Tag Archives: Art

Some LEGO builders elevate the form to fine art in its own right, while others enjoy reproducing famous works of art with the brick. Find beautiful and thought-provoking LEGO artwork right here.

Aqueducts among the haze and the heavens

Not for the first time, I’m completely enchanted and a bit awestruck by a LEGO creation by Eli Willsea. There’s a lot of great textures and build techniques represented in the piece called The Aqueduct. I’m particularly loving the weary adventurer and his dog in the foreground. Would it be uncouth on a LEGO website to cite that I love something about this composition that isn’t even LEGO? The background presentation that Eli created for this piece; the misty, hazy hills and mountains are a brilliant touch. The color matching with the aqueducts gives the entire thing a sort of breathtaking quality. It was inspired by a piece by artist Guy Warley of the same name. I love it when the LEGO and art worlds meld in sort of a tranquil harmony. Please do yourself the favor and check out our Eli Willsea archives. You won’t be disappointed.

The Aqueduct

There’s no mistakes in your world, only happy accidents

By now it might be safe to consider myself an accomplished painter. How did I get my start? It was the early 90s and I tuned in to watch the legendary Bob Ross on a black-and-white TV with bad reception. While I don’t have a luxurious afro and nor do I wear my shirts unbuttoned to mid-chest, one Bob Ross-ism stuck with me forever; the notion of happy accidents. I still make them and it’s exhilarating every single time! That’s why I was thrilled to see this new LEGO creation by Jim Jo titled The Joy of Painting inspired by Bob Ross’s show. It features an array of paintbrushes, pallette, paint tubes, a pallette knife to scrape in those heavenly mountains and a water jar already tainted with a lovely sky-blue color.

The Joy of Painting, part 3

Click the link to discover more

A dear-ly beautiful work of LEGO art

This stunning art model by qian yj takes LEGO art to a whole new level. Using round tiles instead of more traditional plates creates a subtle texture for the background, which helps the layered mountains and clouds stand out. The deer stands on spindly legs among clouds made with three colors, adding shadows and depth despite the few layers. Even the non-LEGO background of black with gold lettering adds to the ambiance.

The Nine-Colored Deer

The many perspectives of medieval art

It’s always fun to see LEGO builds explore art history, such as this medieval scene from Joe (jnj_bricks). This build explores those fun and strange perspectives found in Europe’s medieval artwork. If you look up some of the art, you’ll find paintings and drawings where the foreground and background scenes are sort of pushed together with perspectives not achievable in reality.

Scripted Days

This build of a monk busy with penning a manuscript shows off such angles between the front and back scenes. This allows for great detailing in both the foreground and background. The monk and his surroundings are chock full of incredible details, like the billowy robes and the tapestry behind the scribe. The castle through the door stands out with the texturing of its walls. This is an incredible idea, and a further example of LEGO as an artful medium.

As the bricks melt...

Melting bricks is a truly charming genre. It’s exactly on the border of casual LEGO building and art. And just like an artist, Andreas Lenander paints the new scene with just a touch of colours and a pair of mysterious figures. Is a first contact? Are they from the same universe? And what will happen next? From time to time we need a LEGO creation that leaves us with more questions than answers, and this is exactly one.

The beginning...prism

A whale of an idea

As an artist and a LEGO builder, I really enjoy refreshing approaches to building. This bold piece by filbrick looks as if it was made with cut paper. There are eight visible colored layers of brick here, including the stylish white frame. Each is spaced out a bit to create shadows between each distinct layer. I love how some layers showcase various coral and sea plants. And that bold white humpback whale, diver and fish against the dark background is a superb and striking effect. I imagine this could look lovely standing on a table or as a wall hanging. If you like this as much as I do, the builder leaves a not-so-subtle reminder that this can be voted as a LEGO Ideas set. You can use that information as you see fit. This is not the first time we’ve been in awe of filbrick’s work. Click the little blue link to see what I mean.

HUMPBACK WHALE 2/3

A pattern in the bricks

The overwhelming majority of the LEGO creations we feature here on The Brothers Brick are spaceships, cars, castles, and other objects and scenes. What we see far less frequently are abstract designs like this fascinating one by Crimso Giger. Sometimes it’s good to return to the basic rectangular geometry of the brick and see what emerges. Although presented as a two-dimensional artwork, this build lives in three dimensions taking up three sides of a cube.
It’s part of an ongoing exploration by Crimso into creating fascinating photos of LEGO and the interplay of light and geometry. Here’s one of my favorites. At first glance it looks digitally altered, but it’s pure LEGO. See if you can figure out how it’s done.

Putting the art into arthropod

You may have recently noticed a dramatic increase in the number of crab creations in the LEGO community. Rising with this increase has been the use of the pun ‘feeling crabby’ – which, to be fair, is a good one. Heck, we’ve even used it twice (yes, twice) on this very website, and those weren’t even written by resident pun-meister Lino. DanielBrickSon has rather forced our pincered hand into using it a third time. In our defense, how else would you describe this piece of artwork? It’s named the Hana Crabba, and I can’t tell if that face is camouflaged to ward off predators or if this is some sort of ancient crustacean deity. Either way, it doesn’t look best pleased to have been turned into a beautiful piece of brick artwork. How ungrateful!

Hana crabba

Your other shoe is in another tower

Is it just me or running shoes look especially cool with massive city landmarks in the background? Look at this fantastic graffiti concept by Toryman. It’s just a shoe and N Seoul Tower, but there’s such an awesome vibe to this art.

Of course, it’s not “just” a shoe and “just” a tower. Take a closer look to notice all the cool LEGO element applications for perfect 3D effect.

All that it’s corked up to be

For a minute there we thought builder Peter Zieske had switched hobbies. But no, That is all LEGO. He’s replicated the look of traditional style Chinese cork art with this amazing diorama. I like how the black elements mimic the look and feel of polished wood while the studs-out approach to the landscape nicely takes on the rough texture of cork. This would assuredly look handsome on any shelf, even in an upscale office. I hope you can forgive me for not putting a cork in my enthusiasm for this piece.

Cork Carving Diorama

Bricks aren’t supposed to bend that way!

Master of the geometric LEGO construct, Zachary Steinman has produced another marvelous sculpture. The three coordinate planes (xy, yz, and xz) all head toward a singular intersection at a central point. But instead of meeting, they bend into one another, creating this star-like shape. The bend is created in our favorite plastic medium by placing 1×2 rectangular bricks next to 1×1 round bricks, allowing for a curve without sacrificing stability. While this technique is no stranger to many a LEGO Castle builder, it’s nice to see it in a simple and artistic application such as this one.

I only paint in black... Or very, very, dark grey

Confession time. I know Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones is one of the most well-known rock anthems ever, but… I prefer the cover that pop singer Vanessa Carlton did. (She’s just an incredible artist, OK?) Before you accuse me of blasphemy, let’s take a look at this creation by another incredible artist, Woomy World. This build is inspired by the lyrics from the song (“I see a red door and I want it painted black”), with the black rose rising from the door forming the title of the piece. The rose looks fantastic, using everything from macaroni tubes to a dragon wing to give an ethereal, almost other-worldly feel to it.

Black Rose

It sits in contrast with the other everyday elements of the build, but they are no less impressive for it. I love the umbrellas representing drips of paint from the bucket. The painter would also be worthy of a feature on his own! The suit jacket uses Technic panel pieces which are an inspired choice and look fantastic. The hair is where I keep getting drawn to though: there are so many different pieces but they all seem so carefully placed. I can see flintlock pistols, a minifigure satchel and at least one minifigure arm. The Rolling Stones might be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but this creation surely belongs in an art gallery!