The block wasn't running out of ideas, it was the workflow grinding him down — plus a live technique for getting 3D volume out of 2D shapes.
Dimensional shift: sculpting in Figma Draw ft. Josh McKenna | Config 2026 · Josh McKenna
15 min total·Actually worth watching closely: ~4 min·3 must-watch clips
- 0:12 – 1:58Listen
From drawing cars to illustrating in London
Josh looks back at being convinced as a kid that his future was in automotive design, and ending up a freelance illustrator in London, 12 years in. Background — where his eye came from.
Everything he says later about burnout rests on 12 years of taking commissions, not on theory.
Mostly him standing and talking through his own history; nothing on screen you have to watch. Fine to listen while doing something else.▶ Jump to 0:12Speaker · Josh McKenna - 1:58 – 4:09Skim
Bringing screen-print roughness into digital
He describes carrying his screen printing techniques straight into his digital work — replicating layers, imperfections, misaligned registration, strict color palettes — which became a highly recognizable personal style.
A distinctive style usually comes from importing an offline craft, not from hunting for a new filter in the software.
He talks over the work; the screen is mostly finished pieces and style samples. A glance at the grain and the misregistration is enough — no need to follow line by line.▶ Jump to 1:58Speaker · Josh McKenna - 4:09 – 5:35Skim
The Instagram Pride sticker goes viral
The Pride sticker he made for Instagram was popular enough that the platform kept it on the app for five years, giving him exposure far beyond what a single commission does, and it kept getting shared.
A piece a platform keeps as a permanent fixture pays back on compound interest — nothing like a one-off job.
This part puts the sticker and the places it showed up on screen. Worth a look to picture the scale of what follows, but you don't need to stay glued to it.▶ Jump to 4:09Speaker · Josh McKenna - 5:35 – 7:28Listen
Typecast after going viral
Celebrity shares, photo shoots, interviews, Vogue, a four-meter glittery float at Sydney Mardi Gras — a level of exposure he wasn't prepared for. What came with it was being locked into one label by the market, with the work packed into a few months a year.
Being typecast into a single label with heavily seasonal demand is the earliest sign of creative burnout.
The heaviest stretch of the talk — the pressure that came with the exposure and the box he got put in. It's carried by his voice; the visuals don't help here.▶ Jump to 5:35Speaker · Josh McKenna - 7:28 – 10:58Listen
A new place won't save you
He tried the change of scenery and all the inspirational places, and it didn't work. What was actually blocking him was workflow friction: constantly switching apps just to add effects and texture, little things that added up until it wasn't joy anymore. So he went and played with Figma Draw as a student, with zero commercial pressure.
What blocks you is usually not the ideas but the small repeated friction between tools — change the workflow, not the scenery.
Pure argument, him working through how he misdiagnosed it and how he found the real cause. The one takeaway worth remembering is here, so listen closely to this stretch.▶ Jump to 7:28Speaker · Josh McKenna - 10:58 – 12:42Watch
Turning a circle into a sphere, live
The full hands-on walkthrough: a radial gradient sets the direction of the light, then stacked inner shadows build the volume — dark at the bottom, white at the top, then a colored one for ambient light — and finally a drop shadow grounds the form.
The order is fixed — set the light source first, then stack the inner shadows one at a time. Volume gets stacked up, not drawn.
He changes parameters while talking, and the shape visibly rounds out with every layer. Parameter names alone won't stick — you have to watch the form swell step by step to reproduce it.▶ Jump to 10:58Speaker · Josh McKenna - 12:42 – 14:56Watch
Grain, texture, and being a student again
Noise and texture now go on in the same effects panel, with no exporting to another app. He shows the 3D work this method produced and closes on one piece of advice: pick up a tool that scares you and let yourself be rubbish at it for a while.
The actionable move for breaking a block is forcing yourself onto a tool you're not good at yet.
The first half is the live noise-and-texture pass plus a run of finished work — the difference is entirely on screen. The closing 20-odd seconds is just the takeaway; listening is enough.▶ Jump to 12:42Speaker · Josh McKenna