This piece was built as a commission for a person with extremely good taste. It was built during a 5 week period which also featured a number of shows and general chaos, and then shipped to San Francisco. The Finished Piece. It’s approx 45×45 inches square, and with the backing board (to keep it all [...]

In 2012 I met Billy West and John Dimaggio, and had them sign my Fry and Bender mosaics. When I heard Phil Lamarr would be at Calgary Expo 2013, I built a Hermes mosaic, and was lucky enough to get it signed as well. And here’s Max to provide some scale

As part of Calgary Expo 2013, I was invited to build and display a piece for the “Evening With the Lannisters” event, featuring Peter Dinklage and Lena Headay. I chose the Lannister Crest (from Game of Thrones) as the subject, and decided to add a raised image effect, along with the dark red background. I [...]

I’ve been a big fan of Nathan Fillion for a long time. He’s from Alberta, he’s an alumnus of Rapid Fire (Edmonton’s outstanding Improv group), and he’s Captain Malcomn Reynolds. When I learned he would be attending the 2013 Calgary Expo, I decided to build a Mosaic of Mal. The best part of making “Con [...]

This project started in the spring of 2012, with the goal of working directly with Robin Sather, Canada’s Lego Certified Professional. Robin has been helping me learn the ins and outs of the business side of the mosaics, and when the Calgary 2012 grant initiative program started up, it seemed the perfect way to make [...]

An old friend of mine contacted me about building a mosaic of his friend for the friend’s birthday. I’m always happy to build, and told him to send me an image. Little did i know at the time that it was non other than Calgary’s own Mayor Naheed Nenshi. I set to work building, and [...]

A while back, I received an email asking about a commissioned piece to celebrate the retirement of the President of SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), Irene Lewis. SAIT doesn’t mess around when it comes to scale, and decided they wanted something spectacular. So we set off planning an ambitious mosaic, 5 feet by 5 [...]

I was afforded an opportunity to have my work included in a local art show. The good folks at Endeavor Gallery in Calgary were looking for examples of Robot Art, by robots, or for robots. I chose to create a mosaic of one of cinema’s most beloved robots “The Iron Giant”. I love the movie, [...]

For the 2012 Calgary Expo, I wanted to create a big piece that would catch the eye of passersby. I knew it needed to be comic related, and iconic. I’d been looking at line art and sketches to see if they were a natural fit for mosaics (also where the Scott Pilgrim idea came from). [...]

For the 2012 Calgary Expo, I wanted to attempt to replicate some line art/sketches. I started my search by looking at comic book artists, and their Con sketches. i found a few that were pretty interesting, but nothing that inspired me. So I decided to branch out in to black and white art. One of favorites is Brian Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series. My good friend Rob turned me on to the series, and I’m crazy about it. I found a picture that worked really well.

Last year, I booked a table in the Artist Alley at the Calgary Expo, and sold a lot of small (16×16) mosaics. You can see a bunch of them here. I had a blast, and things went really well. So well, in fact, that I decided to upgrade to a full booth this year. When I looked through the line-up of guests booked, I wondered which of them I should make a mosaic of. Making mosaics takes a long time, and the subject has to be something interesting. I decided on a mosaic of Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb from “Firefly”. Always loved that show, and Adam was great on it.

And so it was.

I tweeted a picture of it to Adam Baldwin today, and he seems to like it. I’m looking forward to meeting up with him at Calgary Expo and getting it signed. If you’re at the expo, drop by the booth and say hi. (Booth 1000, near the guest signing area).

For the 2011 BrickCon show in Seattle, I wanted to build something big, bright, and colorful. I started looking for the right image (which could honestly be a post or 3 in itself, the method, the madness, what makes an image great for mosaics.), and started looking through old travel posters. I came across an [...]

The latter half of 2011 became very busy with mosaic building. Earlier that summer, I took a trip to San Diego to learn how to surf. I’ve always been fascinated with surfing, and the culture surrounding it. This led me to consider it for a subject for a mosaic. I spend some time looking around and found this beautiful poster, and knew this was the one.

Finished up a commissioned piece last week, but couldn’t post until now, as it was a surprise anniversary for a fellow AFOL. He’s a big fan of both Castle and Pirates, and so his wife and I brainstormed for a while about what to make for him.

I had the opportunity to try out a Secret Mosaic last month. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, and finally, an opportunity presented itself. With the help of the Beavers from the 38th Simons Creek group, we made 2 mosaics, each 30 inches by 30 inches.

Right now i’m coming up with ideas for the Calgary Comic Expo this summer. I’ll have a table in the Artist’s Alley area, and am coming up with ideas for small mosaics I can sell there. So far I’ve experimented with some 8-bit videogame characters, and a few other small things. I’m trying to keep the size small, so 8×16 baseplates, 16×16, and maybe up to 32×32.

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2010 was a very busy year for Brickwares. I built 4 large mosaics, as well as some smaller pieces, had a few comissions, joined a LUG, won a number of awards, and my LEGO world expanded as I met and networked with a number of luminaries within the hobby.

Check out the whole year here…

If you’re a long time Brickwares fan, you know that no mosaic I build would be nearly as wonderful without some assistance from the amazing Finny. For his 5th birthday, I built him a mosaic of two of his favorites: Batman and Robin.

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Recently, a good friend from high school emailed me to ask if I could make him a mosaic from a picture of his wife. Over the course of a few days, we messaged back and forth, determining the best picture to use, etc. One look at the picture he sent me, and I knew exactly what to do. It was all about the eyes.

