I find that his technique works wonders if youre working in a specific style, like “realistic” or “cartoony.” I like to do a lot of character design, and most of that stems from costume and prop design. If I’m having trouble seeing it realistically, I’ll try to draw it as cartoony as possible. That way shapes are abstract and can’t opperate in the real world. Seeing it like that forces me to then start thinking how can I turn that cartoony design [back] into a realistic design. I’m forced to make design choices to best fit the cartoony look, and then altering to fit in the real world. Works wonders! I imagine this works well the other way around too, reducing complex designs to core identifiable shapes. Its just a way of working out the kinks. Sometimes artist block is just your mind telling you that your idea has problems hat need to be worked out.