An entry · Work · Life
Illustrator
Give a story to an illustrator and they hand back a world you can see.
From curious to committed
Your first steps.
A first visit can be enough. It can also be the beginning.
Meet the craft
Sign up for a local drawing course, or join an online challenge that gives you a prompt a day.
Explore experiences →Give it another afternoon
Notice what you want to come back to. Ask the teacher what regular practice would look like, and what support you would need.
Keep a note for next time →See the working day
Take a college course or focused program in illustration to develop drawing, composition, and a portfolio that shows range.
Explore ways into the work →These are starting points. A workshop is not a professional qualification. Entry requirements and recognised training depend on the work and the country.
Before you walk in
A few things worth asking the host before you book.
- Is this session suitable for someone who has never tried it?
- What should I bring, wear or prepare?
- What is included, and are there any extra costs?
- Can you accommodate my access needs?
- What could I try next if I enjoy it?
Teach this craft? Share what beginners ask you →
Work it
Do the work.
Jobs, apprenticeships, and training that put a person in the room.
Places to begin
- Association
Society of Illustrators
Membership
New York, New York
Illustrators at every career stage can join America's oldest illustration society to show work, learn, and connect with a genuine creative community.
- Association
Association of Illustrators
Membership
London, United Kingdom
Illustrators at any stage can join Britain's illustration trade body for advice, contract help, and a genuine worldwide community.
- Course
Fashion Institute of Technology
Illustration degree at FIT
New York, NY · Two year AAS, then a BFA
Illustration AAS and BFA degrees at FIT in Manhattan, admitted by portfolio, for anyone who means to draw for a living.
Ways in
- Course
Illustration or design program
Take a college course or focused program in illustration to develop drawing, composition, and a portfolio that shows range.
- Route in
Build a portfolio and find first clients
Make consistent personal work, share it publicly, and take on small commissions for editorial, publishing, or small businesses.
- Entry job
Assist or intern with a studio
Join an illustration or design studio as a junior to learn how briefs, revisions, and delivery really work.
Ways in, gathered by hand.
Add yours to the atlasLive it
Live the hour.
Experiences, classes, and places where the presence is the whole point.
Places to begin
New York2 places
Explore the New York guide- Class
Society of Illustrators
Sketch Night
Tuesday and Thursday evenings
Anyone can bring a pad to these weekly evening figure drawing sessions with live costumed models, jazz, and an open bar.
- Course
School of Visual Arts
Illustration and comics courses
Fall term, in person and online
Continuing education at a Manhattan art school, in person and online, from Cartooning Basics to picture books and a children's pop-up book workshop.
San Francisco1 place
Explore the San Francisco guideLondon3 places
Explore the London guide- Course
University of the Arts London
Illustration Short Courses
You can take short courses covering book illustration, cartooning, and fashion drawing, either on campus in central London or online.
- Visit
Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration
The galleries, the library and the courses at the new centre for illustration
Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
A former waterworks that opened in June 2026 as the UK's only permanent home for illustration, with changing exhibitions, an illustration library that costs nothing to use, and courses in the studio.
- Course
City Lit
Illustration short courses in Covent Garden
London's largest adult education college runs twenty illustration courses on Keeley Street, from a first introduction to graphic novels, botanical illustration and Procreate, days, evenings and weekends.
Ways in
- Class
Drawing or sketchbook class
Sign up for a local drawing course, or join an online challenge that gives you a prompt a day.
- Gathering
Illustrator meetup or sketch crawl
Find an urban-sketching group or illustrators' meetup and draw together in cafes and public spaces.
Ways in, gathered by hand.
Add yours to the atlasWhy the human is the point
An illustrator reads a sentence and decides what it looks like: the tilt of a character's head, the weather in a scene, the single image that makes a whole book feel like itself. It is authorship with a pen, one person translating words and briefs into pictures that carry a voice you would know anywhere. Every choice is a judgment, what to show and what to leave to the imagination, where to place the joke or the ache. Flip through an illustrated book and you are following a mind that decided, page by page, how you should feel. The illustrator is the reason the words have a face.
Kept nearby
