Painting & Drawing Undergraduate Overview

Fall 2027 Early Action and Priority Merit Scholarship Deadline: November 15

With up to 80 courses offered in the Department of Painting and Drawing, it’s clear why the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is one of the leading schools for painting and drawing in the country. Students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in fine arts have the choice, freedom, and openness to design a painting and drawing curriculum tailored to their creative needs. Through rigorous course studies, students develop the skills and conceptual foundations necessary for a sustainable art practice.

One of the Best Painting Schools in the US

The department’s unique and experimental approach to learning challenges students to explore a wide variety of courses designed to help them grow as artists. 

Courses include:

1. Painting Practice Classes: This is an introductory prerequisite course for all other painting classes. It is taught by a variety of faculty, each with their own unique teaching style. Students learn the fundamentals of painting with a strong emphasis on developing proficiency with fundamental formal and material processes. Students also become familiar with various forms of visual and critical engagement in order to catalyze their conceptual development.

2. ​Painting Studio: Multi-Level Classes: These classes offer a fertile environment for the development of individual practice while advancing technical skill. General sections are open to students who have completed Painting Practice. Advanced, topic-based sections are also available. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • The Abstract Image
  • Cheap TV
  • Conceptual Approach
  • The Dream
  • Exploding Paint
  • Expressionism
  • Funny Painting
  • Painting after Painting

3. Studio Drawing: Multi-Level Classes: Taught by a diverse group of faculty who approach drawing with critical rigor, students learn and develop drawing fundamentals. They also explore experimental, narrative, and conceptual approaches with different media. General sections, as well as specialized, topic-based sections are available without prerequisite course requirements. Topics include, but are not limited to: 

  • Wild Combination
  • Mixed Media
  • Abstraction/Representation
  • Ink Painting: the Brush of Zen
  • Large Format Painting
  • Collage: Concepts and Techniques
  • Landscape Narratives​

In addition to fundamental skill-building courses, undergraduate students are encouraged to explore drawing and painting courses in areas that drive their practice forward. These include figure drawing and painting, materials and techniques, comics, and more.

Figure Drawing and Painting Classes

Dedicated to the study of the body, these classes prioritize various approaches to the line, shape, volume, and anatomy of the human form. Approaches range from perceptually traditional to radically conceptual. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Anatomy
  • Figures in Space
  • Large Format
  • The Portrait
  • Advanced: Inside and Out
  • Advanced: Narrative Figuration
  • Advanced: Photo to Memory

Materials and Techniques Classes

These courses in painting, offered in our new state-of-the-art StudioLab, focus on the production, preparation, and application of various traditional and contemporary paint systems. Students have the opportunity to make their own paints and drawing materials, such as:

  • Egg tempera
  • Gesso
  • Casein
  • Encaustic
  • Oil paint
  • Advanced acrylic processes
  • Silverpoint
  • Conte-crayon
  • Walnut ink 

Students are also encouraged to develop their own material processes and recipes.

Comics Classes

These courses are taught in classrooms dedicated to the specific needs of comic production. They cover aspects of narrative development, cell layout, illustration, zine creation, and a variety of other approaches. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Autobiography
  • Advanced Comics
  • Capstone: Publish or Perish
  • Cartooning the Figure
  • Drawing Outside the Boxes
  • Independent Comics

Sophomore Seminars, Professional Practices, and Senior Capstone Classes

The Academic Spine is a required three-course sequence for all undergraduate degrees. The three courses provide a structure of peer support and intensive faculty mentoring as students navigate SAIC’s open curriculum. Learn more about the Academic Spine. 

Advanced Painting Studio: Each semester, advanced students can apply to one of two sections of Advanced Painting Studio. Students share dedicated, private studio spaces from one to three consecutive semesters, working with faculty members three days per week. In many ways, this highly competitive course begins to approach the intensity of a graduate program, requiring dedicated independent studio practice and rigorous conceptual development.

Summer Institute: Painting Residency/Drawing Residency: These three-week summer intensives are taught in the Advanced Painting studios. Offering a residency experience, students are provided with an individual studio space and instruction from two faculty members. While studio practice is primary, topical lectures and periodic visits to the Art Institute of Chicago are a consistent attribute of the course.

Work by Painting & Drawing Students

Students have a variety of opportunities to exhibit their work, including in the fall and spring undergraduate and graduate exhibitions celebrating the culminating work of graduating students. 

  • Image
    A large abstract painting with bright oranges, pinks, yellows, and blues.

