How to Draw Sneakers “Fast & Dirty”! (Morpholio Trace on iPAD)

Are you a perfectionist?
Did you know that personality traits slow down your progress?
Today I show you my secret sketching technique so you draw with your feelings and draw more ideas fast!

Start practicing this technique daily, and you will improve faster!

How to Draw Sneakers “Fast & Dirty”! (7min14)

• 00:25 Draw with a thick nib
• 01:12 Start drawing with the “Shoe Last”
• 01:39 Add simple color blocking
• 01:47 Select a dark grey
• 02:57 Fail? Draw a new sketch!
• 04:58 Imagine your design on a store shelve
• 05:50 Draw Fast & Dirty!

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I love trying new sketching apps
and testing them like a geek.

I believe if you have an Apple Pencil,
​​​​​​​you may be like me too!

Today,
I use the app “Morpholio Trace” for Designers.
it is actually popular for architects, but it also gives great results for product and fashion design work.

The app is Free, and you can create 5 artworks.
Beyond that, you can subscribe to unlock all the features, including new brushes!

Unleash Your Inner Sneaker Designer: Mastering the Fast and Dirty Technique

Hey there, sneaker enthusiasts and aspiring shoe designers!

Are you ready to dive into the world of sneaker design without getting bogged down by perfectionism?
Today, we’re exploring a game-changing technique that will revolutionize how you approach drawing sneakers: 

“The Fast and Dirty Sketching Technique.”

What’s the Fast and Dirty Technique?

The Fast and Dirty Technique is all about letting go of the pursuit of perfection and embracing a more expressive, dynamic, and efficient way to sketch. Here’s how it works:

• Embrace Imperfection: Instead of aiming for flawless lines, this method encourages you to let your lines dance on the page with life and emotion. It’s not about getting it right the first time; it’s about capturing the essence of your design quickly.
• Speed and Emotion: Sketching fast allows your emotions to guide your pen, resulting in sketches that convey a sense of movement and individuality. This technique not only speeds up your design process but also injects character into your work.

Why Use the Fast and Dirty Technique for Sneakers?

• Quick Iteration: Sneaker design often involves exploring numerous ideas. This technique enables you to rapidly sketch multiple designs, helping you iterate and refine your ideas faster.
• Express Your Style: With fast, loose lines, your unique style shines through, making your sketches stand out and feel more personal.
• Overcome Perfectionism: Many designers get stuck trying to make every line perfect. The Fast and Dirty Technique frees you from this trap, allowing your creativity to flow.

How to Apply the Fast and Dirty Technique

1. Start with the Core: Begin with basic shapes to define the sneaker’s overall form. Don’t worry about details; focus on the volume and silhouette.
2. Add Accessories: Once you’ve got the core, add shoe elements like laces, soles, or logos with quick, expressive lines.
3. Details and Hatching: Now, add details like stitching or texture. Use hatching to give your sketch depth and solidity.
4. Background: Optionally, add a simple background to give context and depth.

A great way to start a sketch is to choose a thick nib.

• You purposely avoid neat sketching to go for messy!
• You want to draw fast and spontaneously
• You wanna express speed and organic shapes for your shoe design

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Always remember the simple steps to start drawing a shoe.

Draw the shoe last.
I invite you to try this 1 minute tutorial on sketching a Nike shoe!

• You will start getting your main form and proportions.
• You will gain confidence from start by using the proper shape of your sneaker design.

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Click here to download your FREE SNEAKER BOOK!

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Explore the various color palette included in MORPHOLIO Trace.
You will find plenty of great ones!

• Select no more than 2 colors, and add a neutral such as white, black, grey, or beige for example.
• I choose this mix of yellow and blue, a great combo for sports shoes!

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To refine your rough sketch, select a dark grey to draw on top.
Feel free to create a new layer (optional).

• You give more charism to your design
• You add more details and can take your time to refine your ideas.

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The great benefit of sketching Fast and dirty, is to be able to come up with many proposals fast!

• Don’t fall in love with your design, you may be tempted to “save it” and waste your time with frustration, unfortunately.
• Instead, drop your sketch, and do a new one using the mistake you learned. you will gain in productivity, and enjoy the creative journey a lot more!

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A quick test of the color combo you have applied is the store shelves visualization.

• Does your design pop from the wall?
• Is it easy to recognize and stand out from the competition?

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Love spending time on tiny details such as:

• the lining
• the logo
• the shoe laces
• some written indications
• the texture of the shoe material
• the Adidas stripes on the quarter
• the outsole…

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Tadaa!

• We completed the core design in just 1 minute!
• And we took 6 more to refine and add some quick color combo matching. 🙂

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Keep studying and practice your shoe last.
When you can master it, your brain has a blue ocean of creativity to explore!

Sketching shoes is not that difficult.
We just need to learn the right way, and things get easy 🙂

If you want to learn step-by-step, with my VIP mentorship,
you can join my online course Sneaker Sketch Pros waiting list here.

