Tag Archives: Painting

Magnificent painted owl springs to life

It’s the rare creation that can make you forget you’re looking at LEGO bricks while also making you love the LEGO medium even more. I know that the stunning “One Fell Swoop” from TBB alum Nannan Zhang is a LEGO model, but all I can see is a vibrant painting of an owl coming alive, so perfectly is the concept realized. The explosive creativity can literally not be contained!

One fell swoop

Looking closer at the technique on display, the owl’s feathers are the flashiest. Chima wings in earth blue, mech swords in gold, surfboards in minifig and mindoll scale in vibrant coral make for a striking mix of plumage, and the dark red ruff of chima armor plates is magic. I love the shape of the eyebrows and especially the addition of boomerangs for extra dimension.  The pale yellow eyes are a fun connection to the painting theme, sourced as they are from the Van Gogh Starry Night set.

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Perhaps my favorite technique is the subtle gradient peeking through grille plates. That, as well as the tube of yellow paint and the unpainted moon, sell the illusion of a painting in progress. Hot dogs and cables used for motion lines further play with the mix of flat images and dynamic sculpture.  It all adds up to a masterpiece that makes the most of LEGO form, colors, and connections.

Where Dutch mastery and LEGO artistry meet

Picture this: you find a single LEGO multifaceted hemisphere piece (also known as an insect eye) lying around in your collection. What can you build from there? Some might opt for a giant fly or a spaceship. But if you’re alanboar, the answer is Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. The insect eye forms the titular earring, which draws the eye to the center of the painting, but the rest of Vermeer’s masterpiece has also been faithfully recreated here—including the expressive eyes, the shadow on the face and clothing, the texture under the head-wrap, and the gradient on the hair. Also noteworthy is the choice of the ornate railing piece to create the scrollwork in the frame. I like to think Vermeer himself would be proud.

LEGO GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

Playing with perspective in LEGO “painting”

Here at The Brothers Brick, we love when LEGO builders play with depth and space through forced perspective. For his build “Stairway to Memories,” forestArcher creates a clever trompe l’oeil effect with a framed shadowbox that houses yet another framed image within. Layers upon layers of depth, rendered flat as a painting. I appreciate the added detail of a gold ring hidden behind the potted plant, seen only in reflection. forestArcher credits TBB favorite W. Navarre as an inspiration for using forced perspective, and with this creation he proves an apt pupil.

Stairway to memories

forestArcher built his stairway illusion for the Summer Joust competition. Check out some of our other favorite entries in this castle-themed building tradition.

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

Spectacular vistas from travels in Japan

Inspired by his travel experience with beautiful Japan, Alanboar Cheung shares with us this wonderful LEGO painting. It’s built in the style of Japan’s kakemono (hanging thing), more commonly known as kakejiku (hanging scroll). This form of art typically contains paintings and calligraphy inscriptions on a flexible backing to allow for rolling for storage. Alanboar’s creation follows suit, depicting a pagoda, cherry blossoms, and the great Mount Fuji. There’s even a golden phoenix flying overhead! The scene stands out in its 3D glory, bringing it life for us the way that LEGO does. I love how Alanboar is able to recreate the kanji for Japan (Nihon) in LEGO styled calligraphy.

LEGO Japan Painting Kakemono - NIHON (掛畫 - 日本) (掛け物 - にほん)

Here we can take a look at the whole scroll to fully appreciate the level of detail found in this build. The painting really pops against the neutral colors of the scroll! There’s no doubt this would be the center piece of any wall.

LEGO Japan Painting Kakemono - NIHON (掛畫 - 日本) (掛け物 - にほん)

Anything can be a feather

The first thing that caught my eye when I saw this pair of birds was the use of the multiple Technic pin/axle combos. That’s a piece that doesn’t get a lot of use on the outside of a build. But closer inspection reveals that builder Seth Peacock has used all kinds of interesting pieces and techniques for the plumage of these two birds. Those are baby minifigure heads, for crying out loud. Seth says these birds were inspired by the work of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night and Sunflowers series, and he’s definitely captured the swirl and motion of the line work in those pieces. To quote one famous critic, “I don’t know if it’s art, but I like it.”

