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Illustration

Major

Bring Your Vision to Life

With a Bachelors of Fine Arts (BFA) in Illustration, you’ll learn to use visual storytelling to captivate audiences. By taking immersive art courses that will grow your ability, you’ll discover how your distinct visual voice can be used in a variety of illustration markets. 

With this Illustration major, you’ll focus on drawing, painting, storyboarding, visual voice, and visual narrative. You’ll study and practice how to tell stories visually, learn character development, and explore a variety of digital and tangible mediums, such as Corel Painter and Water Based Media. This studio-intensive degree is designed for students with a strong commitment to a professional future as illustrators, studio artists, and designers, or to further graduate studies. 

Through Taylor’s dedicated art faculty, you’ll be learning from artists who understand working in the art industry. Most importantly, from your first day of class as a freshman to your final senior show, you’ll see them model God’s heart for beauty and truth, integrating tenets of our faith in every class.

Why Get an Illustration BFA?

A standard at art and design colleges, this Illustration Bachelor of Fine Arts degree is designed with a focus on a practical studio component, rather than on lecture or discussion classes. With no language requirement (unlike a BA), you’ll take 14 additional hours of art classes instead. An Illustration BFA offers a competitive edge in the job market, and it’s seen as a gateway degree to a Master of Fine Arts. According to the Wall Street Journal, students who earn a BFA degree have relatively high income levels, job prospects, and levels of job satisfaction.

Get on track for these careers

  • Children’s Book Illustrator
  • Medical Illustrator
  • Storyboard Illustrator
  • Forensic Artist
  • Fashion Illustrator
  • Comic Book Illustrator
  • Graphic Designer
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Modelle Metcalf Visual Arts Center

Taylor’s Art Program is housed in the 38,000-square-foot Modelle Metcalf Visual Arts Center, with specialized classrooms and workspaces for drawing, painting, printmaking, graphic design, photography, sculpture, ceramics, and jewelry making. It also contains a state-of-the-art Mac lab and audio-visual classrooms, two gallery spaces for both professional and student art shows, a photography studio, a lecture hall, and ample space for critiquing works displayed in the hallways. Naturally lit classrooms have storage spaces for student artwork with the option of directed spot lighting.

Illustration Curriculum & Degree Options

Students interested in course descriptions and academic policies can check out our Undergraduate Catalog.

Liberal Arts Foundational Core

A Taylor liberal arts education will prepare you to live and work in a fast-changing world. It also goes a step further: laying a strong spiritual foundation that cultivates wisdom. You’ll become a well-versed individual, equipped with critical thinking skills, a lifelong love of learning, and an appreciation for God’s creation.

View Foundational Core Curriculum.

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Illustration student painting on a canvas

Practicums, Internships, and Residencies

Taylor’s Illustration degree program will prepare you for a successful career, but practical work experience doesn’t need wait until after graduation. Here’s a partial list of places where our students have completed practicums, internships, or residencies:

  • Wired Magazine
  • Samaritan’s Purse
  • The Salvation Army
  • Fort Wayne Museum of Art
  • Zondervan Publishing House
  • USA Today
  • Esquire Magazine

Careers in Illustration

One of the biggest questions you may be asked when you tell people you’re looking into majoring in any art field like Illustration is: "What are you going to do with that?" We’re here to tell you that the possibilities are endless! Here’s a sample of places our students have worked post graduation:

  • Amazon
  • MailChimp
  • Sotheby’s
  • Youth for Christ
  • The New Yorker Magazine
  • Marketing and Branding Agencies
  • Freelance Illustration

Related News

Illustrations from Taylor Art Professor Jonathan Bouw Selected for the Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition

Dec 17, 2021

Bouw’s work, images from his book Lantaka, were selected for the exhibition and book to be published by the Society of Illustrators. 

Read Article
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