Illustration (with integrated foundation year)

Whether you're dreaming of bringing stories to life through children's book illustration, shaping worlds with concept art for games and film, or helping make bold statements with editorial work, our BA (Hons) Illustration with Integrated Foundation Year course is here to help turn your creative ambitions into a thriving career. We’ll support you in developing a strong, versatile practice in illustration—one that’s rooted in drawing, communication, and visual thinking.
Your journey begins with an introductory foundation year, designed to develop your skills, confidence, and core knowledge in a supportive and creative environment. This year helps you build strong artistic and academic foundations, ensuring you’re fully prepared to progress smoothly into the undergraduate degree.
On our illustration degree, we will help you build strong drawing, composition, and colour skills that will underpin your personal visual language, allowing you to develop a unique voice as an artist. We are unique amongst illustration courses in that we also give you a thorough grounding in graphic design, which is highly regarded and recognised by industry.
You’ll receive extensive feedback, support, and advice throughout your studies and have access to professional facilities and equipment, as well as the opportunity to work on a variety of projects, including ‘live briefs’ to develop and hone your skills.
You'll be allocated a dedicated space within our open-plan Illustration and Graphic Design studio, which you can personalise to suit your creative needs. Students across all year groups work within this larger professional space, so you'll also get the chance to meet and collaborate with your peers, share feedback, and discuss ideas.

Module Examples

• Making Images

• Making Objects

• Visual Enquiry

• Introducing Visual Communication

• The Anatomy of an Illustration Project

• The Fundamentals of Drawing

• Collaborative Practice

• The Illustrator's Toolkit

• Drawing

• Illustration Projects

• Advanced Illustration Projects

• Independent Research Paper

• Illustration Showcase

https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/courses/undergraduate/illustration-with-integrated-foundation-year/

Throughout the course, you will be continuously involved in the assessment of your own work and that of your peers to help in the development of critical, interpersonal, and team-working skills that are vital to gaining confidence and independence as a creative practitioner.

Examples of assessment opportunities include:

• Crits (short for ‘critique’) - these lie at the heart of education in Illustration. These take place at the end of a project and will normally comprise a small group of your fellow students, and up to two members of staff, where you will be expected to present your work to the group. The effectiveness of your work and presentation will then be discussed by all present and you will receive a large amount of verbal feedback.
• Projects are the usual vehicle by which you develop your design knowledge and expertise. The evaluation of project work is central to this degree programme. The project work you undertake during years two and three will form the content of the professional portfolio of work you will take with you when pursuing employment at the end of the course.
• Portfolio/s Two things make up the ‘portfolio’ – the qualities of the work itself (is it good design / contemporary / fully resolved); and the manner in which that work is presented on the portfolio pages (visual narrative / flow / sequencing / attention-to-detail).

The range of learning, teaching, and assessment methods used enable different aspects of your learning to be developed and tested. As well as testing what you know and can do at the end of a module (Summative Assessment) you’ll get regular advice and guidance while your work is in progress (Formative Feedback) through one-to-one, peer-to-peer, and group tutorials.