Our illustration students tell their own stories while also gaining industry-ready skills. You’ll learn all about narrative development, contemporary visual styles, and explore personal publication.
Illustration Studios
Media Gallery
The Flat Lab
360° view of Illustration Homeroom | California College of the Arts
About BFA Illustration
Where you’ll make
✍️ About BFA Illustration
Find your creative voice in our Illustration program—one of the largest in the college! You’ll explore stylistic approaches for books and editorial, game concepting, character development, comics, and art exhibitions. You’ll make work that matters, from posters promoting civic action to inclusive children’s books to public murals about climate change.
From classroom to careers
You’ll develop skills that compass the mediums available to contemporary illustrators—such as acrylic, charcoal, collage, colored pencil, gouache, ink, mixed media, and watercolor—and expand into interdisciplinary practices like sculpture, extended reality, and rapid prototyping. Being in the bay means you’ll have a lot of opportunities to connect with industry-leading art directors and illustrators. Whether your future lies in setting up your own studio or working at an established company, courses like “Professional Practice” will set you up for success, teaching you how to run your own business and promote your work.
Minor in Comics
Boost your Illustration skills with a minor in Comics, which is only available for Illustration majors. You will learn the fundamentals of writing for comics and other forms of visual narrative, such as book and editorial illustration.
🛠️ Where you’ll make
Illustration studios, and maker spaces around CCA, are set up for traditional, digital, and exploratory image-making. From your foundation in illustration, you’re encouraged to expand the scale and possibility of your work through everything from printmaking to virtual reality. Esther Elia, for example, fused illustration and furniture with her sculptural objects that expressed her Assyrian family folklore.
Digital Fine Arts Studio
Centrally located on campus, this studio is the place for affordable, quality printing and scanning. Get hands-on experience with digital medium– and wide–format printing, as well as high-end scanning.
Illustration Homeroom
Our illustrators spend a lot of “hands down” time in this space, which includes individual working desks, books, models, and more. A mural by Sendy Santamaria (BFA Illustration 2018) provides natural inspiration and calming energy for the next generation of storytellers.
Digital Fine Arts Studio
Centrally located on campus, this studio is the place for affordable, quality printing and scanning. Get hands-on experience with digital medium–and wide–format printing, as well as high-end scanning.