    Jayden Vie, Spring Undergraduate Exhibition 2025

    Jayden Vie, Spring Undergraduate Exhibition, 2025
    Image
    An artwork in the foreground depicting a red house and watermelons, and an artwork in the background depicting a star.

    Spring Undergraduate Exhibition 2025

    Spring Undergraduate Exhibition, 2025
    Image
    A painting of a woman by a river on one gallery wall, two smaller paintings on the opposite wall.

    Spring Undergraduate Exhibition 2025

    Spring Undergraduate Exhibition, 2025
    Image
    Four vertical paintings hanging next to each other featuring women in different poses.

    Spring Undergraduate Exhibition 2025

    Spring Undergraduate Exhibition, 2025
    Image
    Two square paintings, one of a person's mouth, and one of a walrus, hang in a gallery.

    Spring Undergraduate Exhibition 2025

    Spring Undergraduate Exhibition, 2025

Admissions Requirements & Curriculum Overview

  • To apply to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), you will need to fill out an application and submit your transcripts, artist's statement, and letters of recommendation. And most importantly, we require a portfolio of your best and most recent work. The portfolio will give us a sense of you, your interests, and your willingness to explore, experiment, and think beyond technical art, design, and writing skills.

    In order to apply, please submit the following items:  


    Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Portfolio
    Submit 10-15 pieces of your best and most recent work. We will review your portfolio and application materials for merit scholarship once you have been admitted to SAIC.

    When compiling a portfolio, you may concentrate your work in a single discipline or show work in a breadth of media. The portfolio may include: 

    • Drawings
    • Prints
    • Photographs
    • Paintings
    • Film
    • Video
    • Audio recordings
    • Sculpture
    • Ceramics
    • Fashion designs
    • Graphic design
    • Furniture
    • Objects
    • Architectural designs
    • Websites
    • Video games
    • Sketchbooks
    • Scripts
    • Storyboards
    • Screenplays
    • Zines
    • Or any combination of the above.

  • Review the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio curriculum and degree requirements. Note: This is information for the current academic year. Any future curricular changes will be made when the new catalog is published.

Course Listing

Title Catalog Instructor Schedule

Description

Painting Practice is an introductory painting course offering. The curriculum addresses basic skills as related to a painting studio practice. Topics and curricular goals include material, facility and technique, space and color, as well as concept. This course is a prerequisite for all Multi-level Painting, Figure Painting and Advanced Painting Studio classes.

Class Number

1633

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Location

280 Building Rm 323

Description

Painting Practice is an introductory painting course offering. The curriculum addresses basic skills as related to a painting studio practice. Topics and curricular goals include material, facility and technique, space and color, as well as concept. This course is a prerequisite for all Multi-level Painting, Figure Painting and Advanced Painting Studio classes.

Class Number

1634

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Location

280 Building Rm 325

Description

Painting Practice is an introductory painting course offering. The curriculum addresses basic skills as related to a painting studio practice. Topics and curricular goals include material, facility and technique, space and color, as well as concept. This course is a prerequisite for all Multi-level Painting, Figure Painting and Advanced Painting Studio classes.

Class Number

1635

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Location

280 Building Rm 323

Description

Painting Practice is an introductory painting course offering. The curriculum addresses basic skills as related to a painting studio practice. Topics and curricular goals include material, facility and technique, space and color, as well as concept. This course is a prerequisite for all Multi-level Painting, Figure Painting and Advanced Painting Studio classes.

Class Number

1636

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Location

280 Building Rm 325

Description

Painting Practice is an introductory painting course offering. The curriculum addresses basic skills as related to a painting studio practice. Topics and curricular goals include material, facility and technique, space and color, as well as concept. This course is a prerequisite for all Multi-level Painting, Figure Painting and Advanced Painting Studio classes.

Class Number

1637

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Location

280 Building Rm 323

Description

Painting Practice is an introductory painting course offering. The curriculum addresses basic skills as related to a painting studio practice. Topics and curricular goals include material, facility and technique, space and color, as well as concept. This course is a prerequisite for all Multi-level Painting, Figure Painting and Advanced Painting Studio classes.

Class Number

1638

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Location

280 Building Rm 325

Description

Painting Practice is an introductory painting course offering. The curriculum addresses basic skills as related to a painting studio practice. Topics and curricular goals include material, facility and technique, space and color, as well as concept. This course is a prerequisite for all Multi-level Painting, Figure Painting and Advanced Painting Studio classes.

