Tag Archives: Monochrome

A monochrome steam machine

The Mogul steam locomotive, also known as the “2-6-0”, is a pretty classic-looking train especially for model or toy trains. František Hajdekr fashioned a sleek looking light grey LEGO 2-6-0 in monochrome, and it is certainly a beauty.

While most LEGO train are built to run on track, this train does not, but there is an upside to that because in this build Hajdekr uses technic pulley wheels in combination with gears to render locomotive wheels and these are pretty aesthetically pleasing choices. I think the fez piece in black flipped upside down for the chimney was also a clever use of parts. The brick-built train tender hauled by the engine contains many different types of black LEGO elements serving as the fuel source for the engine – coal. With all the right parts and pieces, this build is ready to go full steam ahead.

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Monochrome minifig habitats in all colours!

Taste the rainbow? No, that doesn’t seem right. Build the rainbow! With minifigs in matching colours! That’s better. Caz Mockett did exactly that when she undertook the challenge of building isometric minifigure habitats in most of the current LEGO colours. The massive rainbow collage you see below is beautiful, but the vignettes really shine individually. Take a closer look and notice the details and parts usage. Each isometric habitat tells a unique story of the minifig and their surroundings.

Few builders tackle the challenge of building in monochrome, working with LEGO elements of the same colour. When they do, it’s usually in white or a shade of grey, and the build is something sculptural. Caz on the other hand went for all the zany colours LEGO has to offer, from earthen tones to magentas and azures. She shows true dedication in collecting rare and expensive minifigure parts for her coloured habitats.

Check out each minifig habitat in Caz’s photo album, or hear the builder talk about them in her YouTube videos documenting each build.

A miniature modernist maze

Monochrome geometric shapes descending into infinity – this is the only way to describe Simon Liu’s amazing “Hexahedral” LEGO model which can also be referred to as “Cube City”. Surely it is an interesting architectural concept, the model itself reminds me of drawings done by M.C. Escher, with all of its interesting perspectives, spaces, nooks and crannies.

The visible city portion of the build is divided into cubicle-like zones each containing various buildings and houses, these are mostly rendered using 1×1 modified headlight bricks topped with either a double or pyramid 1×1 slope – all in light grey. Various other small pieces including a ton of 1×1 tiles, ingots, 1×2 grilles, levers, and other modified 1×1 pieces are included to create intricate designs and spaces within the cubicle zones. Any area that has not been carved into this slab of stone-colored brick is plated with 1×1 tiles in a minesweeper-like grid. This build is just wonderful to look at especially with the visual contrast Simon creates between empty space and grey plastic.

All that glitters is pure gold

It is the Year of the Ox and we have not yet gotten tired of your OX-related LEGO creations. My case in point, Ian Ying knows that what glitters is pure gold. It’s an ox, it’s expertly crafted in LEGO and it’s entirely gold. What’s not to love? It’s especially poignant being that 2021 is a Golden Ox year and is said to be a very lucky year indeed. We haven’t had a golden ox year since 1961 and I’m told that year wasn’t without its charms. Other builders have used monochrome with some pretty amazing results. Also, check out some other Year of the Ox creations that we have featured.

Send in the white dragoons!

An experiment occurred when Christian Lintan accidentally discovered some cool connections with another project which, in turn, led to this. What you’re looking at is a transforming LEGO Gundam-type mech who can become sort of like Mechagodzilla. He tells us he’s beyond thrilled with the result and we agree. Working in monochrome can be difficult at times but the end result is just about always visually striking. You ought to take some time to check out other LEGO artists who have worked in a monochrome palette.

Part wild cat, part bird of prey, this sculpture is stunning

Some LEGO creations look more like what you traditionally think of as art than others. Large scale sculptures are a good example of this, and Ekow Nimako’s are my favourite LEGO sculptures, and his latest piece is no exception. Part hawk, part Lynx, this Griffyx cub is all beauty.

While this isn’t the first time The Brothers Brick has shared one of Ekow’s creations, this is the first one that I’ve had the pleasure of writing about. And like Lino before me, I’m having a hard time picking my jaw up off the floor and finding the right words. LEGO sculptures are so often made up of the easier-to-acquire-in-mass-quantities bricks, most notably the most basic of all LEGO elements, the 2×4 brick. But Ekow’s palette includes a much more vast array of shapes and sizes of LEGO pieces. In what I can only imagine is a ridiculously thoughtful process, he’s able to craft the best, most organic-looking brick-built shapes I’ve ever seen.

