BA Illustration

About this course

Illustration is a discipline concerned with the making of images that communicate, narrate, interpret, and inform. It is distinct from fine art in its orientation towards audience and purpose, and from graphic design in its emphasis on the illustrator's distinctive creative voice. Great illustration combines technical skill in drawing and image-making with conceptual thinking about how visual communication works, and it is found across publishing, journalism, advertising, editorial, animation, gaming, and many other contexts. Studying illustration part time at the University of Northampton allows you to develop your practice and extend your creative range around other commitments. You will build skills across a range of illustration approaches and media, from drawing and painting through to digital tools, and develop the ability to respond to briefs, to develop ideas visually, and to produce work with genuine communicative force. Critical and contextual study is part of the programme, helping you understand illustration's history, its relationship to other visual arts, and the professional landscape in which illustrators work. Part-time study suits people who are already working in creative fields and want to formalise and extend their skills, as well as those managing other commitments. The discipline develops your creative voice alongside the technical range and professional awareness needed to sustain a career as an illustrator. Graduates go on to careers as freelance illustrators, editorial illustrators, children's book illustrators, and illustrators working in games, animation, advertising, and publishing. Many combine illustration work with teaching or with other creative practices. The portfolio you develop during the programme is central to how you present yourself to commissioning editors, art directors, and publishers, and the degree provides the structured development time needed to build that portfolio to a professional standard.

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