Overview
Follow in the footsteps of acclaimed children’s artists by studying your Children’s Book Illustration MA degree at ARU. Work with a dedicated support team of internationally-recognised illustrators to develop your own personal visual vocabulary. Make connections in the children’s publishing industry.
Find out more about teaching options and studying during COVID-19 in the Entry requirements section, below.
- Develop your own personal visual vocabulary supported by a team of internationally-recognised illustrators
- Benefit from a 150-year tradition of drawing and inspiring creativity at Cambridge School of Art
- Follow in the footsteps of many award-winning students and successful alumni
Our Children's Book Illustration taught studio course, the first of its kind in the UK, was developed by our distinguished Professor Martin Salisbury, who still contributes to teaching on the course. It will give you the dedicated support and knowledge you need to develop your practice in the art of children’s book illustration.
Since its inception in 2001, the MA Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art has seen hundreds of illustrators publish thousands of picturebooks, many to great acclaim. View recent publications.
MA Children’s Book Illustration students and graduate often dominate international and national awards shortlist many of them going on to win.
Recent awards include:
- 2020: Mariajosé Gajate Molina (otherwise known as Mariajo Ilustrajo) won the World Illustration Award New Talent overall award, with her children’s picturebook Flooded
- 2020: the prestigious V&A Student Illustrator of the Year prize was awarded to an MA Children’s Book Illustration student for the fifth successive year (2016-2020)
- Sally Dunne, who graduated earlier this year from the MA Children’s Book Illustration course at ARU, received £3,000 after being named as the leading student at the annual V&A Illustration Awards, organised by the world-famous design museum
- 2020: Ellan Rankin was the winner of the Carmelite Picture Book Prize. In addition to illustrating a new book written by Jeanne Willis, Ellan has received a cheque for £1,000. Second place, which comes with a £500 prize, has been awarded to fellow ARU student Fiona Fogg
- 2020: Elena Arevalo Melville has been named as the inaugural winner of the Queen’s Knickers Award, which comes with a first prize of £5,000.
Within the broad guidelines of each Children's Book Illustration module, you’ll propose and develop a project, with guidance from internationally recognised illustrators, writers and publishers of children's books. You’ll share and discuss your work with other students in group critiques, and attend lectures and seminars that will inform your studio practice.
Illustration at Anglia Ruskin is built on a tradition that goes back to the founding of the Cambridge School of Art in 1858. Our MA degree students work in dedicated illustration studios right next door to the Ruskin Gallery, with access to a fully equipped printmaking studio.
By studying your Children's Book Illustration degree at ARU, you’ll follow in the footsteps of alumni such as designer and war artist Edward Bawden, acclaimed graphic satirist Ronald Searle, and Roger Law and Peter Fluck, founders of the TV phenomenon Spitting Image.
Course Leader: Shelley Ann Jackson.
You might also be interested in our Children's Book Illustration Summer School as a taster for this Masters course.
You can follow our journey on Instagram and https://www.cambridgemashow.com.
Careers
Many of our past students now enjoy careers as freelance authors and illustrators for children. Among our published graduates are Paula Metcalf, Marta Altés, Nadia Shireen, Birgitta Sif, Rebecca Patterson and Jo Empson.
You may decide to take your work to a deeper level with a research degree, like our PhD Children’s Book Illustration.
You can show your work to leading publishing companies and literary agencies at our annual graduation exhibition, held at a venue in London before returning to our own Ruskin Gallery in Cambridge. You can also choose to take part in our student booth at the annual Bologna Children's Book Fair, where you can set appointments with publishers to show them your portfolio and dummy books, as well as attending lectures, workshops and parties.
Your department and faculty
At Cambridge School of Art, we combine the traditions of our past with the possibilities afforded by the latest technologies.
Using our expertise and connections in Cambridge and beyond, we nurture creativity through experimentation and risk-taking to empower the makers and creators of the future.
Our academics excel at both practice and theory, making a real impact in their chosen fields, whether they are curating exhibitions, designing book covers or photographing communities in Africa. They are also regularly published in catalogues, books, journals and conference papers, their research classed as being of ‘international standing’, with some elements ‘world-leading’, in the most recent Research Excellence Framework.
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