About CFIN

The Centre for Illustration, Nigeria is both a physical and an online space that presents, connects, and educates local artists in illustration. It acquaints the general and professional public at home and abroad with a wide and diverse field of Nigerian illustrations. We aim to present active creators, inform enthusiasts about upcoming events, and create a network of children’s book illustrators.

Centre for Illustration, Nigeria is dedicated to illustration as craft, profession, and cultural force. We support illustrators working in children’s books, editorial, animation, and commercial work through education, mentorship, exhibitions, and public programs. Our goal is simple: help Nigerian illustrators grow, connect, and be seen, locally and globally.

At CFIN, we focus on illustration for Storytelling which can be found in narrative fiction, picture books, and fiction and nonfiction books for early readers. In theory, illustration is most often divided into the imaginative and the realistic. While the former is tied to the author’s personal expression and usually based on a literary proposal, the latter presents us with creating a credible image based on reality. According to Alan Male, the core roles of illustration include “storytelling, documentation, education, reference, commentary, advertising, and identity, are also considered as basic categories of illustration”