Mosaics - Planning Then Building

 Although I haven't so far planned out any of my mosaics, I would recommend getting into the habit. Here's a way you can easily plan out your mosaics. Get out a sheet of graph paper. Use colored pencils or crayons to color it in. Then duplicate it on a Lego baseplate.

Mosaics - A Couple of Suggestions

 I would suggest, for building mosaics, to make the outline in whatever color you wish. If you want it to look cartoon, I would recommend using a thick, black line for the outline. If you want it to look more realistic, use a different color. (See Blog post "Autumn Trees." This is a good reference for more realistic mosaics)

Autumn Trees

The first thing I did when building this was to make the outlining of the trees in red.
Then I began slowly fill in the trees with orange and yellow.
Always try to use a darker color for the outline. This makes it stand out more against a background
(When building a mosaic, always build the outline first. This provides a guideline as you fill the colorful part.)

If you look closely at the sides of the path I have 1x1 round plates to simulate stones.

Chef Landini

It's Chef Landini!

I made his eye using a top-hat and a cone.

For the steam on the cup I used clear 1x1s and 1x2s.

I used 1x4 arches to secure the spoon in place.

His buttons are made out of two headlight bricks and 2x2 cylinders

Side view

Too bad he cannot make actual pizza! ;-)

Piano Bench - Sore Thumbs!

This piano bench gave me two things: a challenge and two very sore thumbs!
It was built over the course of three days. There are 6,000 bricks.



If you hadn't already guessed, I built a shell around our actual piano bench. This way we are actually able to sit on it.

Underneath the bench, on the crossbeam, I built a park.

Landon: May I play?
Minifigure: I believe you are too big.

Mmmm... Ice cream!

Yay! They caught the thief!

It is nice to take a swim on a hot day!

This is a picture of the park. Hey! That must make it a park bench!

I used gray vultures for the corner decorations on the bridge



  Side note: Most of the bricks in this bench were given to me for my birthday.
 So thank you very much to my relations!

(By the way: It will take a long time to take this apart! :) )
 

Kirkland Signature

This is the KIRKLAND SIGNATURE symbol. This is the first handwriting mosaic that I've done so far. =D

(Side note: For the "TM" I used one tooth plate, two 1x1 plates stacked on top of each other, and two 1x3s for the sides)

Legos - From Doodling to Building

Lego doodling is a fun pastime. I have discovered a lot of great things doing it. There are two kinds of doodling:

• The first is just sitting down with a bucket of Legos and "putting two and two together"! It doesn't even matter if it looks good!
• The second is taking just a couple of bricks, and sticking them together, twisting them, turning them, and staring at them!

 After doodling, you are then ready to move on to building. These are the steps I took from doodling to building. One thing I discovered while doodling was how to make a 3D object. Just taking a few 2x4s and making a small pyramid is a good start. Next try to make a ball. It is best to use 2x2s for this. I have found it easiest, while building a ball, is to build one side first, then copy it on the other side. After that, try to make a vase. Try not to make it too fancy right away. When you've finished, make your design a little more intricate. Now that you have built up your skill, you are probably ready to build something like a snake head, or a suspension bridge! Have fun and happy building!