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NOTE:

At the beginning of a design project, it is the creative phase.
We tend to draw very roughly.

Then, the more you get confirmed phases in your project,
the neater your sketches will become.

I explain to you more about
the 5 phases to present your design project in your company here.

Tips for Mastering the Technique

• Use a Light Hand: Sketch loosely to keep your lines lively and dynamic.
• Vary Your Line Weight: Play with line thickness to emphasize certain parts of your design or to create contrast.
• Keep Moving: Avoid pausing too long on a single part of the sketch. Keep your pen or pencil moving to maintain the flow.
• Experiment: Don’t be afraid to try different angles, distortions, or exaggerations. Sneakers are all about uniqueness and flair.

Conclusion

The Fast and Dirty Technique isn’t just a method; it’s a mindset shift. It teaches us that design sketching is about exploration, not perfection.

By embracing this approach, you’ll:

• Speed up your design process and generate more ideas in less time.
• Capture the essence and emotion of your sneaker designs, making them more engaging.
• Develop a personal style that resonates with future users or clients.

So, grab your sketchbook, let go of the fear of making mistakes, and start sketching sneakers like a rockstar. Whether you’re designing for fun or aiming for a career in footwear, this technique will help you stand out.

Let your creativity flow, keep practicing, and most importantly, keep having fun with your designs.

Happy Sketching!

Cheers,
Chou-Tac

Transcription

Hey, Sketchers. Today, we are going to see the fast and dirty way to draw sneakers, and we are going to use the app Morpholio Trace.

So welcome to the designsketchbook.com. I’m Chou-Tac.

As you can see here on the app, there are already 2 sneakers drawn on the left, and this is what I made with some ripened nib. The trick, if you want to draw faster, is to purposely use this kind of thick nib because it’s going to let you avoid the distraction of trying to be a perfectionist. Just start to draw with something very thick for the nib, and then you will see that actually, when you draw, it will get more abstract somehow. You won’t get the exact precision of what you want, but the intention will be there, and this is what you need to follow when you sketch.

You can see that in just less than 45 seconds, I already came up with the design. I added some more details for the outsole right here. Remember that if you’ve followed me for a while, you know that you have to start with the shoe last at the beginning when you want to draw sneakers or any type of shoes. If you want to know more about the shoe last and all the steps about how to draw shoes, I invite you to download the sneaker book where I’m going to share with you 37 secrets from the pros.

Here, I added a bit of color. I’m trying to be very rough as well, just thinking about what kind of color blocking I would like to have for this design. Now, I’m using a darker shade of gray where I’m going to outline a bit more what I want to emphasize. Here we go!

You will gain precision for something that is very rough; you’ll gain something that will show more definition. But I purposely would like to have this sketch feeling—to have this feeling of dynamism. This is why, as you can see, even though I drew on top of it, it is still very sketchy. That is the intention that I want.

This is a very good way to start drawing some ideas, some doodles, some intentions of designs very fast because you don’t want to spend too much time trying to create a design. At the end of the day, when you’re looking for ideas, only having 2 or 3 proposals is enough. If you use this method, you’ll actually multiply your ideas and proposals for designs and get creative without fear of failing because if you fail, you can come up with another design very quickly.

Okay? Here we go with some hatching and crosshatching—it’s like a grid or mesh. How about the lace? Let’s put it yellow as well! I really like the color palette Morpholio is proposing here; it’s quite convenient given the size of the tool. We have a library of color palettes you can use.

In sneaker design, you’ll notice that mixing yellow and blue is quite common and looks good together in its body. Here, let’s do the stripes for the Adidas shoes to make them pop out about the logo right here. You would realize that the core design of this doodle has mainly been completed in just 1 minute; the rest is about detailing where you can actually take your time.

How about adding some fonts to make it more technical that could describe technologies? Here I’m adding some grips in blue so they can pop up. It’s good to have just a few colors; don’t try to go too crazy. The design is already kind of intricate, so don’t overwhelm it with too many colors—it has to be easy to understand from afar.

Try imagining your design on a shelf: Is it going to be recognized from far? Does it have an identity? People should say, “Oh wow! Those sneakers are actually popping from the rest,” and colors play an important role in that.

Now I’m adding some mesh and cushioning inside that I want a bit irregular. Here we go! I invite you to try different sizes and thicknesses of tools that Morpholio proposes to you guys. Having different rendering styles gives different feelings when you draw. This is what you need to master—both thin lines and something which resembles dirty sketches.

If you can master both techniques, you’re going to improve significantly.

Alright! So this is The Design Sketchbook right here; I’m Shoutak and I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you want to see more tutorials on blogs, you can find them at designsketchbook.com. Click on shoe design where you’ll get more videos along with tips and tricks and also interviews with Mister Bele.

If you’d like to go further, remember to download the sneaker sketchbook where you’ll find all the secrets of sneaker designers that I wish I’d known when I started.

Alright! See you for the next tutorials! And remember to send me your emails so I can send you free books. Bye-bye!

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