The mission of the CSU-Fullerton Illustration concentration is to provide students with conceptual understanding, technical skills, practical experience and opportunities to explore the art of illustration in order to become effective and creative communicators and visual storytellers.
The goals of the concentration are:
- Provide students with the technical know-how required for their craft and expose them to traditional and digital media and applications.
- Provide a broad understanding of visual language as it applies to the art of illustration.
- Encourage conceptual and visual problem solving.
- Encourage creativity, innovation, and experimentation.
- Explore historical and contemporary trends in illustration.
- Inform students on professional business practices and ethical standards.
- Fuel passion for the picture-making process.
Philosophy
Not every artist can produce an image worth a 1,000 words.
In the information age, global media will need picture-makers and visual storytellers to communicate with clarity, efficiency, and flair. At Cal State Fullerton, we know that tomorrow’s skilled illustrators will craft the next generation of images that will touch people’s minds and hearts. Our professors, who manage successful artistic careers alongside their teaching, provide a challenging, yet nurturing environment to bring out the best in our Illustration students. These aspiring artists, in the camaraderie of their peers, learn the fine craft of creating pictures to inform, educate, and entertain, to excite and inflame passions, to arouse curiosity, to amuse, to recreate the past and contemplate the future.
BFA Curriculum
As a freshman and sophomore, you hone on the foundations: color, composition, rendering, figure anatomy, perspective, design and typography. Meanwhile, two courses in art history (from prehistoric to modern art) expand your visual knowledge. As you draw and paint, you progress from traditional to digital media. Once a junior, your required courses in traditional and digital illustration as well as in figure drawing and painting start you off in visual storytelling, help you perfect your technique, and fine-tune your advanced picture problem-solving skills. A variety of elective courses cater to personal interests and career goals: digital painting, cartooning and caricature, sequential art, animation backgrounds, landscape painting, and more. A recommended History of American Illustration rounds out your knowledge of this profession. You then focus on portfolio-building and networking. As a senior in taking two Special Studies in Illustration courses, you create portfolio pieces, beginning the first semester with imagery illustrating a common literary source (a novel, tales, myths, etc.), before tailoring a set of artworks demonstrating your unique talents, style, and vision. Finally, to jump-start seniors’ careers, an internship in a real world business prepares you for job hunting and industry practices.