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.

Searching for light in a dark world

Presentation can make all the difference in evaluating a LEGO model. Sometimes the photography is just as impressive as the build itself. Revan New brings us a moody post-apocalyptic scene full of mystery and unique parts usage. The picture is more than just a study on lighting, using a fog machine, or image composition. Instead, it is more about combining multiple camera tricks in order to provide visual context for compelling storytelling.

The build uses minifig lantern pieces to form much of the mecha’s structure. It was created as a study in parts for the LEGO blog, New Elementary, but the unique parts usage does not end with lanterns. For example, there is the wheel cover piece used as the ship’s engine and all the fun bits piled atop the roof. However, my favorite aspect of the scene would have to be the realistic rocks. Most of the surfaces are well-textured with angles between larger pieces achieving much of the sculpting. , of course done very carefully and not at all random. There are several other photos of this build on Revan New’s Flickr photostream and his article on New Elementary. With the article, you can see how some parts were done but, for me, this single photo makes the greatest impact.

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See Manhattan as you’ve never seen it before with this incredible LEGO model

LEGO Certified Professional Ryan McNaught sure knows how to make an impression with LEGO bricks. For the centerpiece of his current exhibition, titled Brickman Cities, Ryan designed this stunning replica of Lower Manhattan, which utilizes LEGO in a way we’ve never seen before.

Constructed of more than 210,000 entirely white bricks, the 1:600-scale city is incredibly accurate. Continue reading →

These life-size LEGO ice sculptures glow with elegance

When builder Tomáš Kašpařík takes on a project, you can almost bet it’s going to be unpredictable and stunning. These two statues, an athletic woman and a child, are beautiful and have a feeling of piercing tranquility. Made mostly with 1×2 transparent LEGO bricks lit with LED strips from the inside, the sculptures contain about 20,000 bricks and 10,000 bricks respectively. For them to be stable for display and transportation, the pieces are glued using similar methods to those employed in the models at Legoland.

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Brick Wave Off Kanagawa

The world-famous Great Wave Off Kanagawa print by Japanese painter Hokusai gets the LEGO treatment in this great piece of work by koffiemoc. The model’s inspiration is immediately recognisable — from the overall colour scheme, the towering wave threatening the three boats, through to the triangular white peak of Mount Fuji in the central distance. The builder has added in some of the more subtle details of the artwork too — the crests of the waves are tipped with clips, capturing Hokusai’s depiction of the water having claws. There is also the triangular shape of the foreground wave, mirroring the form of the background mountain. This is a beautiful brick-built tribute to a beautiful image.

You couldn’t paint a better Nightmare than this, even Before Christmas

Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring…except for SpaceBrick. SpaceBrick’s latest LEGO model presents a unique twist on the classic Tim Burton film by taking a scene and contextualizing it as a painting. His brick-built illustration is even mounted on an easel! The builder did a great job of crafting the moonlit cliff with a curl, and the surrounding scenery is to die for. Pairs of Harry Potter wand on sprue elements were used to create tombstones, which look Burtonesque in their own right. Look carefully, and you might also catch a glimpse of a tiny Jack Skellington.

The level of detail in this LEGO model is frighteningly high, right down to the tools of the trade scattered below the easel. There are half-filled tubes of paint, a paint spill, and wood shavings alongside the pencil sharpener. It all helps one feel the artist’s sense of accomplishment they must have experienced upon finishing their masterpiece.

TBB cover photo for December 2018: The quickest way to the top

For December’s TBB social media cover image, alanboar is taking us back to the turn of the last century in Hong Kong, where the Taikoo Ropeway spans the mountainside in Hong Kong. In use from 1891-1932, the aerial ropeway (also called the Mount Parker Cable Car) provided quick transportation from the docks and sugar refinery to apartments on the mountain’s slopes. Alanboar’s rendition is an artistic representation all decked out in the white of snow, backed by the apartments and elegant steep-pinnacled peaks with clouds punctuating the sky.

