The Magazine for LEGO® The Enthusiasts Magazineof for AllLEGO® Ages! Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 32 • January 2015
8.95
$
in the US
The LEGO® Brick Art Issue
Captain
America
TM & © M
ar vel Ch
aracters,
Inc.
Chris McVeigh • Nathan Sawaya Brian Korte • Dave Ware
Instructions AND MORE!
11 0
74470 23979
6
Issue 32 • January 2015
Contents
From the Editor................................................... 2
People Maddison Stapleton: Building LEGO® Art........................................... 3 Making Brick Artistry: Chris McVeigh.................................................. 10 Paul Lee: Making LEGO® Comics................................ 20 A Look at The Art of the Brick...................... 28
Building Exploring Mosaics.......................................... 36 Why Mosaics?................................................... 40 Brian Korte: Making Mosaics at Brickworkz................. 46 Minifigure Customization 101: The Fantastic Four....................................... 50 MINDSTORMS 101: Powered Attachments.............................. 56 BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art!: Art and Easel.................................................. 60 You Can Build It: Mini Gozanti Cruiser................................... 66
Community FIRST® LEGO® League Lessons*.............. 74 Community Ads.............................................. 78 Last Word............................................................ 79 AFOLs................................................................... 80
Kermit the Frog, Jack Skellington TM & © Walt Disney Productions, Inc. • Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch TM & © Seasame Workshop • Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Rocket Raccoon, Spider-Man, Groot, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Galactus TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Boba Fett, Jawas, R2D2, Chewbacca, Han Solo, Storm Trooper and all related characters TM & © Lucasfilm Ltd. • Back to the Future TM & © Universal Studios • Bart Simpson, Bender TM & © Matt Groening • Transformers TM & © Hasbro • Rocketeer TM & © Dave Stevens • Scott Pilgrim TM & © Bryan Lee O’Malley • Harry Potter, Voldemort TM & © J.K. Rowling • Jack, Adventure Time TM & © Cartoon Network • Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash, Robin, Joker, Riddler, Man-Bat, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Catwoman TM & © DC Comics • Skeletor TM & © Mattel • Legend of Zelda, Pikacho TM & © Nintendo • Toothless TM & © Dreamworks • Benny the Spaceman TM & © The LEGO Group
*What is FIRST® LEGO® League?
FIRST LEGO League introduces students in grades 4-8 to real-world engineering challenges by building LEGO-based robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. FLL teams, guided by their imaginations and adult coaches, discover exciting career possibilities and, through the process, learn to make positive contributions to society. Go to http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ fll to get involved, and page 74 to read about one participant’s amazing story!
From the Editor: This issue is unique, as it spotlights a rather new part of the LEGO community: LEGO art. I have been wanting to do an issue on sculpture—and maybe mosaics—but it has taken a while to watch people begin to use the LEGO brick as an art medium.
January 2015 Issue 32 Publisher John Morrow
The first people to do this were the LEGO Certified Professionals, and we have an interview and photo article from Nathan Sawaya, who is a person familiar to the pages of BrickJournal. It wasn’t too long before others outside of the LEGO Group began their work—and companies, including Brian Korte’s Brickworkz, which is also in this issue.
Editor in Chief Joe Meno
Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow
Most recently, there have been people who have used the LEGO minifigure as an inspiration—Maddison Stapleton painted Benny the Spaceman, who you will see here, and Paul Lee draws LEGO superhero comics!
Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Todd Kubo Ashley Glennon
LEGO Ideas Correspondent Glen Wadleigh
Contributors: Jared Burks, Christopher Deck, Damien Kee, Brian Korte, Paul Lee, Chris McVeigh, Maddison Stapleton, Dave Ware, Tommy Williamson, and Greg Hyland. Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal:
www.LUGNET.com, www.Brickshelf.com, www.peeron.com, www.brickmodder.net www.rustyclank.com
About the Cover: Captain America is spotlighted in this Brick Sketch and photo by Chris McVeigh. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. About the Contents Page: More of Chirs McVeigh’s Brick Sketches. Photos by Chris McVeigh.
LEGO Festival ®
May 7-10, 2015 (Mother’s Day Weekend) Charlotte, North Carolina
Details at www.brickmagic.org
But what lies ahead? What will be the next LEGO art form? I don’t know, but I will be keeping an eye out, especially when BrickJournal’s own BrickMagic LEGO Festival returns this May in Charlotte, North Carolina—see you there! Joe Meno, Editor P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at admin@brickjournal.com. I’m open to suggestions and comments and will do my best to reply. P.P.S... Yes, BrickJournal has a website—www.brickjournal.com! Twitter? Yep, there too—http://twitter.com/brickjournal. Facebook? Yup—http://www.facebook.com/ group.php?gid=58728699914&ref=mf. Or you can scan the bottom codes with a QR reader! P.P.P.S. If you want info on a subscription, you can go to: http://twomorrows.com/ index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=78&products_id=616 or scan below!
