Illustration Courses

Our Illustration school has several Illustration programs that help students develop a portfolio that demonstrates a unique personal style and high level of professional skills to enter the job market at a competitive level. Portfolios are of professional quality and demonstrate the following skills: drawing and an understanding of the figure; concepts and storytelling; the use of color to convey feeling and mood; perspective and composition; mastery of technique, traditional and digital; content, marketability and presentation. Each Illustration course at our school provides more power to your portfolio.

Earn your accredited Illustration degree with our Illustration program by taking Illustration courses at Academy of Art University. Our online Illustration courses and Illustration courses in San Francisco include:

Traditional Illustration

Master the art of traditional illustration, learning value, color, form, shape, structure and composition.

Digital Illustration

Develop concepts and personal style using digital media. Skillfully use Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter to expertly compose beautiful illustrations that contain lighting, content, and meaning.

Visual Development and Concept Art

Learn to effectively communicate visually in a personal and professional manner.

Fashion Illustration

Step into the world of fashion, studying the essential relationships of body, form, proportion, foreshortening and construction of forms and folds. Illustrate stunning patterns and develop a sense of staging. Be an expert on drapery and the ways light affects the indication of form. Master staging, drama, mood and storytelling to achieve a flawless look within drawings.

Fantasy Illustration

Transform worlds by learning to convey character, authority, and consistency. Bring unique visions to life by learning to create real, fantastic and unusual artwork. Creativity and imagination are emphasized.

Sequential Art and Comic Book Art

Step into the broad world of sequential images. Produce series of short works and advance storytelling skills as comic book artists. Master the creation of the story arc, page layouts, sense of camera and various ways to express mood and time. Develop strong skills in finishing layouts and develop professional skills.  Become a pro at constructing stories with sequential images, from how-to instructions to comic books. Interact with writers and expertly blend the arc of narrative, character dialogue, staging and different multi-image platforms such as motion pictures and television.

Children’s Book and Book Covers

Create eye-catching illustrations for various book forms. From children’s, adventure, romance, fantasy and science fiction, discover how to produce amazing cover art and page illustrations. Learn children’s book illustration and develop an individual sense of style by learning to work within the framework of the book.

Graphic Design Illustration

Explore the new roles of designers in desktop publishing and discover the freedoms of the illustrator, exercising additional talents, such as editorial work, hand lettering, type, and concept rather than just styling.

Animal Illustration

Create imaginary characters with anatomical breakdowns from skeleton, musculature, and surface anatomies of actual living creatures. Learn to tell visual stories with animal characters through their anatomy and zoology. Explore pictorial integration of animal environments, and how to find and use reference material from a variety of sources.

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