Students who receive a BA degree in Pictorial Art will acquire a basic understanding of formal concepts, technical skills, and issues of content. They will be prepared to work independently in drawing, painting, papermaking, or printmaking and produce works of art that have both formal integrity and personal content.

The overall objectives of the Pictorial Art Area are as follows: Visual sensitivity in pictorial art is developed in a number of ways. 

In Beginning Drawing, students learn to translate the perceived world into two-dimensional constructs such as line and tone. While formal elements of composition are specifically addressed in 2-D Concepts, they remain an integral part of all pictorial courses.

Students in the Pictorial Art area are exposed to a wide variety of techniques and technical processes. This ranges from the simple and straightforward use of pencil and charcoal in drawing through the slightly more complex techniques of watercolor, acrylic, and oil painting to the more involved processes of hand-drawn and photo-generated serigraphy, as well as the chemical processes of lithography and intaglio printing.