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.

A portrait of the artist in plastic – Frida KahLego

Mexican artist Frida Kahlo created many amazing self portraits over her impressive career. Now, South African artist  Michelle Krüger has taken a fun twist to those works, and created a LEGO mosaic version using a huge array of colorful elements. This complex construction uses layers of bricks, plates, tiles, and even plant elements to create color values that aren’t currently possible in single element 1×1 tile or plate mosaics. This style also adds a lot of really interesting textures to the real-world build, rewarding the viewer for leaning in and taking a close look at just how those at-a-distance shapes are achieved.

There’s a lot happening in the worlds of LEGO mosaics lately. Check out other LEGO mosaics here on TBB for more featured builds and artists!

A “painted” tiger that prowls right off the canvas

Tigers are one of the most impressive animals in all of the animal kingdom. Regal, mysterious, intense… They inspire a plethora of bold descriptors. In Chinese culture, the tiger symbolizes power, fearsomeness, and majesty. This beautiful LEGO-ized “ink” sketch by Dad’s Bricks couldn’t convey that majesty any better. The multidimensional artwork truly comes off the “canvas” to bring this animal to life.

[LEGO] Ink painting - [Fierce Tiger] (水墨畫- [猛虎下山])

What’s more, is that this piece isn’t even the whole artwork. Upon completion, the tiger is given an exceptional mountainous background with vibrant pops of color in the plant-life. The forced perspective and depth are truly inspiring. I’m particularly fond of the wing elements used to fill out those fuzzy cheeks.

[LEGO] Ink painting - White Tiger

If you like this style of 3D paintings, check out some unique “sketches” by Tobias Munzert, as well at the official LEGO Brick Sketches (Star Wars, DC Comics, and Disney). And if you’re a fan of these big cats, we have plenty of them in our tiger-themed builds and animal archives too!

Building Big, Building Bold – An interview with Jonathan Farrell [Feature]

There are a lot of different ways to approach building mosaics in LEGO, and each artist tends to make a claim on their own style. Sometimes that means “massive brick-built images”. In that theme, a clear standout is Jonathan Farrell. We had the opportunity to sit down (virtually) with Jonathan and talk about his methods, his favorite builds, and just what happens to a mosaic that fills a room once you’ve photographed it!

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2021 was the year Nannan made Contact

2021 brought us problems we would have never fathomed a few years ago. It was a year of civil unrest and a slew of COVID variants that’ll probably have us covering our mask-holes in public indefinately. But 2021 had brought us some great things as well. Right at the tail end of that year, The Brothers Brick alumni Nannan Zhang built this piece he calls Contact. It was inspired by something Jan Woznica built a couple months ago that ended up becoming The Brothers Brick’s 2021 Creation of the Year. It’s a fine thing to be inspired by and Nannan recreates the style nicely with his verion. I’m loving the minty green elements and the simple yet striking composition. I find it exciting when one great builder pays homage to another.

Contact

My thoughts on unconnected tiger art? They’re grrrrrrrreat!

Who says you have to lock the bricks together to make something beautiful out of LEGO? Mitsuru Nikaido knows just how to pile up pieces to take things in a very different direction. Better still, they show you just how it was done with a great time lapse video! (Seriously. Go watch.)

LEGO Tiger_01

If you’re looking for more creative inspiration, be sure to take a stroll through our Art tag!

A LEGO mosaic tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther

The Brothers Brick contributor Chris Doyle adds to his Super Heroic mosaic collection with a tribute to Chadwick Boseman as the Black Panther.

This image is based off of a publicity still, run through the LEGO Remix website a few times, modified to lower his hands, then hand color-corrected. This mosaic is 96 studs by 46 studs  – 6,144 studs total in the image. (Plus a bunch more for the frame and Technic pins to hold everything safely together.) You can read more about the construction after the break!

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Paint the world as you see fit

Being an artist has some perks. If you can imagine a world that doesn’t exist, simply invent it through art. As Bob Ross advised, just paint in those happy little trees! That is, in a sense, what First Order Lego has done here in LEGO. With a paint palette and brush in the composition, we see just a hint of color with a Mediterranean-style village at the base of a massive tree. It is just enough to clue us in that this builder is pretty good with color but the real star of the show here is what is not “painted”. Monochrome is notoriously difficult to draw or paint. It relies heavily on texture for great effect and that is what is done here in spades. Hundreds of mini wheels make up the leaves of the tree which creates breathtaking visual effects.