Stars and Sun

Sketching famous paintings in LEGO

Have you ever gone to an art museum with a notebook, ready to try how artists started creating their masterpieces? Have you also drawn a rough sketch with a pencil to get the fastest idea of the artist’s process? Tobias Munzert has done exactly that, but by using LEGO pieces. In this triptych, he recreated the motifs of three paintings by German Expressionist painter Franz Marc – Red Deers, Blue Horse, and Red Horses in black and white to emulate pencil drawings. Talk about blending LEGO and art!

Franz Marc Drawings – 3-in-1 LEGO IDEAS Project

Each drawing is laid out on a field of white bricks acting as a blank canvas. The minimalist black “sketches” are made up of various thin parts in black held by clips. Tobias really utilised his NPU skills, and has given us a good idea on which parts to make curves with. See if you can spot each unique minifig utensil and animals appendages used to create the intricate shapes of Franz Marc’s animals.

Check out more LEGO creations depicting horses!

A picture worth 10,000 bricks

This beautiful painting by Hoang H. Dang shows a pleasant street scene with ancient architecture and a gnarled tree, along with a few small street vendor stalls. But there’s much more to it than first meets the eye. Although it’s ostensibly a painting, it’s actually a low-relief sculpture masterfully executed with LEGO bricks, lending it an amazing sense of depth.

And look closer–this painting is much bigger than you probably realize. There’s detail packed into every square inch because the entire piece is enormous–more than 3 feet wide. It’s so big that a Duplo fire hydrant looks right at home. Let’s take a look at some of the other details.

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Picture picture on the wall who, is the prettiest of them all

Ever since I saw the Hogwarts moving stairs model by Jonas Kramm I have this thing for LEGO paintings with elaborate golden frames. This creation by Kitkat1414 reminds me of that. In this creation, he used the minifigure torso in a brilliant way, representing the sails of the ship. The printing of the torso even adds some movement to the creation. However, the best used part in this creation has to be the Metalbeard part used as a miniature cliff. The painting in the middle of the frame is not the only true work of art — the paintings surrounding it also contain a lot of details.

01 The Masterpiece

This spirit painting is a Ghostbusting nightmare

Keep your eyes on the prize, the prize painting to be exact. It’s alive! Corvus Auriac keeps true to his recurring morbid theme and shows us an angry, green-haired figure being pulled out of the picture frame. The diorama sets the scene of an archaic manor, home to the artwork, hanging on a peeling burgundy wall, next to a statue nightstand. Still, there’s nothing to fear because a trap is set to capture the spirit by none other than the Ghostbusters.

Complete entry of my Ghostbusters LEGO Ideas contest

The eighty hours Corvus spent crafting this build shows in the details and the myriad of different LEGO pieces. The pattern of sausage elements, frog, leaf, and cheese wedges in the ornate gold frame is hypnotic. The figure’s claws are also reminiscent of a previous Corvus Halloween-themed project. Then the three-dimensional perspective between the spirit and the moon in the background appears to be a nod to impressionism. It’s like one work of art within another. Check out more creepy Corvus builds here.

Pretty as a picture of a picture

It takes a talented builder to take a very specialized LEGO part, like a train switch, and turn it into something totally different. Of course, we all know Jonas Kramm is a talented builder, so it should come as no surprise that he managed to make a train switch into a painting of a peacock. It is unquestionably the best peacock head I have ever seen done in LEGO form, and perhaps the best bird head, too. The bumps on the switch make perfect nostrils, and it also works well as the eyes on the tail. But Jonas did not stop there: he also used the part for the lantern flame, and the drawer pulls. Not to mention the Jurassic World gyrosphere for the lantern glass and the green snake for paint. It’s a great composition of a great composition, for sure!

04 - Painting a Peacock

Like Jonas’ builds? Then check out some more. And don’t miss the Iron Builder action, where the train switch is the seed part.

A work of art you don’t have to lose an ear over

Instagram user legotruman renders a LEGO version of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night and we’re all pretty impressed. See what I did there? Impressed. Because Impressionist. Get it? This is why I make the big bucks here, people. Anyway, we can all appreciate good LEGO art here. I particularly enjoy the plates set at all those crazy rakish angles representing those crazy rakish clouds. The moon with its halo glow is also quite charming.