Website
Glossary AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Piece) SNOT (Studs Not on Top)
Subscriptions
POOP (Pieces—that can be or should be made—Of Other Pieces) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club) DARK AGES (usually teen years, when you drift away from building) STUDS OUT (building where the studs on bricks face the viewer)
LEGO®, TECHNIC, MINDSTORMS, Belville, Scala, BIONICLE, ExoForce, Mars Mission, World City, and other LEGO theme lines are trademarks of the LEGO Group of companies. All articles, photos, and art are copyright BrickJournal Media, LLC 2014, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Subscriptions are $50USD Media Mail, $68 Canada, $78 International Surface, and can be purchased at www.twomorrows.com or payment sent to: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. The editorial/advertising office address for BrickJournal is: BrickJournal Editor, 5610 Briar Oak Lane #510, Raleigh, NC 27612 USA or admin@brickjournal.com. First Printing. Printed in the USA. ISSN 1941-2347.
BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, which we use for making all of the instructions and renderings in this magazine. We would especially like to thank Kevin Clague for his continued upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of2the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
Maddison Stapleton is a builder, a photographer, a cosplayer, and a painter. In only a few years, she has been recognized for her artistic and LEGO related creations at events around the US—she is a true LEGO artist. Her roots in creativity began in childhood. Maddison tells, “I have always been interested in art. Growing up, my parents had a giant table that was stuffed with art supplies that my brother and I would go to town with. My love for art continued on to college, where I graduated with an art degree, with focuses on photography and painting, in 2012.” Maddison also started building at a young age when her dad asked, “Hey kids, want to help me sort these LEGO bricks?” Her two favorite themes were the Ninja line, “because of the kick-butt female ninja in all the promo material,” and Bionicle, because “of the visuals, storyline, and the existence of another kick-butt female character.” Back then, she didn’t build a lot beyond a few small things, because she would get so frustrated with creations not turning out how she envisioned them. However, she was heavily involved with the Bionicle community on BZPower.com. Besides Bionicle, her senior project involved making pinhole cameras from LEGO and displaying huge prints of the photos in the school gallery. 2012 was the year that Maddison really took off on building, and also the year when she began taking antidepressants. As she happily notes, “It turns out that having a clear, anxiety-free mental state really does wonders for my ability to concentrate!” Maddison’s building focus is mostly sculptural. In terms of theme, though, she kind of builds whatever catches her interest. She explains, “I like to push my abilities and see what I can do. Seeing how far I can take LEGO bricks as a medium is fun and challenging. When I went to LEGOLand California as a kid, seeing all of the giant LEGO sculptures of ordinary everyday things was fascinating to me, especially the creations that people were able to still interact with. I really like the idea of taking everyday objects and creating them out of bricks. It continually makes me wonder what I can create next.
People
Maddison Stapleton:
Building LEGO Art Article by Joe Meno Photography provided by Maddison Stapleton
Far left: An example of Maddison’s photo work. Left: A LEGO pinhole camera Maddison built, with (below) an image from it.
3
People
Making Brick Artistry:
Chris McVeigh
Article by Joe Meno Photography provided by Chris McVeigh Chris with his Brick Sketches. Characters TM & © their respective owners.
10
Chris McVeigh is a photographer that has made his mark on LEGO photography and building. With his building and photo skills, his work has been seen on websites and magazines. On his website, he has building guides for some of his most popular models. BrickJournal chatted with him about how he started out his LEGO art. BrickJournal: What is your profession? Chris McVeigh: I am both a technology journalist and graphic designer by trade. I got my start as a professional writer with MacHome magazine, and I’m now an occasional contributor to Macworld. And chances are good that you’ve seen some of the graphic design work I did for Microsoft’s former ad agency; in the mid-2000s, I provided vector artwork for a number of highprofile online campaigns including MSN Search, SQL Server 2005, Windows Server and more. Yep, so… sorry about all that nonsense, I’m sure those ads got annoying quickly! When did you start photography? In 2007, a friend prodded me to join Flickr and start a photography project called ‘365’ where I’d have to post a creative picture daily for a full year. I had very little appreciation for photography at that stage, and to be honest, I felt it was just something I wasn’t capable of being good at. However, I found myself with a lot of free time as work for the ad agency wound down, and so I capitulated and signed up to Flickr.
