, with emphasis on construction, composition, movement, and interpretation of the clothed and costumed figure in various media.
KCIL 324 – Illustration Life Drawing IV – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 323

Personal expression as a means of figurative illustration. Color, form, and light will be explored through various media and methods.
KCIL 326 – Contemporary Fashion Illustration – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCFN 132 or KCDS 143, junior standing

Students will study the illustration of contemporary fashions, designs and accessories as well as research the work of current fashion illustrators. Course work will include practical techniques of fashion illustration along with experimentation with various media.
KCIL 330 – Children’s Book Design and Illustration – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCFN 132 or KCDS 143, junior standing

Professional practices and techniques of children’s book and magazine illustrators, from concepting to the execution of comprehensives, and final artwork. Strategies on portfolio set-up, locating the market, interviews with publishers, copyright laws, and the legal rights of the artist and author will be discussed.
KCIL 333 – Illustration as Social Criticism – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 222, KCIL 234

The creation and rendering of various graphic editorial forms associated with current event commentary. Also includes a history of the art of social commentary, its contemporary impact, and the artists’ role in its creation.
KCIL 335 – Illustration III – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 234, KCIL 323

Concept development and creative problem solving using relevant illustration media and techniques.
KCIL 336 – Illustration IV – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 335, KCIL 241 or KCDM 241

The creation of illustrations based on research of professional styles and markets.
KCIL 341 – Airbrush Rendering – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 234, KCIL 323, or sophomore status in all other majors.

Introduces the fundamentals of airbrush illustration through practice and historical study. Black and white rendering of a variety of studies will lead to full color assignments.
KCIL 399 – Independent Study:Illustration – 1 to 3 Credits
Prerequisites: 3.0 GPA, junior/senior standing
KCIL 400 – Special Problems:Illustration – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: 3.0 GPA, junior/senior standing
KCIL 402 – Internship:Illustration – 1 to 9 Credits
Prerequisites: 3.0 GPA, junior/senior standing
KCIL 403 – Seminar in Illustration – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: Upper-level students

Seminar dealing with special interests in illustration.
KCIL 442 – Graphic Design for the Illustrator – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 305

Students will learn graphic design and production processes for print media, using a combination of traditional and digital techniques.
KCIL 460 – Illustration Portfolio I – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 336

Preparation of a professional quality illustration portfolio based on individual style and market research.
KCIL 461 – Illustration Portfolio II – 3 Credits
Prerequisites: KCIL 336, KCIL 460

A continuation of the development and refinement of the student’s graduation portfolio.

Admission Requirements

Admission to the B.F.A. program is based on an interview and portfolio examination by the Fine Arts Department. The portfolio is to be presented in person or mailed along with a statement of intent as stipulated by the department and should contain examples of work that the candidate believes best display his or her abilities.

Students are expected to assume the costs of materials they use in their courses. All studio courses may have an additional charge for materials used in class.
Career Information

Fine arts students become professional artists in their major (painting, photography, printmaking, or sculpture). Some also may pursue commercial work in related vocations requiring their expertise, such as advertising, photography, photojournalism, art printing, pattern and model making, illustration, and restoration. Graduates have been hired as artists, graphic artists, photographers, illustrators, printers, directors, managers, and professors. Typical hiring firms include museums, public and cultural agencies, advertising agencies, galleries, businesses, universities.

Our Illustration Foundation course, based at Sussex Coast College Hastings, will provide you with an understanding of the function and scope of illustration. You will have the opportunity to approach the discipline in a way that is individual, questioning and innovative. Cultural and critical theory provides a basis for subject practice. Business awareness and vocational skills are raised through work-related learning and links with employers.
Areas of study

You will explore how meaning is conveyed through all visual images. The use of media is wide ranging with the opportunity to specialise in year 2 in printmaking, type and image, digital technology, animation, book arts, and mixed media. For the most part, it is drawing in all its forms that will inform your experience on this course. It is the wide-ranging nature of the experience offered, together with an emphasis on the understanding of the critical and contextual dimensions of illustration, which will challenge you to develop your own personal style and working method. This, together with a strong emphasis on professional practice, will provide you with a sound basis on which you can draw throughout your career and in response to ever-changing professional environments.

You will have access to research and information resources at the University of Brighton.
Syllabus

Year 1
Drawing
Ideas Generation and Development
Graphic Narration
Animation
Specialist Practice
Personal and Professional Development
Culture, Context and Meaning

Year 2
Concepts and Ideologies into Practice
Specialist Pathway
Presentation project
Professional Practice
Culture, Context and Meaning

Career and progression opportunities

Opportunities for illustrators are generally on a freelance basis whether within editorial, book publishing or advertising. In addition, illustrators may exhibit their artwork and develop a range of creative ideas and applications from which they develop their own markets. Students have successfully undertaken work placements at Coley Porter Bell, London; understudied leading illustrators within the work place in Hastings and Brighton; organised an illustration event entitled Alternative Fashion using paper clothing; and produced window displays for environmentally focused shops in Hastings as well as an exhibition at the Rye Gallery.

SVA began in 1947 as one of the few legitimate places on earth for cartoonists and illustrators to study their craft. This was just as cartooning was emerging as the great American popular art form we know today.

The “comic book” is now recognized as a serious creative discipline, requiring expert line and color technique, and a thorough knowledge of anatomy. The classics of the genre are the superhero comics of DC and Marvel, which deal with the theme of good vs. evil – hardly “comic” subjects. Over the decades, cartooning has matured even further, and now the exemplar of the form is the graphic novel, which tells highly complex, literate stories, often taking on politically sensitive topics.

SVA has remained in the vanguard of the art. Here, you can still learn the craft of the comics from the best, like DC legend Carmine Infantino, who created the first Batgirl comics, and study the new form with people like Ben Katchor, winner of a coveted MacArthur “genius” award. Comic innovators come here to learn the newest developments in the graphic novel, and trends in Japanese-inspired manga/anime. Our cartooning faculty is the biggest and the best of any arts college, which is only fitting, since we were the first to offer a degree in cartooning.

Whether you are preserving the old form or detonating tradition with a new one, you get the same grounding in technique at SVA. Composition and design; perspective; drawing from “real life”; color theory. Plot development and the building of dramatic narrative tension are of equal importance, since cartooning is one-half written story. You will learn how to break down the sequential action that shows the story you are telling.

Cartoonists are passionate dreamers. The really funny thing about the comic book is that something so quirky and private could be so commercially popular. Our instructors have made careers out of sharing their inner worlds. Let them into yours and see your cartoon dreams blast through into reality.