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Who We Are

The Visual Literacy Online Program is powered by the award winning Illustration Academy faculty. The Illustration Academy has taken a unique approach to training professional illustrators of today as well as those looking to become the professionals of tomorrow.

You will be hard pressed to find an online learning program with such a professional level of instruction. You will learn from artists such as Mark English, Gary Kelley, George Pratt, Sterling Hundley, C.F. Payne, Anita Kunz, Jon Foster and many more.

Click the "Video Tour" button on the menu bar above to see inside the Members area.

What Is It

The Visual Literacy Online Program is for both the serious student and the professional artist. This program provides access to all of the Illustration Academy lessons taught by the world renowned illustrators and painters of today.

The program is about professionals training professionals. It's about real-world training that makes you a better picture maker. This program will help you to develop your portfolio whether you are in school or a working professional. Whether you are entering an Art and Design college, or pursuing a career as a professional, the Visual Literacy Program will help you to obtain scholarships or better clients as a working professional by making your portfolio the best it can be.

This could be the sort of website an illustrator could use as a type of illustrator training course. An illustrator will be learning from illustrators about illustration. This type of illustration school is about illustrators teaching illustration as a type of illustration course, a design course, an illustrator class, and even digital painting. The Visual Literacy Program could be thought of as an extension of The Illustration Academy. Visual Literacy in this sense is just being about having a certain amount of literacy in a visual sense, in terms of illustration in particular. What is the best way illustration is learned? The Visual Literacy Program and The Illustration Academy feel that illustration is best learned from illustrators. Practicing illustrators in private practice make up the faculty and make their livelihood from illustration. This illustration online community is a type of illustrator or illustration class that uses the design of the website and its membership area of the Visual Literacy Program to develop illustrator training. Digital painting is also approached, as a few of our faculty utilize this type of illustration on their finishes. Here is a little bit about our illustration faculty.
The Illustration Academy faculty is made up of the following instructors: Mark English, Gary Kelley, Anita Kunz, Chris Payne, C.F. Payne, Jon Foster, George Pratt, Sterling Hundley, John English, Brent Watkinson, and Doug Chayka. The following faculty of The Illustration Academy and Visual Literacy Program have been with The Illustration Academy and Visual Literacy Program since 1995: Mark English, Gary Kelley, Anita Kunz, Chris Payne, C.F. Payne, John English and Brent Watkinson. The following faculty joined The Illustration Academy and the Visual Literacy Program at later times: Jon Foster, George Pratt, Sterling Hundley and Doug Chayka.
The following faculty of The Illustration Academy and Visual Literacy Program have received the Society of Illustrators Hamilton King Award, or are in the Society Of Illustrators Hall of Fame, or both: Mark English, Gary Kelley, Anita Kunz, Chris Payne, C.F. Payne. These faculty members have done covers for Time Magazine: Mark English, Anita Kunz, Chris Payne, C.F. Payne. Hard to believe Gary Kelley has never done a Time Magazine Cover in his amazing career. These faculty members have won some sort of Society of Illustrators Medal: Mark English, Gary Kelley, Anita Kunz, Chris Payne, C.F. Payne, Sterling Hundley, John English. Last but not least, these members of the Visual Literacy Program and The Illustration Academy have won some type of Illustration Award or have been published in Communication Arts Magazine: Mark English, Gary Kelley, Anita Kunz, Chris Payne, C.F. Payne, Jon Foster, George Pratt, Sterling Hundley, John English, Brent Watkinson, and Doug Chayka. All of these illustrators have earned their livelihood from illustration, and feel that illustration is best learned from illustators.

Above are some examples of the illustrations done by the faculty that think illustration is best learned from illustrators. Here is a list of Illustration Academy and Visual Literacy Program faculty that have images above: Mark English, Gary Kelley, Anita Kunz, Chris Payne, C.F. Payne, Jon Foster, George Pratt, Sterling Hundley, John English, and Brent Watkinson.
This could be the sort of website an illustrator could use as a type of illustrator training course. An illustrator will be learning from illustrators about illustration. This type of illustration school is about illustrators teaching illustration as a type of illustration course, a design course, an illustrator class, and even digital painting. The Visual Literacy Program could be thought of as an extension of The Illustration Academy. Visual Literacy in this sense is just being about having a certain amount of literacy in a visual sense, in terms of illustration in particular.