Painting The World - front overview

There are even more little houses going up the slope of the trunk that are just like the other ones except “unpainted”. He tells us it was all built-in under two weeks and had won the top prize at Bricking Bavaria, a LEGO convention in Germany. A well-deserved win, in my opinion. Here we see the artist “painting” his world with beautiful happy colors. The closeup makes it clear that the entire sculpture stands on Death Star halves. What brilliant details!

Painting The World - me painting detail

A deep dive into DeepShen’s digital designs [Feature]

We here at The Brothers Brick love creative part usage. We love mosaics. And we really love when the two come together. We had an opportunity to talk with Deepak Shenoy (Deepshen6) about the creative process behind their recent series of geometric LEGO wonders. Eye-bending and intricate, these designs really satisfy.

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Microscale Tales of the Space Age in LEGO

Humanity didn’t make it to space all at once. Like a ladder to the stars, our journey to the moon and beyond took many small steps. Each necessary part of the adventure, the good and bad, helped our species step out into the cosmos. Celebrating this era of discovery, builder Jan Woznica brings us a series of builds that are truly works of art. Each model evokes elements of exploration underlining our adventures in our solar neighborhood. Clever parts usage and pleasing color gradients give each of these a satisfying appeal worthy of displaying. Let’s take a closer look while you debate which would look best in your office or home.

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Falling for these autumnal flowers

This bunch of autumnal LEGO flowers by Barbara Hoel is a beauty — one of those creations which at first you scroll past assuming it cannot possibly be made of bricks and has made it into your feed due to some glitch in the algorithm. But then you look again and realise the pot is brick-built, oh… and the stalks, and the flower petals, oh and EVERY LAST PIECE OF THE THING, including those wonderful puffballs to the rear. The parts use on show here are delightful, well worth a closer look, particularly the use of pearl gold crowns for the impressive puffballs. We’ve seen more LEGO flowers since the release of the official LEGO flower sets, and when they look as good as this, long may this horticultural building trend continue.

LEGO bunch of flowers

This LEGO Star Wars mosaic is far from child’s play

LEGO’s foray into the art world, with its various mosaic sets, has inspired fans to create their own fantastic art. There’s even a Mosaic Maker which allows you to upload your own image and create a custom set. I’ve had friends order a few and they always turn out great. But I think builder Brent Waller invested a lot more thought into this textured mosaic of the Child from the Mandalorian. This absolute work of art was created as a gift for his son’s birthday and I have to say that this guy definitely deserves a Great Dad award. Measuring 1 meter wide by 60 centimeters high, this massive mosaic features tons of different pieces and colors masterfully placed and blended to render a close-up image of Grogu in his floating bassinet. But this portrait also has a secret: the Child and the Mandalorian are hidden within all that greebly goodness. Can you spot them? I’m not giving any hints so good luck!

The Child Mosaic

The mosaics in the LEGO Art sets make use of a pixel approach to create images of Darth Vader, the Hogwarts crest, or even Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe. While this technique is quite effective at rendering plenty of different images, the grid pattern is difficult to break and some sharp diagonal lines aren’t captured well. That’s my opinion as an artist, at least. But Brent Waller’s use of a plethora of pieces allowed him to create sharper lines and textured surfaces. These draw the eye in new ways, almost tricking it into seeing aspects of the cloth, or the shadows in the bassinet, that aren’t really there. A vast array of pieces and colors on such a large canvas also allowed for better resolution in the image. From a distance, this barely even looks like a LEGO creation.

The Child Mosaic

I’m sure Waller, Jr. was excited to see this once it was complete. It would be an amazing addition to any room but if I were him, I would put it right above my desk. I can’t imagine this will end up in the scrap pile any time soon though. This is nerd-family heirloom material so it will surely make its rounds in their home for years to come.

I think the world of LEGO

When it comes to finding creative uses for LEGO element 2417, the 6×5 plant leaf, Azurekingfisher is one of the best. Assembling that sphere had to be a labor of love, and the end result is certainly impressive. The choices of colors make for a vibrant hanging sculpture with plenty of texture and visual interest from the overlapping foliage.  This ringed planet may not be from the Classic Space theme, but I think it could qualify for Classy space.

LEGO Planet

Curious to see what else Azurekingfisher has done with this seed part? Check our their other featured builds!