I came across illustrator Mattias Adolfsson’s work via a short, online course I completed in 2021/22, on the creative education app ‘Domestika’, which the artist himself lead. I think a good way to begin summarising what I feel Mattias Adolfsson does so well is to quote the name of a current exhibition he has in the Museum of Drawing, Laholm, which is aptly named ‘The World of Mattias Adolfsson’. This is what his work evokes for me – a sense of a whole world encapsulated into small, sweet, and wonderfully detailed sketches.

I’ve always been drawn to illustrations containing lots of intricately drawn details, particularly if the details consist of humorous references and/ or puns. I have always enjoyed reading comics and graphic novels of this style – and will discuss some of these on their own research pages as I delve into various techniques and styles of visual storytelling. My like for highly detailed illustration also extends to intricately drawn jigsaw puzzles which I have a real aesthetic appeal to me. I love re-looking at detailed drawings and noticing different things each time, like a hidden Easter Egg.

Adolfsson draws caricature versions of himself and his close, real-life, relations which to me express a feeling of not taking oneself too seriously, yet beautifully expressing his own visions and imagining of life. I enjoy the openly autobiographical nature of his sketches and that each drawing acts as a sort of series for his created persona.

I like the use of colour, although I’m not as confident with water colours or inks, I shall experiment perhaps with water coloured sketches myself, to illustrate memories – at least as an experimental exercise.

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