More Brick Sketches.
I started off with a consumer-level digital camera that I’d previously used only for photos of family and friends. Over the next few weeks, I quickly picked up speed, learning about composition, framing and focal points. My photos were wellreceived on Flickr, and encouraged by the response, I purchased my first Digital SLR. I suppose I was equally excited and overwhelmed at that point, because there was so much more to learn: aperture, exposure, ISO, and how they’re all so closely interwoven; as well as lenses, lighting, flash and more. You did your own digital magazine—what was it about? In my university days, I got a job at the campus computer store. I’d had an affinity for Apple computers since I’d gotten an Apple IIc for Christmas in the mid-eighties, and I suppose I quickly became the store’s Mac expert. I’d always enjoyed sharing news and knowledge with other folks; for example, in high school, I published a weekly newsletter using early desktop publishing software. So I figured I’d do the same at the computer store (which, oddly enough, was actually called The Computer Store). I developed my own double-sided paper publication that I called MacSense, which I handed out to customers. It wasn’t long before someone suggested that I should make a digital version and distribute it online. The Internet wasn’t even a thing back then—so at first, I distributed it on America Online and local BBSes! The monthly publication quickly grew beyond news, and I added tips and tutorials, opinion pieces and humour sections. It was a lot of fun, but as these things go, it became too much effort for very little return in return. Online advertising was in its infancy, and few marketers were willing to take a chance on a small online publication with a readership that was hard to quantify. How did you begin taking photos of toys, and when did this lead to photographing LEGO? Well now, that’s an odd story. As I experimented with photography, I would take a few shots of toys every now and again. It was largely without purpose; really, 11 I was just testing my camera and lens and toying
People
Paul Lee:
Making LEGO Comics Interview by Joe Meno Art provided by Paul Lee
Paul Lee has worked in the comics industry for over 25 years. Most notably, he’s worked on issues of Batman, Green Arrow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Conan. Now he’s a comic artist for the LEGO Group as well as an AFOL! BrickJournal was able to talk to him about his art and building.
20
All characters shown TM & © DC Comics.
Background BrickJournal: When did you start building? Paul Lee: I started building as a child, of course. I went through my dark ages as most people do, though I would always pick up a small set here and there. I came out of my dark ages with the first wave of Star Wars licensed LEGO sets and began collecting again. When my oldest son turned 3 years old, I began building a lot more as we played with the LEGO together. When did you get into LEGO Illustration? About 7 years ago, I began burning out on mainstream comics. I was losing my enthusiasm for the industry. At that point, I was a pretty active AFOL. While thumbing through a LEGO Club Magazine, I saw that they use a lot of comics. It occurred to me that I could do comics work for the Club Magazine. Did your building and drawing work off of each other? I do think my art background definitely helps my building. I have some sense of design and composition. I use my training to plan the color blocking and I am very particular about details and creating the right angles and shapes.
In the past, when working on comics, I sometimes would build small set pieces out of LEGO to plan backgrounds for comic panels, especially when I was dealing with a tricky camera angle.
Paul Lee’s fold-out illustration for the Batman 75th Anniversary comic, first released at San Diego Comic-Con 2014.
As a painter, I have always focused on the human figure, so I have a particular understanding of human anatomy and motion. I think that’s why as a builder, I tend to favor Mechas and robots. I use my knowledge of anatomy to make creations that emulate the possibility and articulation of humans. What was your big break? In my experience, there never really is a “big break.” Everything is about putting in effort and being persistent. Having worked for years as a freelance illustrator and comic artist, this is pretty much the way it works. When I decided that I wanted to do LEGO comics, I went around getting information about finding the right person to talk to. It was at a San Diego Comic-Con that I approached people manning the LEGO booth. Eventually I got the e-mail of the art director of the Club Magazine. I then sent an e-mail expressing my interest in doing comics work. I sent them my portfolio and comic samples. It took about year after I first contacted them before they gave me a sample script to try out. As I recall, it was an Atlantis script. Not long after that, I got my first gig.
21
People
A Look at
Interview and Photography by Joe Meno 28
29
A LEGO rendition of cave paintings.
Edvard Munch’s The Scream, built in LEGO bricks.
