How to Draw with the “LEGO Block Technique”

September 17, 2020

how to draw an apple plug with the lego block technique

How to Draw an Apple Plug
(with the LEGO Block Sketching Technique)

Today, we draw a plug design by APPLE.
And you learn the Block Sketching Technique.

Study it and it will open in front of you a door
with an infinity of Product sketching possibilities!

To follow this tutorial,
you need to go through the Designer Starter Kit book first
to learn your basics of perspective.

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If you are a beginner,
you may feel overwhelmed,
and have no idea how to start.

That’s normal.

This is why I like to decompose
my tutorials into bite-size steps.

In Product Design Sketching,
it is essential to learn how to draw
with simple techniques
to progress fast and draw with efficiency.

This is how your mind gains clarity,
and you increase your skills like crazy!

I went to a cafe with my laptop and saw my Apple plug standing.
And thought it would be a great sketching tutorial for you today!

You learn how to start drawing anything easily.
How? By decomposing something complex into simple blocks.

Remember to subscribe to my Youtube channel to get notified of the newest design sketching tutorials.

We will cover 3 phases:

Phase 1| Strategy in 2D
Phase 2| Practice in 3D
Phase 3| Draw from memory
BONUS CHALLENGE| Draw from a different angle!

Apple plug - Side view — Apple plug | Side view

Observation from side view, where the elements are aligned.

Mistake 1 - Start by drawing the plug — Mistake 1 | Start by drawing the plug

Beginner’s mistake 1 is to start by drawing the plug itself.

I don’t recommend you to pick randomly the element to start with.
Try to draw with strategy and set up a sense of order.

The base is what supports the plug itself.
We should start to draw it before the plug that will connect to it.

The beginner mistake 2 is to draw what you see using only the outlines.
It often results of clumsy drawings.

When you draw with strategy, we think with blocks/boxes.
It helps us to simplify a complex subject into very simple forms.

Instead of thinking with outlines, you think with geometry!
You would be surprised how sketching is actually made of a series of simple rules of geometry.

The learning curve raises when you start to assemble these rules to draw complex forms.

Let’s jump from the 2D side view to practice drawing in 3D (Perspective drawing).

Let’s use this photos an underlay. I low the % of opacity a bit.

**TIP:** Feel free to get promotional catalogs of product designs in shopping malls to get inspiration from, and draw on.

Observation exercise:
Spot the converging line using the longest line when possible.
Note: We start here with the base, not with the plug itself.