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When our inner schism stops destroying and starts creating

By now, LEGO bricks’ place among other art media should be obvious, but it still seems to be more of an exception than the rule for builders to express their emotions through bricks. But some times, builders do feel the need to express themselves, as in the case of Malin Kylinger in her latest build. Malin states that the dual theme of the creation represents a range of emotions she went through in the recent times. What at first glance looks like a simple struggle between good and evil hides countless possible interpretation. Is this a chaotic whirlwind of changing emotion or is it a fine balance? Or maybe there is no struggle, just coexistence of light and dark?

Whatever the interpretation, there is no getting around the fact this is a great build. The face is technically a somewhat flat build, but from the photos, it looks very realistic. The hair is built using an interesting technique using strings with bars as the flexible basis for the white and dark red leaves. My favourite part by far are the eyes built using pieces as crazy as feathered minifig wings. The landscaping might look chaotic to some, but I see it as a stream of consciousness in LEGO.

Sculpting the sculptor

An artist’s work is never done, but even when the stone block is still half rough from the quarry, there’s room to marvel. Gabriel Thomson‘s rugged craftsman may be working with a harder medium than Gabriel himself, but it’s nonetheless a reflection of the skill involved in art, be it made of marble or LEGO. And speaking of skill, the horse head is fantastically sculpted, but no less so than the workman with his thick beard and toned arms.

Score Internet points on a dull life

Framed in just the right way, any life can seem interesting on social media, as shown in a LEGO scene by Arnaud B. The build and shot are quite clever in this artistic social commentary, with the phone frame hiding the seams between grayscale “real life” and full color “Instagram-filtered life” perfectly.

A bright bathroom with a dark story

At first, second and maybe even the third time one looks at this realistic bathroom scene by Johan Alexanderson, it appears to be a simple interior scene, possibly a little messy with a broken piece of the mirror above the sink. The title “Despair” on the builder’s Flickr photo page might shift your focus a little, though. Was the mirror broken in a moment of emotional torment? Who is the figure seen in the mirror? Did they break the mirror? Johan had initially written a backstory for the build but has decided to remove it and keep the image open to interpretation, without being distracted by the LEGO artist’s own idea.

While this build is an artistic composition, it is also a great LEGO creation and I always love to look deep into techniques and part usage. The differently coloured wheels at the sink are particularly inspired, as are the uses of the small ball joints as towel hangers. The tiled walls are masterfully done, down to the damaged tiles and the incorporation of a heater. But the best and most realistic details are definetely the toothpaste oozing from its tube and the whole mess in the corner.

Home isn’t always where the heart is...

Had it not been for the clear bright sunshine outside of the doorway, I’d pass this build as something that wasn’t made with LEGO. Builder why.not? provokes our emotions by recreating an unfortunate and desolate abode. The dark roof reeks of an eerie feeling with spiders and cobwebs. The detailing is simply amazing – the cracks on the left of the door aren’t just painted but made up of a cleverly positioned assortment of sloped bricks, and a similar technique makes the words on the other side of the door. Who lives here? Why is it so dark and lifeless?

The key is the piece of graffiti scrawled across the wall, proclaiming “Hate.” When in the depths of hatred, you close yourself off to the world and fill it with your own refuse. However, there’s always a gleam of hope, through the door. Only by stepping outside can you begin to feel the light.

Cube art, but without the Cubism

Creativity and art are closely related concepts, and there are few things that promote creativity as much as LEGO bricks. As a result, LEGO fan creations often turn out to be the subtlest works of art, as builders express themselves without the pressure of being serious or conveying some deeper meaning or emotion. But in other examples, like this one by Anthony Wilsonn, the main purpose of the creation is indeed to carry an artistic meaning.

The creation seems to be a composition of different, seemingly unrelated pillars and statues set in a natural environment that connects them to a coherent whole. The most impressive parts are set in the centre of the image — the square “arch” and the blossoming tree growing around it. Anthony provides a bit of story to the build, but he still leaves it vague enough that the creation remains open to our interpretations.