LEGO Certified Professional Nathan Sawaya has not only built models for clients, but also has various art exhibits traveling the world. One of them, The Art of the Brick, had a display in New York City. BrickJournal paid a visit to the exhibit and interviewed Nathan about his show. BrickJournal: This is a traveling show, so where has it gone, and where is it planned to go? Nathan Sawaya: The Art of the Brick has been to many parts of the globe, including Australia, Asia, Europe and North America. The exhibition just opened in Boston and will be there for several months. How did this display start? Was it a commission or your vision? I had the opportunity to put together a solo exhibition at an art museum a few years ago. The show started small, and has grown over the years.
30
You built different LEGO models for different art forms, from mosaic to sculpture. How does LEGO building fit with these types for media, as it is basically a 3-D medium and some of the forms you created were for the 2-D medium? For part of The Art of the Brick exhibition, I took on a new type of project where I tried to replicate some of the most famous works of art from art history. So for some of the sculpture replicas, I replicated them in 3-D, and for some of the paintings, I replicated them in 2-D. But I also played around with taking certain elements from the original 2-D paintings and replicating them in 3-D. For example, with Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream, I created the background as a 2-D mosaic, but the screaming figure as a three-dimensional sculpture. Or with the painting American Gothic, I created
the background image of the farmhouse in 2-D, but the older couple holding the pitchfork in the foreground of the painting as a 3-D sculpture. It was a fun way to play around with many different techniques of building for the different works of art. In all cases, I hope it is a great way to get kids interested in art history, through a medium they love. How did you select the models? Different works of art were selected depending on different themes we were trying to convey throughout the exhibition. You have had a running motif with the human figure—what is your fascination with that? The human figure as a sculpture allows me to explore certain emotions. I also enjoy the surrealism that can come with a human figure created from bricks. Most of your technique is classic stacking. Is there a reason behind that, besides it being easier to build? I started stacking bricks when I first learned how to build with LEGO. I guess I am a child at heart.
The Discobolous, a Roman sculpture.
Nathan’s treatment of American Gothic, by Grant Wood. Vitruvian Man, by Leonardo Da Vinci.
31
Building Minifig Customization 101:
The Fantastic Four! by Jared K. Burks
The Fantastic Four is one of the first superhero teams created in the world of comics, dating back to November 1, 1961, long before most readers of this column were ever born. This team was created by the powerhouse duo of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. The team consists of several different members throughout its long run, but is primarily composed of Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic), Susan “Sue” Storm (Invisible Woman), Johnny Storm (Human Torch), and Ben Grimm (The Thing). This group of individuals gained their powers when accidentally exposed to cosmic rays during a scientific mission to outer space. In order to adequately capture these characters in LEGO form, one must capture the special powers and personality quirks. The special powers make this team perfect for creation in LEGO, if only LEGO had all the parts needed. This article will demonstrate how I solved the problem of creating the parts I needed to adequately capture these characters. Before I dive into the details, though, let’s reflect on all of their special abilities received as a result of the cosmic ray exposure, and their quirky personalities for those unfamiliar with the comic book series.
Right: The Fantastic Four, rendered by co-creator Jack Kirby. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.
50
Mister Fantastic is a scientific genius, who after being exposed to cosmic rays is able to stretch, twist, and reshape his body into inhuman proportions. Reed serves as the leader and father figure of the group and is pragmatic, authoritative and dull. Reed carries the guilt for the failed mission where everyone was transformed— particularly over Ben Grimm (The Thing) due to his massive alteration.
The Invisible Woman is Reed’s girlfriend. As her name suggests she is able to bend and manipulate light to make herself invisible. This talent develops and she is able to generate force fields, which she uses in both defensive and offensive functions. Sue is the heart of the group.
The Human Torch is Sue’s younger brother. His exposure allows him to control fire, which in turn allows him to transform his body into flame and take flight. Due to his age Johnny is typically portrayed as brash, rebellious, and obnoxious.
The Thing is Reed’s college roommate and best friend. Ben’s exposure transformed him into a monstrous rock covered humanoid with super-strength. The Thing is angry and self loathing as he feels trapped by his conversion. He is portrayed as gruff, short tempered, and is given a caustic sense of humor.
Creating the Fantastic Four Trying to capture these characters and their powers in LEGO is a challenge. They become heroes out of an unfortunate accident. The concept of an alter ego is completely abandoned with these heroes as they live their lives in the public eye; as such they are rarely shown out of costume. Therefore I felt it was important to show them in more of a battle mode than merely in costume; this translates to powers in full bloom.
2
1
Mr. Fantastic needs to be large, stretching and reaching. This means we have to look to one of the more rare LEGO figures to create this effect: Woody from the Toy Story sets. Woody had extended legs and arms; while this will make Mr. Fantastic taller, it will not make him appear to be stretched. In order to give the stretched appearance we must alter a LEGO 1x2 brick.