Class Number

1639

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Location

280 Building Rm 323

Description

Painting Practice is an introductory painting course offering. The curriculum addresses basic skills as related to a painting studio practice. Topics and curricular goals include material, facility and technique, space and color, as well as concept. This course is a prerequisite for all Multi-level Painting, Figure Painting and Advanced Painting Studio classes.

Class Number

1640

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Location

280 Building Rm 325

Description

Painting Practice is an introductory painting course offering. The curriculum addresses basic skills as related to a painting studio practice. Topics and curricular goals include material, facility and technique, space and color, as well as concept. This course is a prerequisite for all Multi-level Painting, Figure Painting and Advanced Painting Studio classes.

Class Number

1655

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Location

280 Building Rm 323

Description

Painting Practice is an introductory painting course offering. The curriculum addresses basic skills as related to a painting studio practice. Topics and curricular goals include material, facility and technique, space and color, as well as concept. This course is a prerequisite for all Multi-level Painting, Figure Painting and Advanced Painting Studio classes.

Class Number

1656

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Location

280 Building Rm 323

Description

The Department of Painting and Drawing offers a wide variety of comics courses, ranging from traditional to experimental methods and techniques. Each course is designed to focus on a specific area of comics production. To learn more about the topic of a specific comics course in which you are interested, please review the course description for that particular class.

Class Number

1644

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Area of Study

Books and Publishing, Comics and Graphic Novels, Illustration

Location

280 Building Rm 306

Description

The Department of Painting and Drawing offers a wide variety of comics courses, ranging from traditional to experimental methods and techniques. Each course is designed to focus on a specific area of comics production. To learn more about the topic of a specific comics course in which you are interested, please review the course description for that particular class.

Class Number

1645

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Area of Study

Books and Publishing, Comics and Graphic Novels, Illustration

Location

280 Building Rm 308

Description

It can be easy for students to become so focused on the final product of art making that they lose sight of the importance of process. To that end, this studio class aims to encourage students to play and experiment within the medium of comics, creating projects with methods they wouldn?t normally use, and avoiding the urge to fall back on their usual or expected ways of working. Students will not need to worry about making a great piece of art, and instead can learn more about their own art practice and what does or doesn?t work for them.

This class will look at a variety of artists, genres, and forms in the comics medium. The types of comics investigated may include everything from traditional superhero genre comics, to handmade art comics, graphic novels, abstract comics, newspaper gag comics, and even content that may or may not be considered comics, depending on how one defines ?comics.? Students will also be encouraged to share their favorite comics or whatever they?re currently reading, and to look into books and comics they aren?t familiar with.

After casual critiquing of the previous week?s work, each class begins a new project or exercise that starts with a prompt or general parameters, which students use as starting points to follow in whatever direction interests them.

Class Number

1646

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Area of Study

Books and Publishing, Comics and Graphic Novels, Illustration

Location

280 Building Rm 306

Description

The students will gain a better understanding of graphic narrative by exploring its diverse history, looking at contemporary work, and critically discussing what graphic narrative does. In this course, the students will examine forms of sequential art beyond the Western canon, they will look at Pre-Columbian codexes, Latin American contemporary comics, manga, and feminist and punk comics, among others.

Class Number

1647

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Area of Study

Books and Publishing, Comics and Graphic Novels, Illustration

Location

280 Building Rm 306

Description

The Department of Painting and Drawing offers a wide variety of comics courses, ranging from traditional to experimental methods and techniques. Each course is designed to focus on a specific area of comics production. To learn more about the topic of a specific comics course in which you are interested, please review the course description for that particular class.

Class Number

1648

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Area of Study

Books and Publishing, Comics and Graphic Novels, Illustration

Location

280 Building Rm 308

Description

This course explores comics as a space for play, exploration, and critical inquiry. Students will engage with drawing and writing as intertwined practices, using comics to examine memory, thought, and storytelling. Through a mix of diary comics, experimental exercises, and structured assignments, students will challenge their own ideas of what makes a comic a comic and develop a personal approach to the medium. In addition to making work, students will read and discuss texts by artists and thinkers. Selected readings include works by Lynda Barry, Cintra Wilson, Julia Kristeva, Jean Little, Lela Lee, J. Jefferson Farjeon, Allie Brosh, and others. These texts will serve as a foundation for discussions on creativity, nonlinear storytelling, and the relationship between image and text. The class will also consider how comics operate as both personal expression and cultural commentary, thinking critically about the ethics of storytelling, subjectivity, and artistic voice. Students will produce a body of work over the course of the semester, including weekly exercises, process-based experiments, and a final project that explores comics as a mode of thinking. Regular critiques will focus on development rather than refinement, reinforcing the idea that comics are a process rather than a product. No prior drawing experience is required¿only a willingness to engage in playful, iterative, and messy creation.

