Illustration [with Placement year]

With its vibrant studio culture and small class sizes, combined with excellent printmaking, 3D, photography and life-drawing facilities, our Illustration course has consistently high student satisfaction ratings.

We know that our students want to learn from the best, so all of our tutors are professional illustrators. They’ll help you find your visual style and kick-start your career. But they’ll never forget the reason you chose to study illustration in the first place. At Cambridge School of Art, you’ll find there’s always time to experiment, discover, discuss and create.

Our studios and workshops are second to none, and you’ll spend lots of time working there. As well as practising and experimenting with your drawing and observation skills, you’ll get the chance to explore related areas such as storytelling, editorials, animation, printmaking, text and image, and moving illustrations.

But you won’t be restricted to the studio: you’ll also go on gallery visits, local drawing trips, and our annual overseas visit to cities such as Porto and Seville, and take part in live briefs for partner organisations. Our students have recently worked with Cambridge University Botanic Garden, producing designs for their educational resources; Cambridge Gateway From India, researching and creating an information board to accompany the new Gateway Stones on Mill Road; and Cambridgeshire Constabulary, creating and exhibiting artworks for their KNOW Violence Against Women project.

There’s even the chance to study abroad for a semester, in the Netherlands or Poland – with funding on offer to help cover the costs.

We know that your future career is important and you want to build your CV. So we’ll encourage you to grab every opportunity for real-world experience – entering national and international competitions, working on live industry briefs, and taking up internships.

As an illustrator, a world of possibilities awaits you. You could illustrate books, become a graphic artist, design stage sets or product labels, and even work on animated films.

One of the highlights of our students‘ academic year is the annual drawing trip to Lisbon. Each year our our second and third year students have the opportunity to join a course drawing trip to Lisbon.

As well as our dedicated illustration studio with your own desk, you’ll have use of a Life drawing studio; a professional digital art gallery; 3D workshops for physical media; specialist printmaking workshop; dedicated Mac and PC suites; photography & media facilities; professional equipment loans.