FULL PROGRAM IN ILLUSTRATION/COMICS 2025/26
Head of Department: Daniel Lima, Madalena Parreira
Full three-year program dedicated to the development of technical and artistic skills in Illustration and Comics, understood as graphic and narrative areas of thought and expression.
In addition to the core subjects - illustration, comics, drawing, graphic workshop - the full course includes various specialized areas, both technical and theoretical, which are essential for the development of a substantive and versatile graphic culture, as well as autonomy in the creation and production of objects, books and editions.
Progress is assessed informally on an ongoing basis by teachers and formally at the end of each semester by teachers and Heads of Department.
Candidates who already possess a portfolio in these areas and wish to develop individual projects with regular tutorships, may wish to present their candidacy to Applied Project in Illustration/Comics, asking for an evaluation of same portfolio for that effect.
Options of further development: students may apply for entering Individual Project in Illustration/Comics and/or Advanced Course in The Visual Arts.
Teachers: Daniel Lima, Madalena Parreira, Amanda Baeza, André Pereira, Tiago Baptista, João Carola, Inês Machado, Ana Braga, Teodora Boneva, Carolina Celas, Nuno Saraiva, Catarina Lente, Pedro Moura, Jorge Nesbitt, Margot Vilaça, Marcelo Costa, João Miguéis, João Catarino, Mariana Pita, Catarina Sobral, Tiago Guerreiro, Tiago Albuquerque, Francisco Sousa Lobo.
Fee 10 x 220€ + 200€ (Enrolment) + 4,50€ (Insurance) (for enrolments until 15th september)
Admission No requirements. By order of enrolment.
Program Training program in Illustration and Comics where drawing and printing play a crucial role. Participants will develop their capacity for graphic expression through exercises that relate word and image. Concentration skills will be developed through exercises in observation drawing.
Disciplines
Notes
Materials not included, More information in the Student Guide:https://arco.pt/site/en/student-guide/enrolment-and-fees
Attachments schedule
Fee 10 x 220€ + 200€ (Enrolment) + 4,50€ (Insurance) (for enrolments up to 15th september)
Admission Illustration/Comics 1 or equivalent training. Portfolio presentation. Interview.
Program Medium duration exercises aimed at the development of a personalized graphic expression through the systematic use of both analog materials, such as gouache, watercolor, Indian ink, etc., and digital programs (Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign). Development of a small individual project in Illustration and Comics.
Disciplines
Notes
Materials not included, More information in the Student Guide:https://arco.pt/site/en/student-guide/enrolment-and-fees
Attachments schedule
Fee 10 x 220€ + 200€ (Enrolment) + 4,50€ (Insurance) (for enrolments up to 15th september)
Admission Illustration/Comics 2 or equivalent training. Portfolio presentation. Interview.
Program Developing personal projects with orientation in the form of practical classes; development of the students’ skills in specific areas, such as digital illustration, children’s illustration, storyboard, etc.
Disciplines
Notes
Materials not included, More information in the Student Guide:https://arco.pt/site/en/student-guide/enrolment-and-fees
Attachments schedule
Price 450€ + 45€ (Enrolment) +4,50€ (Insurance)
Admission Interview
Schedule Tuesdays from 15h00 às 17h30
Type occasional
Program
On-campus classes
Illustration exercises meant to strengthen the formal strategies of image construction. Resorting to the technique of silkscreen reproduction students will plan, structure and finalize a publication with graphic unity.
In the context of this course Level III students will have a more individualized approach to the work proposals.
This course includes the Political Cartoon workshop.
Teachers
Drawing for Illustration and Comics
Date 31 Oct to 19 Dec 2025
Price 220€ + 22€ (Enrolment) + 0,75€ (Insurance)
Admission No requirements. By order of enrolment.
Schedule fridays from 14h30 to 17h
Type occasional
Program
On-campus classes.
Intensive course in observation drawing with an emphasis on the techniques used in Illustration and Comics. Students will work with materials such as India ink, gouache, watercolor and acrylic paints.
Teachers
Workshop: Books, Authors, Editors & Publishers
Date 31 Oct, 28 Nov and 19 Dec 2025; 30 Jan, 27 Feb, 27 Mar+, 24 April, 29 May 2026 (once a month)
Price 25€ + 0,75 (Seguro) por sessão
Schedule Fridays rom 10h30 to 13h
Type annual
Program
On-campus
Guest artists, editors and cirtics with experience in the filed of Illustration, Comics and Publications.
