Illustration
As a creative discipline Illustration at RISD is defined by purpose, not media. While using the same tools as in painting, photography, film, graphic design and other disciplines, in Illustration you learn to make imagery with the intent of conveying specific meaning and messages.
Degree programs
In the Illustration BFA program you gain a broad-based sense of what’s possible within the field and enjoy opportunities to master traditional and advanced skills for creating effective, communicative work.
The MFA in Illustration encourages you to reflect on the illustrator‘s role as an influential social actor and readies you to turn your practice to the benefit of society and transformation of the field.
In the studio
Whether painting at the easel, drawing on a computer screen or making 3D characters, Illustration majors learn to master the skills and techniques needed for effective visual storytelling.
Student work
For more than 20 years, Shepard Fairey has critiqued and shaped popular culture through guerrilla art campaigns of global proportions. A graphic designer, entrepreneur and fine artist, he’s perhaps best known for his ubiquitous 2008 Hope poster of Barack Obama, which is in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. He also works in the commercial realm through his LA-based agency Studio Number One.
Based in Brooklyn, Chinese Singaporean artist Jia Sung has described her creative practice as “reinvented cosmology, pieced together from threads of inherited story and autobiographical fragments.” She engages with many mediums, from painting and printmaking to textiles and writing, with work exhibited across North America and collected by The Met and SFMOMA, among other venues. Sung has also taught in museums, nonprofits, and higher education institutions, including RISD. In 2023 she published Trickster’s Journey, a tarot deck and guidebook inspired by Chinese Mythology.
A 2026 recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant,” Vincent Valdez reflects Latino experiences and the contemporary US through painted representations of historical and present-day scenes. Going beyond depictions of past moments of injustice, the Texas-based artist’s work interrogates how violence and resistance persist in the here and now. Reflecting on RISD, Valdez says one of the most important things he learned is the importance of discipline and commitment to practice: To make really meaningful breakthroughs, he says, “you have to show up and work.”
Featured stories
The MacArthur Award-winning painter discusses his journey to RISD, the importance of drawing every day, and his ongoing quest to tell stories that matter.
The internationally recognized street artist and provocateur discusses his compulsive need to create, the versatility that keeps his practice afloat, and his life-changing RISD experience.
Offered through the Illustration department, the fall studio introduced eager students to tattooing as a recognized art form and viable career path.