Class Number

1650

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Area of Study

Books and Publishing, Comics and Graphic Novels, Illustration

Location

280 Building Rm 308

Description

Good stories can come from anywhere, and any story can be interesting no matter the subject matter. This class will focus on the best way to create concepts for stories and how to properly execute them, with a strong emphasis on writing, revision, using the proper tools, artistic process and drawing technique. Students will complete short, one to two page stories each week, while also working toward three six to eight page stories that will be compiled into their own printed comic at the end of the semester. Various comic samples will be provided from a range of diverse sources. Short story assignments will be assigned in the beginning of the semester that will focus on specific aspects of making comics (i.e. perspective, using reference, creating mood, etc). Students will also be making three longer stories that will be compiled into one comic at the end of the semester.

Class Number

1654

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Area of Study

Books and Publishing, Comics and Graphic Novels, Illustration

Location

280 Building Rm 308

Description

The Department of Painting and Drawing offers a wide variety of comics courses, ranging from traditional to experimental methods and techniques. Each course is designed to focus on a specific area of comics production. To learn more about the topic of a specific comics course in which you are interested, please review the course description for that particular class.

Class Number

1657

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Area of Study

Books and Publishing, Comics and Graphic Novels, Illustration

Location

280 Building Rm 306

Description

This studio course will provide a hands-on introduction to the fundamental understanding and use of color. Students will gain practical experience working with material color in order to improve their understanding of how color works. Assignments will be introduced in class to help students develop a working knowledge of the basic concepts of hue, value, and chroma, and the relationship between these concepts and those of color harmony and organization. By working with color in context students will gain a practical understanding of color interaction and develop strategies for approaching color with greater sophistication and specificity in their own practice.

In addition to our investigations with color in the classroom, this course will examine the ways in which artists and scholars have worked with color art historically as a medium of expression, and thought about color scientifically as an index of an underlying natural order, as well as culturally as a system of signs reflecting our biases back to us to be interpreted. Reliable perceptual phenomena like simultaneous contrast and afterimages will be considered alongside more unstable notions like synesthesia and color music, as well as the complicated history of thinking about color as evidence of that which is ?other.?

Course work will include exercises to help students develop their approach to color, and a final project in which they put their understanding to work.

Class Number

1651

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Area of Study

Graphic Design, Illustration

Location

280 Building Rm 308

Description

This studio course will provide a hands-on introduction to the fundamental understanding and use of color. Students will gain practical experience working with material color in order to improve their understanding of how color works. Assignments will be introduced in class to help students develop a working knowledge of the basic concepts of hue, value, and chroma, and the relationship between these concepts and those of color harmony and organization. By working with color in context students will gain a practical understanding of color interaction and develop strategies for approaching color with greater sophistication and specificity in their own practice.

In addition to our investigations with color in the classroom, this course will examine the ways in which artists and scholars have worked with color art historically as a medium of expression, and thought about color scientifically as an index of an underlying natural order, as well as culturally as a system of signs reflecting our biases back to us to be interpreted. Reliable perceptual phenomena like simultaneous contrast and afterimages will be considered alongside more unstable notions like synesthesia and color music, as well as the complicated history of thinking about color as evidence of that which is ?other.?

Course work will include exercises to help students develop their approach to color, and a final project in which they put their understanding to work.

Class Number

1652

Credits

3

Department

Painting and Drawing

Area of Study

Graphic Design, Illustration

Location

280 Building Rm 308

Take the Next Step

Visit the undergraduate admissions website or contact the undergraduate admissions office at 800.232.7242 or ugadmiss@saic.edu.

Upcoming Admissions Events

Meet with us, learn more about SAIC and our curriculum, and get feedback on your work. LEARN MORE.

Nov11

Learn more about our undergraduate curriculum, tour our facilities & residence halls, see what we look for in an admission and merit scholarship portfolio, and learn more about financial aid. Bring your portfolio for a one-on-one conversation about your work with one of our admissions representatives!

Wednesday, November 11 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. CST at SAIC MacLean Ballroom 112 S. Michigan Chicago, IL 60603

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