Notes
Teachers
Price 110€ + 11€ (Enrolment) + 0,75€ (Insurance)
Schedule Mondays 15h to 17h30
Type occasional
Program
This workshop proposes the creation of an illustrated mini-encyclopedia (Minipedia) from A to N, based on the fictional categories of the Chinese encyclopedia, fruit of Jorge Luis Borges' imagination, entitled ‘Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge’.
We elaborate a series of 14 illustrations through logical disagreement exercises that promote a playful relationship between text and image.
Participants will end the workshop with a paginated and photocopied edition of their Illustrated Minipedia.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Teachers
Price 160€ + 16€ (Enrolment) + 2,50€ (Insurance)
Admission No requirements. By order of enrolment.
Schedule Fridays from 14h30 to 17h
Type occasional
Program
On-campus classes
The workshop aims at producing graphic materials by using some of the traditional techniques of Scientific Illustration (graphite on paper and polyester, watercolor on paper, watercolor and graphite, India ink on polyester and scratchboard).
Teachers
Price 120€ + 12€ (Insc) + 0,75€ (ins)
Schedule Mondays from 18h00 to 20h30
Type occasional
Program
On-campus classes.
The workshop aims at promoting an effective collaboration between students whose sensibility is closer to the cinema and others whose sensibility is closer to the discipline of illustration. The confrontation between both languages should give way to a schematic representation, in the form of sequential images, of the plot and rhythm of a film project.
Teachers
Price 220€ + 22€ (Enrolm) + 2,50€ (Ins)
Schedule Tuesday from 10h30 to 13h
Type occasional
Program
On premise classes.
Workshop dedicated to the creation of original scripts. Adapting texts to the specific languages of Comics or Illustration. Examples of the history of script in the graphic arts. Narrative construction techniques with simple structures that emphasize visual articulation.
Teachers
Illustration/Comics Workshop – A Visual Expedition
Date 27 Fev a 24 Abr 2026
Price 220€ + 22€ (Insc) + 2,50€ (Seg)
Schedule fridays from 14h30 to 17h
Type occasional
Program
On-campus classes.
Creation of a piece to be shown in a group exhibition, opening possibilities for object-books and installations. Image, text and material will be worked as a whole while exploring a personal visual space/universe.
Taking as a starting point the analysis of an artistic work with which the participant identifies him/herself (film, book, painting, sculpture, etc.) a Visual Archive/Notebook is developed as a basis for the exploration of the theme, your Space.
Questions are suggested (for instance: what does my space look like? What exists there? Who inhabits it? How is the weather in my space? What does one hear in my space? What does one feel in my space?) in order to trigger answers, more direct or more metaphorical. These answers are registered in the Notebook and feed the exploration of that Personal Visual Universe.
Teachers
Price 550€ + 55€ (Enrolment) + 2,50€ (insurance)
Admission Interview
Schedule Thursdays from 15h to 17h30
Type semestrial
Program
On-campus classes.
Various exercises explore the adaptation of short texts to the language of Comics. Students will develop a personal project with the teacher’s orientation.
In the context of this course Level III students will have a more individualized approach to the work proposals.
Notes
Teachers
Advanced Seminar in Illustration
Date 3 Fez to 30 May 2025
Price 4 mensalidades x 165€ + 60€ (Insc) + 4,50€ (Seg) ou 600€ + 60€ (Insc) + 2,50€ (Seg)
Admission
Submission of portfolio and/or selective interview (Pdf with 10 images and short bio, up to 8Mega) to secretaria@arco.pt by January 24th.
Admissions after the start of the course are exceptional, by interview.
Schedule 2ª das 18h às 21h e 6ª feira das 18h às 22h
Type occasional
Program
The Advanced Seminar in Illustration aims to consolidate technical and artistic skills in Illustration.
The structure of the seminar is based on the realization of a medium-term project of an illustrated album, oriented towards the possibility of editing and with direct monitoring by the editor André Letria / Pato Lógico
The program includes creative writing sessions, project layout, illustration techniques and technologies and individual tutorials.
