High School Programs

Taking place during fall, winter, spring, and summer, our ECP courses investigate drawing, animation, fashion, and more. Students who have completed their sophomore year have the option to enroll for college credit. 

Popular past courses include: 

• Figure Drawing: Students learn how to draw the human form from direct observation. Class exercises include fast movement and long-duration poses as well as content from other visual sources including photographs and the imagination.
• Animation Studio: This course is designed for students who wish to explore traditional and digital animation techniques, such as frame-by-frame, stop-motion, and more. 
• Fashion Construction: This course is for students who want to learn how to design, construct, and sew their own garments, including pattern making. Students begin by developing original pattern blocks, explore pattern drafting and draping, and then document their three-dimensional exploration with photography and/or drawing. 
• Comics & Graphic Novels: Students investigate visual storytelling and drawing strategies through the contemporary art forms of comics and graphic novels. They explore a variety of illustrative approaches, such as writing, storyboarding, penciling, and inking/coloring.

See all Early College Program courses and register here.

Our intensive 1-, 2-, and 4-week ECPSI program brings an extraordinary array of high school students from all over the world to SAIC for the opportunity to create portfolio-quality work. Students will make connections with our world-renowned faculty, experience SAIC’s amazing facilities, and earn college credit. Campus housing is available in our state-of-the-art residence halls in the heart of downtown Chicago, and evening programming and skill-building workshops help you gain new skills and explore new ideas.

Popular past courses include:

• 2D Animation: In this course, students receive an introduction to both concepts and processes utilized in the production of digital 2D animation. Turn your drawings into moving images using compositing, layering, and collaging. 
• Experimental Drawing: This course is designed for students with previous drawing experience who want to explore a wide range of materials and processes to expand their work in new directions and improve the work in their portfolios. 
• Video: Artist as Storyteller: This course presents video as an art form through the lens of narrative structures. Emphasis is placed on using video to tell a story, looking to contemporary artists who use the medium in unique and innovative ways.
• Fashion Construction: This course is for students who want to learn how to design, construct, and sew their own garments, including pattern making.

View all courses and register here.

ECPOSI is an immersive summer art program for high school students led by our highly acclaimed faculty of artists and designers who have adapted their course content to a virtual platform. You will join peers from around the globe to create portfolio-quality work, deepen your understanding of contemporary art-making, and earn college credit.

Popular past courses include:

• Online: Drawing/Painting/Comics and Graphic Novels: Students bring their creative interests, and our incredible faculty of artists, designers, and scholars work one-on-one with them to push their skills to the next level. Students may choose to work with a variety of media—wet and dry media, ink, pencil, charcoal, collage, observational drawing, storyboarding, or a combination of different materials.
• Online: Animation and Video Projects: Students interested in 2D animation, 3D animation, video, and more will build skills using software programs such as Adobe (Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects). Students are introduced to both concepts and processes to storyboard and develop narratives.
• Online: Visual Communication Design: Students expand their understanding of what surrounds them and learn how to look at and evaluate products, graphics, architecture, advertisements, and more.

View courses and register.