Creative Sketching: Fill Your Illustrations with Life and Detail
A course by Mattias Adolfsson , Illustrator

Create artwork filled with intricate ideas while maintaining balance and harmony
Would you like to learn how to merge all your sketch ideas into a single scene with a balanced and intriguing composition? Discover Mattias Adolfsson’s method for creating scenes that invite the viewer to observe its intricate details up close.
Renowned for his playful characters and humorous, detailed artwork, Mattias creates illustrations for magazines like The New Yorker, The Hollywood Reporter, and The New York Times, as well as animation studios like Nickelodeon, Dreamworks, and Disney.
In this course, he shows you how to master composition techniques and organize your sketches and ideas into one detailed figurative piece. If you would like to learn how to get started with your first sketches and ideas, Mattias gives you all the tools you need to become an avid sketcher in his first course: The Art of Sketching: Transform Your Doodles into Art.
What will you learn in this online course?
19 lessons & 8 downloads
- 100% positive reviews (507)
- 19,181 students
- 19 lessons (3h 54m)
- 8 additional resources (5 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: English, Spanish (Latam), French, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish
- Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch · Turkish · Romanian · Indonesian
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
What is this course's project?
Create a highly detailed figurative illustration that gets more interesting the closer you look.

Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
This course is for those who love to draw, sketch, and illustrate, with intermediate-level drawing skills, as well as experience in perspective drawing and in working with the materials used in the course.
Requirements and materials
Intermediate-level drawing skills and previous experience in perspective drawing is required to take the course.
As for materials, you will need ink pens (fountain pens, fine liners, or dip pens), a pencil, an eraser, a ruler, drawing paper, watercolors, and a sketchbook. For the digital work of your project, you’ll need a computer with Adobe Photoshop and a scanner.
Although Mattias doesn’t teach digital illustration in the course, you can also create your illustration digitally using an iPad or graphics tablet.

Reviews

Mattias Adolfsson
A course by Mattias Adolfsson
Mattias Adolfsson has been working as a freelance illustrator for over eleven years. While working as a graphic designer in the computer games industry, he started sharing his work on social media, where he began his successful career in illustration.
His long list of clients includes Nickelodeon, Disney, Dreamworks, Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and other important animation studios. He has also illustrated for magazines including The New Yorker, The Hollywood Reporter, and The New York Times.
Mattias has created a variety of illustration work in areas like product design, for baby clothes brand Atelier Choux Paris, record sleeves, as well as an art commission for the largest hospital in Sweden.
Content
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U1
Introduction
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About Me
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Influences
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What Will We Do On the Course?
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U2
Getting Ready
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Presentation of Materials
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Choosing the Space
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Choosing the Theme
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References
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U3
Planning, Sketching and Inking
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Planning Out the Composition and Perspective
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Preliminary Sketching of Details
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Large Pencil Sketch 1
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Large Pencil Sketch 2
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Inking 1
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Inking 2
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Inking 3
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Wash for Shading
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Colour 1
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Colour 2
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U4
Finalizing Your Piece
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Scanning
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Final Details
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FP
Final project
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Creative Sketching: Fill Your Illustrations with Life and Detail
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What to expect from a Domestika course
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Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
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Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
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Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
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Certificates
PlusIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
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Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
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Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
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Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
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Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
Domestika courses are online classes that allow you to learn new skills and create incredible projects. All our courses include the opportunity to share your work with other students and/or teachers, creating an active learning community. We offer different formats:
Original Courses: Complete classes that combine videos, texts, and educational materials to complete a specific project from start to finish.
Basics Courses: Specialized training where you master specific software tools step by step.
Specialization Courses: Learning paths with various expert teachers on the same topic, perfect for becoming a specialist by learning from different approaches.
Guided Courses: Practical experiences ideal for directly acquiring specific skills.
Intensive Courses (Deep Dives): New creative processes based on artificial intelligence tools in an accessible format for in-depth and dynamic understanding.
All courses are 100% online, so once they're published, courses start and finish whenever you want. You set the pace of the class. You can go back to review what interests you most and skip what you already know, ask questions, answer questions, share your projects, and more.
The courses are divided into different units. Each one includes lessons, informational text, tasks, and practice exercises to help you carry out your project step by step, with additional complementary resources and downloads. You'll also have access to an exclusive forum where you can interact with the teacher and with other students, as well as share your work and your course project, creating a community around the course.
You can redeem the course you received by accessing the redeeming page and entering your gift code.



Great course, inspiring teacher! Highly recommended!
Ich habe viel gelernt. Toller Kurs. Vielen Dank.
Es genial!
This is a terrific course. Whether you are a brand new beginner or have worn out 1,000 pencils, you will love this course. Everything about it is wonderful, Mattias is a thorough and inspiring teacher as well as being a fabulous artist.
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