Notes
Datas das sessões:
Fev - 3, 7, 17, 21, 28
Mar - 7, 10, 14, 21, 28
Teachers
Comics Workshop - Composition - The whole story
Date 6 Oct to 18 Dec 2025 (see observations)Presencial - 2ª e 5ª feira das 18h às 20h, dias 6 e 9 de Outubro e 15 e 18 de Dez 2025 Aulas online – 5a feira das 18h às 19h30, de 16 Out a 4 Dez 2025Presencial - 2ª e 5ª feira das 18h às 20h, dias 6 e 9 de Outubro e 15 e 18 de Dez 2025 Aulas online – 5a feira das 18h às 19h30, de 16 Out a 4 Dez 2025
Price 220€ + 22€ (Enrolment) + 0,75€ (Insurance)
Schedule see observations
Type occasional
Program
On-campus and on-line classes.
This workshop explores the conceptual principle, composition and final art in comics.
Starting at the beginning, with a story, and going through the intersection of theme and subject matter or structure of the comic strip, we will proceed to the composition of the comic strip, leading to contemporaneity and the final artwork.
In addition to a multitude of experiences, paths and exercises, participants will create 16 pages of comics.
Notes On campus at Ar.co - Xabregas – Mondays and Thursdays 18h to 20h, 6 and 9 de October and 15, 18 December 2025
online – Thursdays 18h to 19h30, 16 October to 4December 2025
Teachers
Children’s Literature Illustration Workshop
Date 7 Oct 2025 to 6 Jan 2026
Price 260€ + 26€ (Insc) + 2,50€ (Seg)
Admission No requirements. By order of enrolment.
Schedule Tuesdays from 18h to 20h
Type occasional
Program
On-campus classes.
We will explore aspects of graphic expression and its relationship with the word which are specific to Illustration within the context of children’s literature. Practical exercises in editorial illustration for children and in the illustrated album.
Teachers
Workshop in Creative Writing: from Aesop to Brian Bilston
Date 8 Oct to 3 Dec 2025
Price 200€ + 20€ (Enrolment) + 2,50€ (insurance)
Schedule Wednesdays from 18h00 to 20h00
Type occasional
Program
On-campus classes
Creative writing workshop applied to the picturebook. Participants will carry out practical exercises in creative writing, or writing and illustration, and learn techniques to unblock writing.
The motto for this workshop is found in short texts that will be read in class: from Aesop's fables to the surprising poems of Brian Bilston, by way of Mayakovsky's children's books, The Characters, by Theophrastus, or A Book of Nonsense, by Edward Lear. An approach to these and other texts will help to recognize the mechanisms of narrative and writing, serving as an inspiration to the students.
At the end of the workshop, students are expected to hand in a final work where they put into practice the knowledge acquired.
Teachers
Price 180€ + 18€ (Insc) + 2,50€ (Seg)
Schedule Tuesdays from 15h to 17h30
Type occasional
Program
On-Campus classes.
History of satirical drawing from the 18th-Century onwards. Studio: the formats, the various materials and the support surfaces. Political cartoon up to the present day (national and international).
Teachers
Price 220€ + 22€ (Enrolment) + 2,50€ (Insurance)
Schedule Tuesdays from 18h to 20h
Type occasional
Program
On-campus classes.
Introduction to the work of contemporary illustrators and Comics authors, allowing for an approach to the historical and formal contents of both Illustration and Comics. The course is constituted by small specific formation units..
Teachers
Illustration workshop: final artwork
Date 11 May to 9 Jun 2026
Price 110€ + 11€ (Enrolment) + 2,50€ (Insurance)
Schedule Mondays from 18h to 20h
Type occasional
Program
On-campus classes.
From the thorough discussion and manipulation of an image or sketch until the creation of a final artwork, the workshop aims to familiarize participants with the demands inherent in the collaborative work between the artist and his editor.
Participants will use multiple digital editing and compositional tools. Photoshop will help to obtain an image for a specific editorial purpose.
Notes external participants must bring portfolio.
Teachers
Workshop: Illustration Portfolio
Date 14 May to 18 Jun 2026
Price 110€ + 11€ (Enrolment) + 0,75€ (Insurance)
Schedule Thursdays from 18h00 to 20h00
Type occasional
Program
On-campus classes.
How to build a simple portfolio for the Illustration job market. The digital formats. Managing social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). Managing the photo sharing apps (Flickr, Instagram, etc.) and video sharing apps (YouTube, Vimeo, etc). Building a Blog (Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, etc) and a microblog (Twitter, etc)
Teachers
