Posts Tagged ‘Lego art’
Hermes (2013)
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
Calgary Tower
The Calgary Tower in Lego
As part of the Calgary 2012 program, I decided to build something here in Calgary that would involve a number of Lego builders. Normally, the mosaics are a solo effort, so I decided to stretch outside my comfort zone. Enlisting the help of some local friends/builders/amazing people, we set out to replicate the Calgary Tower in bricks. After much planning (assisted by Lego Digital Designer and Minecraft), we had a plan, and met at the base of the Tower to build. It took an entire day, as well as a couple of hours on the following day, but we managed to build a pretty cool version of the Tower. Adam Murtha, Hayley Erza, and Trevor Van Aalst were amazing, and the best team I’ve worked with yet!
Here’s a time lapse video of the build
I’m no master of sculpture by any means, but I think it turned out pretty well. I like to think that I learn from every project, and this one taught me plenty. Next time we decide to build the tower, I have even more ideas. One of the original ideas was to have some robotic elements, moving parts, etc. We’re still looking at adding a rotating pod, it’s just a matter of finding the time to get the work done at this point.
Adding the Pod to the Lego Calgary Tower.
Building the Stem
Hayley Erza, Trevor Van Aalst, Dave Ware, and Adam Murtha
Visions of Calgary
Calgary Lego Mosaic
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 it happen. We spent a lot of time deciding on an image, ordering brick, talking to Telus Spark about the venue, talking the The Bow about displaying the piece. Finally, we were ready to build. With the help of about 1,000 Calgarians, we put together this 6.6ft by 5ft mosaic featuring Calgary icons of the past, present and future.
The piece will be on display in the lobby of The Bow from April 7-22. (Photos by Kate Ware, Photos by Kate Ware
Robin Sather and Dave Ware
Dave and Robin get some help
So many colours!
Building the Vision
Huffington Post Article
Huffington Post Canada ran a story on Brickwares, including a great gallery feature at the end.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/03/03/dave-ware-lego-mosaics-portraits_n_2801962.html
The Mayor
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 managed to produce a piece that (in my humble opinion) brings out that famous smile. It was a pleasure to build, and hopefully one day I’ll have a chance to chat about the piece with the Mayor himself.
Below is the original image. Took a bit of work to replicate the seal and ribbon.
CTV News – Local LEGO lover makes magical mosaics
CTV ran a story about Brickwares, focusing on a few of Dave’s mosaics, and how his studio is laid out.
See the story here.
http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/local-lego-lover-makes-magical-mosaics-1.1161479
Irene – 2012
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 feet in size. For the more Lego-saavy amongst you, that’s 16 Extra Large baseplates, in a 4×4 grid, or 192 studs x 192 studs.
I ended up building it in 2 panels that were more manageable (side by side this time, as I learned from my War of the Worlds build that top and bottom is asking for trouble). So here it is, both in the garage and on site before the unveiling.
(Note: people who build easels for a living have either more patience than me, or better clamps/sawhorses).
Giant (2012)
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, and set to work creating something worthy of the occasion. The piece is 30 inches by 30 inches, 4 XL baseplates.
I also made another piece for the show, called “Goat”. It wasn’t a mosaic, but more of a first step towards mask work, taking the flat image, and giving it some depth. I think it turned out fairly well, and has a few touches of me in there.
2012 – Superman
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). During this, I started looked at some Jim Lee art, and found the Superman image that I wanted to build off of. This is how it turned out.
This one worked really well, and grabs the eye with bright color.
Just for a bit of scale, here’s the artist with the the work.
Up next? Nothing planned on a big scale, will be missing Brick Con this year, so I’ll have to come up with something big for the fall/winter.
Breakfast Tv
I was lucky enough to be invited to appear on Calgary’s Breakfast TV this week. I brought 4 pieces with me, luckily I still have everything I had built for Calgary Expo. I also built a mosaic of the show’s hosts, Ted Henley and Tara Slone, and unveiled it on air.
The whole experience was wonderful, everything I could ask for. Everyone was professional, friendly, and helpful. Ted and I chatted about Lego and our kids, and he in particular seemed very excited about the whole thing.