Take the Griffyx. Just by looking at it, you can feel the way it’s stretching its neck as if it just woke up and it’s loosening up its muscles. You can see the flick of its tail, as it whips back and forth. The fur looks soft to the touch and the wings – expertly engineered out of smaller chima wings – look primed and ready to take flight. I don’t get those same strong sensations from other brick-built sculptures, only Ekow’s. Will my editors allow me to go as far as to say he’s the greatest LEGO sculpture of our time? Nothing against all the other brilliant brick artists out there, but Ekow is just rewriting the game.

The lovely lady in white

There’s just something about a clean monochrome LEGO sculputure that draws me in. This build by Aido K reminds me of an alabaster statue in my parents’ home. The purity and gracefulness of the white on black is beautiful, although I think it would be just as elegant if the color was reversed. It has to be difficult to create this kind of movement, especially with these angles. And it’s a little wild to consider that the head must be sitting on a single stud.

Want to see more monochrome creations? Check out our monochrome archives. We also have several more builds from Aido K.

Building Hands built by building hands

For a medium that’s based around the core idea of “you can make anything you want,” LEGO builders just love to impose limitations on their creations. Things like “use only one color of brick” or “it has to be symmetrical,” or even the tricky “you can’t have any exposed studs.” Once again drawing inspiration from the drawings of M.C. Escher, Simon Liu takes that particular set of challenges and overcomes them. (Again.) Escher’s Drawing Hands transforms from flat art into a sculpture of hands creating themselves out of LEGO. Building Hands adds just the right touch of meta-level humor to a great build.

I particularly like how Simon found a clever way around the “no exposed studs” limit. By replicating the studs out of 1×1 round tiles, they both flaunted and followed the rules. Sure, the use of red lights may annoy the “monochromatic purists” among us, but I have a feeling they’re in the minority. No one said anything about limiting the light sources, after all. Or if they did, I didn’t hear about it.

Quiet solitude

Sometimes it’s all about getting the right camera angle… And maybe some fantastic vaulted ceilings. This monochrome shrine, built by David Hensel, is an exceptional marriage of LEGO architecture and photography. The lighting gives the whole scene a sense of somber and noble peacefulness. And the way that the pieces mesh together provides an element of age. It’s bold yet austere. If you have never tried to build curves like this, take a crack at it. This style requires a patient hand!

David recently made another completely different monochrome build. This time photography comes into play in a different way. Also take a look at some of these other awesome monochrome creations in our archives.

One of them there Tetrahedral Planetoids we’ve heard so much about

What you’re looking at is one of them there Tetrahedral Planetoids we’ve heard so much about in the sci-fi funny pages. Leave it to Simon Liu to wrap his noggin around a thing most of us can’t even pronounce much less think about. But Simon has one of those creative noggins and a knack to put it to use in LEGO. Math is beautiful, he tells us. I’ll take his word for it as my own mathematical results vary from “that just about makes sense” to…”now what in tarnation were you thinking, boy?” This piece is an exercise in both symmetry and monochromic applications. It was inspired by M.C. Escher who also has one of them creative noggins that can make math look beautiful.

Nowhere left to hide

Some of the best LEGO builds are the ones that move without moving, and like a picture, say a thousand words. This monochrome scene by Duncan Lindbo is one that says it all. A giant, insect-like robot, loaded with guns aimed at a sliver of concrete brick wall? I’d say we know how this one turns out, but maybe we’ll give that little guy a chance. He’s obviously doing something right if he survived this long…Then again, somehow that curious head tilt makes the mech look kinda cute. Maybe we’ve got it all wrong! Maybe it just wants to play! But either way, with the bullet holes on the ground, and the crater in that wall… Yeah, my money’s on the bug.

This creation wouldn’t be the same if it was in full color. There’s just something about monochrome. Click this link if you want to see a few more single-color builds.

Then along came an incredible LEGO artist, Ekow Nimako

As an avid builder and a contributor for The Brothers Brick, I have seen a lot of LEGO creations. I mean A LOT of LEGO creations. To put this in perspective as to what it is like to be an adult LEGO builder, I have a LEGO room in my home — most of us do, some more elaborate than others. Whether it be a corner of the laundry room, a repurposed bedroom, or an elaborate add-on suite built for this reason, we all have a dedicated space to build LEGO. A perusal of my phone contacts reveals that the vast majority of my friends are LEGO friends. We eat, sleep and breath this stuff daily. By now I’ve written a fair number of articles and am confident that I can at least amuse if not inspire or enlighten our readers. With all this in mind, you’d think there would be no one to baffle me and put me at a loss for words. But then along came Ekow Nimako.

See more of this amazing LEGO sculpture

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