(This entry is part of a look at early mosaics I’ve made).

2007 was the year of 10 mosaics, 2008 was the year of 1. But that one was worth the effort. I’d gotten the idea in my head that I had to build something big, and really iconic. After searching images for a long time, I found the advance poster for “The Rocketeer”, and knew I’d found my subject.

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I debuted my latest piece at Seattle’s BrickCon this weekend: “War of the Worlds” (More on the mosaic in another article to come). For the second year in a row, I was awarded the “Best Mosaic” trophy, and even received some votes for “Best in Show”. Seattle and Brickwares seem to get along very well!

More pics within…

(This entry is part of a look at early mosaics I’ve made).

“Mom and Bill” was the first commissioned piece I created, for a good friend who wanted a unique and original Christmas gift for her mom.After a few emails to figure out what she was looking for, and a mock up of two, I was able to start on the piece, which turned out swimmingly. Have a look at the comparison below.

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(This entry is part of a look at early mosaics I’ve made).

A timely entry, as Katie and I are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary today. This mosaic is by far my favorite of all the portraits i’ve done, due to the subject, as well as how it turned out.

This mosaic depended a lot on using brown in addition to the greyscale colours…

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(This entry is part of a look at early mosaics I’ve made).

London Calling to the far away towns…

Such a great album, great song, GREAT album cover. Decided to make this mosaic while looking at iconic album covers. After a bit of searching, I found a landscape image that really popped, and set to work. I didn’t have any pink LEGO at the time, so i substituted red. Due to the scale, the background details are lost, but on the whole, it turned out pretty well. It’s still one of the most talked about and appreciated of the mosaics I’ve built.

(This entry is part of a look at early mosaics I’ve made).

For the next project, I decided to look for icon black and white protraits, and found one of Bogart that I really liked.

i used a different diffusion, less of the “x” pixelation to create detail, and more use of “like colours”, which tend to make things more realistic, but less detailed.
I set off to work, and over the course of a few nights, had most of the face complete.

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My good friend Albert Howell, comedian, star of stage and screen, and comedy writer, jokingly suggested that I make a mosaic of him. So, I did. I think it turned out very well, and taught me more still about portraits and shadowing.

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One of my brilliant ideas early on was to create a LEGO mosaic portrait of a celebrity who was web-saavy and therefore likely to stumble across the photos, be amazed and flattered, and purchase it immediately. It totally worked. Well, except for stumbling, flattery, and purchase parts.

When I was searching for black and white portrait images, I came across a photo of Zach Braff from “Scrubs”. I was a big fan of the show, and decided to make the picture into a mosaic.

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(This entry is part of a look at early mosaics I’ve made).

After an attempt at “fine art”, and some success with a gray scale palette, I decided to combine the two. I’ve always been a fan of M.C. Escher, his work challenges the eye and the mind. I own a print of “Day and Night”, and set out to recreate it in brick. In some ways, it was very easy, as the design lends itself to a mosaic, and with so few colors to manage, it made for fairly quick work. Upon seeing the pictures of this mosaic I’ve had people tell me they hadn’t realized it was made of LEGO, which is a compliment, I guess.

The Finny mosaic was the first one where I really started to think that some very cool things were possible. It was sizable enough, and well defined so that the subject was very clear. I used a different diffusion technique to make the image, one that I didn’t go back to. Too “pixely” for my taste. Also, for whatever reason, the digitization added some shades of red, green and blue. I decided on a whim to leave these in. (You’ll see in future mosaics that this sort of decision making is fairly common.

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The Stampede mosaic I made this year marked the twentieth mosaic that I’ve made. Full disclosure, the very first one was lost to the ages with no photos, a mosaic of my sweet dog Molly, made on a 32×32 baseplate, mostly black, grey, and blue. There was also an album cover I began, but quickly grew bored with and abandoned. But let’s not quibble. Twenty it is. I guess the first six would be what is referred to in the literary world as my “juvenilia”, after a fashion.

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Before I get around to posting pics of the newest mosaic, I realized that I have forgotten to post an article about the LAST one.

For the Odgen-Millican LEGO show in Calgary this spring, I decided to build a mosaic of my younger son Max. I’ve made 2 of Finny in the past, so it seemed only fair…

The mosaic placed 1st in its category, and another smaller work I built placed 3rd.

I didn’t have enough Red on hand when I started, so his jacket quickly become Yellow. There were some struggles with getting this one right, I had to make a number of adjustments in the upper left portion of it, but all in all, it turned out ok…

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Hi everyone, i’m a little late in posting these, but the holidays always seem to run away from me! This year I made a mosaic for the season, based on the Rankin-Bass Rudolph and Hermie. It took a bit of effort to get things the way that I wanted them, but I’m pleased with the outcome. I also added an LED to Rudolph’s nose, though it’s tricky to see with the flash photography. I’ll try to post some video so you can see it a little more clearly.

Happy holidays to you all, especially all my new friends in the AFOL community!

Back from Seattle, with an award. I’m honoured and amazed.

(Reprinting an article on this build from 2008) In 2008, I decided to base a mosaic on a movie poster, something that was interesting and sparked my interest. After a couple of Google image searches, I found a few that looked like they might do the trick. After some early prep work, I settled on [...]

After my son’s birthday, we left the Lego Batman and Robin mosaic in the living room. Arriving home one night, we found it in two pieces on the floor. Apparently, there was an incident with a toy, and the babysitter moving it, etc, etc… Not to worry, as it was a clean break. I decided [...]