Cheers to all involved at BTv, here’s the clip
http://video.citytv.com/video/detail/1678745364001.000000.000000/lego-your-art–june-7th/
2011 – Cheverny
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 image of the Chateaux de Cheverny, from the Loire region of France. Everything popped in the this image, and I knew it was right.
Personally, my favorite thing in this one is the orange in the trees. Contrasted with the black, it really catches your eye. I also love that there are so many colors in it. My palette has expanded in the last year or so, adding dark greens and dark blues. The dark blue can be seen in the roofs, and surrounding the name plate at the bottom. There are 3 shades of blue at work here.
Here’s another picture of the piece next to my other BrickCon large mosaic ‘Waikiki Surf”.
The Rocketeer (2008)
(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.
By the time it was done, it was 4 baseplates high plus a row of 32 stud baseplates. That’s about 70 inches to the average person. This created some building issues, such as having to order a LOT of brick. Also, the spacing on my tables became a problem, I had to add an extra row of table to lay the whole thing out. (These days, I just use floor space).
The biggest compliment I was paid on this piece was a comment that praised the use of both sharp lines and soft curvature, something made possible by the size as well as the shading used. My favorite part of this work is the lighting in the background, and the star shape at the lower right. The shading worked out really well.
It was also my first (and to date) only mosaic to be featured on The Brothers Brick site, which is one of the premier “go to” sites for LEGO fanatics worldwide.
It’s also one of the few mosaics that i’m really sad I wasn’t able to keep intact. I suspect one day, when I have more wall space and time, I might revisit this, and build a “keeper”.
BrickCon 2010 Best Large Mosaic- War of the Worlds
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!
Lego Mosaic of War of The Worlds – BrickCon 2010 Best Large Mosaic
This year’s BrickCon was even bigger than last year’s, with almost 11,000 people checking out all of the great creations by 400 builders. I had a great, met some new friends, and learned some new building techniques. If you’re anywhere near Seattle on the first weekend in October 2011, I highly recommend you visit.
I’ll put some pictures up of some of the amazing creations my fellow builders came up with in the next couple of days.
“Mom and Bill” (2007)
(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.
One of the most memorable parts of the build was the night that S came over and actually helped put some of the final pieces in place. It was also the night I discovered that over the course of a year or so, I had developed some dexterity with the pieces, as we both started out with same amount to add it, and I was finished much earlier.
Not sure why there are many butterflies on the TV, but they’re very pretty. You can also see in this shot that the design used both 48 stud grey baseplates and 32 stud green baseplates.
In this last shot, I’m taking the baseplates apart, in order to pack them. She was taking the piece on a plane, and we were able to pack it in the box from a computer LCD monitor.
The rest of September and beginning of October are booked up, but I still have room for one or two custom pieces in time for the holidays. If you’re interested, drop me line at dave@brickwares.com
Katie (2007)
(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, and after this, I always included it as part of that colorset. It makes everything pop a bit more, and adds an additional shade between grey and black.
Normally, I don’t like comparing the original side by side with the mosaic, but this one is actually pretty close. I could have gone with lighter pieces for her hair, but part of what makes this pop is that I bumped the contrast a LOT in the original before I started building.
My erstwhile assistant poses with the piece. The taller he gets, the less impressive the mosaics seem 
Sometimes, especially when you have curious toddlers in the house, mosaics get knocked over. They don’t like being knocked over, and tend to break apart a bit. Fortunately, it’s only along the seams of the baseplate, and like most things LEGO, can be rebuilt.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out the blog. Remember, I’m still taking commissions for the fall. Even the guy who has everything probably doesn’t have a portrait of himself in LEGO, but he WANTS one.
London Calling (2007)
(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.
And for comparison, here is the album cover.
The contrast in the original is fantastic, lending itself extremely well to being “mosaicized”. If I rebuilt this, I’d probably add a shadow line to separate the guitar from the background a bit more, and consider adding “The Clash” near the top.
This closeup reveals one of the lesser used secrets in the “greyscale” world: “brown”. It gives you a extra place to go, and another tone between the greys and blacks. (LEGO actually changed their light and dark greys over the years, so it’s possible to track down enough brick to be able to have each in the palette, which would give you (including brown) 7 colors. It’s possible there’s another brown shade out there too. Anyways, enough chatter about brown.
