Creative Sketching: Fill Your Illustrations with Life and Detail
A course by Mattias AdolfssonIllustrator
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
Presentation of Materials
4 minutes, 59 seconds
Choosing the Space
8 minutes, 49 seconds
Choosing the Theme
6 minutes, 39 seconds
Planning Out the Composition and Perspective
10 minutes, 28 seconds
Preliminary Sketching of Details
16 minutes, 48 seconds
What's included in this course?
Meet Mattias, discover how he uses his childhood memories to develop creative ideas, and see some of his recent work. Learn how he uses art history as inspiration for his illustrations and find out what is covered in this course.
Start by testing out your material and carrying out some research to find a space you would like to illustrate. Then develop the story behind your piece by writing down a list of things you want to include in your artwork. Create a mood board to use as a reference when illustrating.
Draw small thumbnail-sized sketches to plan out your composition and do a full-sized detailed pencil drawing of the result. Ink your pencil lines and apply a wash for shading before adding color to complete your final piece.
Once you’re happy with the result, learn how to scan your illustration. Then see how Mattias uses Photoshop to stitch parts of your drawing together before making the final edits to your illustration.
Recommended software & tools for this course
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
- 3 months ago
Muy buen curso, 100% recomendado, especialmente el audio en ingles.
- 3 months ago
I enjoyed taking the course!
- 7 months ago
Great course, inspiring teacher! Highly recommended!
- 8 months ago
Ich habe viel gelernt. Toller Kurs. Vielen Dank.
- belentriiinidadPLUS8 months ago
Es genial!
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
- U1
Introduction
- About Me
- Influences
- What Will We Do On the Course?
- U2
Getting Ready
- Presentation of Materials
- Choosing the Space
- Choosing the Theme
- References
- U3
Planning, Sketching and Inking
- Planning Out the Composition and Perspective
- Preliminary Sketching of Details
- Large Pencil Sketch 1
- Large Pencil Sketch 2
- Inking 1
- Inking 2
- Inking 3
- Wash for Shading
- Colour 1
- Colour 2
- U4
Finalizing Your Piece
- Scanning
- Final Details
- FP
Final project
- Creative Sketching: Fill Your Illustrations with Life and Detail
What to expect from a Domestika course
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.
Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
Yes, this course is designed for intermediate artists looking to deepen their understanding of drawing techniques, historical art traditions, and complex compositions.
You’ll need basic drawing supplies: pencils, erasers, pens, markers, watercolor materials, brushes, and a sketchbook or suitable paper. Access to a scanner or camera and Photoshop for digital work is also recommended.
You'll learn to analyze Egyptian, Persian, Chinese, and Roman art, apply perspective and value techniques, create mood boards, plan compositions, and integrate historical influences into your own detailed, narrative illustrations.
Yes, the course teaches both oblique and one-point perspective, showing how to apply these methods for spatial depth in your artwork, including finding vanishing points and planning compositions.
The course guides you through researching, referencing, and integrating historical styles, as well as building visual storytelling through personal and imaginative details in your compositions.
Yes, you’ll learn to create digital mood boards, organize reference images, and use Photoshop for tasks like cropping, scaling, and compositing artwork for digital presentation.
Absolutely. The course covers inking pencil sketches, mixing ink and water for shading, watercolor application, and choosing suitable brushes and papers for expressive effects.