Program Overview

Illustration MA

Course Overview

The MA in Illustration gives you the opportunity to navigate your practice within a supportive creative community, build confidence in your work, develop visual storytelling skills, and succeed with a sustainable creative profession.

You’ll have access to excellent creative facilities and your own studio space to question, challenge, and explore your image-making skills.

Underpinning the course is visual storytelling, as well as practice-as-research. Students are encouraged to take their work in their own idiosyncratic directions. There is no predetermined outcome – it is part of the course to develop your own themes and creative inquiries. The drawing and practical experimentation is framed as practice-as-research to provide structure and a theoretical rigour to your work.

We are home to the Cheltenham Illustration Awards (CIA), an international illustration competition that leads to a touring exhibition of highly commended entries, presenting an opportunity to exhibit your work nationally. Alumni have begun successful businesses such as The Potthouse Collective, have worked at Meri Meri, Jelly Armchair, and Inky Little Fingers, become freelancers, or moved into doctoral study.

Study Style

Teaching is primarily workshop-based and practical. There are also lectures as part of the Research and Context module, as well as guest speakers. The course runs across 2 days a week if full-time and 2 half days if part-time.

Illustrators are encouraged to collaborate across courses and take part in illustrating the Creative Writing Anthology organised annually by MA Creative Writers. You will be supported to show your final work in a degree show to celebrate your work and present it to potential clients and employers. We have a careers service called Student Futures which supports professional practice in various ways from exploring your working preferences, to CV writing and interview preparation, to mentorship and business expertise.

Day trips are often run to Gloucester, Bristol, and London, and there are also biannual opportunities to go on international trips. We have connections with Cheltenham Literature Festival and work with the illustration department’s Pittville Press to create publications which are sold at print, zine, and illustration fairs. There are also opportunities to sell your work at illustration and print festivals such as Fine Lines, which is run at UoG’s Park Campus.

Entry Requirements

• Typical Offers: You should hold at least a 2.2 Bachelors degree with honours.
• Interview (possible attendance): You will be required to attend an interview.
• Essential portfolio: The portfolio may include a variety of work including but not limited to past academic work, professional work and/or personal projects, as well as sketches and roughs.
• IELTS 6.5 (6.0 writing, 5.5 all other components): EU and international students need IELTS 6.5 overall (with a minimum of 6.0 in writing and 5.5 in any other component) or equivalent.

Course Modules

• Major Illustration Project (AD7500)
• Narrative Drawing (AD7501)
• Collaboration and Professional Practice (AD7507)
• Visual Storytelling Methodologies (AD7508)
• Research and Context (AD7802)

Fees and Costs

• Start date | Location | Course code | Fee (UK) | Total fee | Fee (international) | Total fee
• Sep 2025 | Francis Close Hall, Cheltenham | — | £8,475 | £17,950
• Sep 2026 | Francis Close Hall, Cheltenham | — | TBC | TBC

Careers

Graduate career-ready and discover a range of exciting roles in illustration. Work independently as a freelance illustrator, design for graphic novels, games art, animation, storyboarding, and visualisation for production design.

Teaching Staff

• Dr Katie Forrester, Academic Course Leader for Illustration

Student Stories

• "I liked the atmosphere, the campus, and the tutors so much that I decided to stay for my MA."
• "This course really helps you find your voice when it comes to illustration. I currently work freelance for the Bright Children’s Illustration Agency and I have a book coming out later this year called ‘The Lost Diary of Sami Star’."