This shot shows the “standing up” of the piece. It always gives a different angle, and a different look to things. I was pretty happy with how close to the original this one turned out. It was also the first mosaic I had built that had a picture requested for a flickr group.
Watch out Finny!
Thanks for checking out my work, and for visiting the website. I’m still taking on conmissioned works for the fall and winter, drop me a line if you’re interested.
Bogart (2007)
(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.
Now, you’re probably asking yourself “what’s up with the parrot-like colours on bogey’s cheek”? Well, here’s the story. My erstwhile assistant, Finny, decided to add to the mosaic one day, while I wasn’t around. I saw it, and it made me laugh. And then, for whatever reason, I decided to leave it in. Call it “artist’s prerogative”, call it “found art”, call it what you will. It stays.
A shot from the side, you can see the “parrot” more clearly here. It’s always interesting to me that the pictures taken of the mosaics can be so different, as they’re all of the same work. The most interesting thing is that the pictures often come out better than the actual pieces. I suspect it has something to do with pixelization, and how your brain makes sense of the images.
Finn poses with the work, mouth stuffed with cookie. I took these shots at the middle landing of the basement stairs, as I could get far enough away to take the shot, without a lot of other stuff in the picture.
The Bogart mosaic is still one of my favorites, for it’s simplicity and design. It was around this point that my “style” became greyscale photo mosaics. There was another defining style to come, but we’ll get to that about 4 entries from now. Thanks for taking an interest, and come back often!
Day and Night (2007)
(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.
A close up look at the “day” side. In this shot, you can make out some of the larger bricks. I’ve always used various sizes in my pieces, never liked the conformity of having to use only 1×1. For that matter, most people tend to use 1×1 plates, and I’m about as far from that as I can get. Sometimes it’s worked against me, with larger mosaics the weight factor definitely becomes an issue, but for the time being, I have no plans to change the way I work.
F poses with the piece, adds scale. This mosaic didn’t take an exceptionally long time, though it did have some challenges. Lots of small areas, and it was tricky to ensure the scale and “offset” was right in places, especially the bird section.
Thanks for checking out the piece, hope you enjoyed it.
Finny (2007)
(This entry is part of a look at early mosaics I’ve made).
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.
This is my favorite picture of this mosaic, as the subject was willing to recreate the pose live on the spot. This also started a trend of Finny appearing in at least one picture I take of each work. I use him as a gauge of scale, though I still find that it’s difficult to truly understand the size unless you see them in person. I’ve often had people look at pictures of a mosaic, then later still be floored at the size.
In the close up picture, you can see the “cross hatching” used to make up the image. I’m not a big fan of this style, and haven’t done a lot of pieces using it. It just seems a bit too pixelated to me.
Often, the further away you are, the more mosaics make sense. Especially smaller ones. You’ll often see single panel (one baseplate) mosaics on the web where the photo is taken from across the room. There’s a reason for that.
So there you have it. The mosaic that started a string of mostly grayscale mosaics. I haven’t done a mosaic of Finny since, maybe I’ll have to make a Finny and Max picture soon.
Order Up!
I’m not sure what exactly set me off on this idea, but I suspect it was the City Corner set, which includes a small pizza place. I had the idea to create a commercial kitchen in Lego. I know, you’re thinking, “but Dave, this is not a mosaic”. Indeed, I say…Indeed.
So I put some thought into the sort of things I’d want to have in the kitchen, and made a couple of orders on Bricklink. Within a week or so, I had the kitchen staff, and a giant lot of tiles. I decided that this MOC should have a lot of tile and flat surfaces, as it is a kitchen. Once I started, I began to see opportunities, and ideas began formulating. It’s taking a bit longer than I thought, but I want to get it right. Also, the project has a bit of creep to it, as I’ve now added a small cafe area to the front. My faithful assistant Finny has been a great help, coming up with new ideas and adding tiles pretty much everywhere, regardless of color scheme!
I’m planning on bringing it to BrickCon in October.
A wideshot of the Kitchen and Cafe. What gastronomical treasures await the diners? Who can say?
A shot of the Cafe section, located out near the street.
The Pastry Chef prepares his strawberry shortcake.
The Angry Head Chef expects perfection from his staff!