5 3 4
1. Paint Woody’s arms blue. 2. Paint hair with white temples for “wise” statesman look. 3. Paint or Sharpie arms and legs for gloves-boots appearance. (Special tip: There are chemical-resistant Sharpie markers that are more permanent than typical Sharpies, and which work perfectly for this task.) 4. Using a 1x2 brick, sand the sides to give a pinched or stretched appearance. Taper from top to bottom to bring in the bottom of the brick to make it end as the torso would if it were connecting to the hips. 5. Create simple waterslide decals to recreate the Fantastic Four uniforms, and apply. Make sure to cover from top of the torso to the new bottom created by the addition of the brick.
3 51
Community
The Bacteria Busters. From left to right: Kate Gagliano, Rhyann Clarke, Earle Arnold, Sonia Clark, Erin Stone, Will Henderson, Jennifer Edmondson, Sarah Edmondson, and Riley Niven.
FIRST LEGO League’s Lessons ®
®
Article and Photography by Sarah Edmondson
What I remember most from my first year of FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is a strange lack of fear. I was completely confident in our project’s ability to wow the judges, and our robot’s absolute perfection on the table. We were one of the top two teams in the FLL program at my elementary school, and all the parent volunteers who had judged us before had been amazed at our knowledge and ability. How could we not be one of the most successful teams at our regional competition? There was simply no way. Or so I thought. Our team, the Bacteria Busters, did not advance to the state competition that year. We did not win any awards, and we were disappointed by the rubrics we received later. The robot and Core Values scores were okay, but the project was not logical, according to the rubrics. I felt awful. I’d played a large role in creating our project, and I’d been utterly sure of our security in getting amazing scores. Now, I felt that my small, fifth grader shoulders carried the weight of our failure.
Erin Stone lining the robot up on the Robot Game table. Bacteria Buster’s robot, which used a ball as a rear caster.
74
But factor this in. This was our teacher, Ms. Sonia Clark’s first time incorporating FLL into our gifted program. My parents, the coaches, had no idea what they were doing. Neither did any of the teams. We literally had to start from scratch with learning the programming and building for the robot, and figuring out what we were supposed to do with the project. We didn’t even know that the judges gave out rubrics until the day of the competition! Getting to go to the regional competition was the only thing anyone from our school advanced to that year. The other team on our track, the Germ Fighters, didn’t even advance to regionals. The reason rookie teams participate in FLL the first time is to learn what happens at competitions so they can grow on that next year, but we were such rookies, we didn’t even know that. My team was in fifth grade that year. After the competition, we graduated from elementary school, meaning we couldn’t participate in FLL through school anymore. One of our teammates moved to a different middle school than the one the rest of us were attending. All the boys who were on either team with us girls lost interest in FLL. For most people, that would be it. The story would be over.
The Techie Tweens. From left to right: Earle Arnold. Rhyann Clarke, Caroline Edmondson, Sarah Edmondson, Teagan Fringer, Kristin Bruffey, Kate Gagliano, Erin Stone, and Emily Prins.
Not for us. The girls who had been on the Bacteria Busters and Germ Fighters wanted to try again. My parents decided to coach a new, out-of-school team and invited all the girls who wanted to continue doing FLL to participate. Almost everyone agreed, and we became the Techie Tweens! Older and wiser about FLL, we immediately set to work on creating a robot, dubbed Penelope, and coming up with a better project. That year’s theme was Senior Solutions, and we came up with a problem and solution that many we interviewed agreed would make sense. Giving classes to seniors about how to use technology of the digital age was the final decision. Meanwhile, Penelope was becoming smarter, faster, and more successful on the field. And we worked together better than we had on separate teams at school, which boosted our Core Values performance. When the first competition arrived, we were infinitely better than last year. And when we participated in the same regional competition where the Bacteria Busters crashed and burned, we were shocked to win the first place champions award!
The Techie Tweens’ robot, Penelope, on the Senior Solutions game table. A closer look at Penelope.
The Techie Tweens moved on to the North Carolina State competition, which was our ultimate goal. At that competition, we didn’t win any awards, but we went home with smiles on our faces. We had learned from last year’s mistakes, and our hard work had paid off. The theme for the 2013-14 season was Nature’s Fury. Our new team, the Weather Whiskers, jumped right into the fray, discovering that many people didn’t know what to do with their pets when a hurricane struck their homes. We wanted to educate people about this pressing problem, but instead of
75