I built these three miniature dog portraits on commission. I actually designed and photographed these models before I shared my larger-scale Cavalier King Charles Spaniel models but, as these mini-dogs were all intended as holiday gifts, I didn’t want to risk spoiling the surprise by sharing them any earlier!
Read on for a closer look at each of these dogs individually, as well as pictures of their real-life counterparts!
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I designed this 1:2-scale pair of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels on commission. They’re some of the first pet builds I’ve ever designed, and I feel quite proud with how they turned out.
Let me introduce you to two sweet dogs: Indigo (the “Tri-Color” Cavalier, with black, white, and brown coloration) and Harmony (the “Blenheim” Cavalier, with white and reddish coloration). Like most pet owners, my client loves and treasures his dogs. Out of respect for his adoration, I sought to recreate Harmony and Indigo as faithfully as possible, and to make the pair complement one another just like their real-life counterparts do.
However, I wasn’t always slated to build both Indigo and Harmony. Initially, my client approached me seeking just a 1:1 replica of Harmony, and I signed on to the project intending to produce a model in that size. So, why did I change scales?
Read on to find out why, and to learn more about the process and design decisions behind these models!
Read MoreI designed these famous Halloween characters in collaboration with Build Better Bricks (B3). Every year, B3’s head designer Tyler and I decide on two new monsters to build for the holiday; he does one, and I do one. During our inaugural Halloween season, I built the savage Werewolf on the left. For this year, I built a wicked Red Devil. Both figurines are highly articulated and detailed, and are designed as amalgamations of my favorite versions of these iconic monsters.
Read on to learn more about the design choices that went into each of these models, and to find out how I found my way to their striking photo presentation!
Read MoreI designed this replica of a Fell Beast from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001-2003) in collaboration with Build Better Bricks (B3). Despite their limited screen time during the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) films, the Ringwraiths’ dragon steeds known as Fell Beasts are some of the most striking creatures from Jackson’s take on the Tolkien universe. I was excited to revisit this subject; the last time I made a Fell Beast was actually back in 2012, when my building skills were nowhere near as practiced as they are now.
Read on to learn more about the design choices that culminated in my finished Fell Beast model—and stick around to the end of this post to see my 2012 version, too!
Read MoreIn Episode 7 of LEGO Masters, “Storybook” (3/18/2020), all the teams were presented with an identical, Mad Lib-style story, the blanks of which had been filled in creatively by a group of kids. For the challenge, each team had to present their own recreation of this zany tale involving a “book chicken,” a “horse that can do gymnastics,” a “Taker-Waker,” and more.
For our model, Christian and I chose to build the interior of the Taker-Waker’s house, which the storybook specified as being messy and full of stolen toys. This setting choice, however, turned out to be a bad one. Our decision to build an enclosed structure literally boxed us in, and guided us towards manifesting a more realistic interpretation of the “Land of Koo Koo Magic” than other teams. Unfortunately, this stylistic direction left the Brickmasters cold. On top of this, since we took the story at face value, we intentionally built a cluttered house… but ended up with an unintentionally messy-looking build.
Ultimately, our entry for the storybook challenge landed us in the bottom two teams for the first time. Although Christian and I weren’t eliminated, this was still my least favorite build of the season. Read on for my special dissection of this model’s process, design choices, and more.
Read MoreFor Episode 6 of LEGO Masters, “Need for Speed/Super Bridge” (3/12/2020), Christian and I created the “Arch & Truss” bridge, a double-support structure built to span a 6’ (183cm) gap and hold as much weight as possible.
This 7-hour challenge put teams’ engineering expertise to the test. With so little time to work and a blatantly quantitative assessment at the challenge’s end, there was very little room for error in this challenge. Every choice we made could be the one that catapulted us to victory… or else sent us to the bottom. The stakes were high even without the Golden Brick being up for grabs once more!
Read on for my special dissection of this model’s process, design choices, and more.
Read MoreFor Episode 5 of LEGO Masters, “Mega City Block” (3/4/2020), Christian and I created “Attack on Sustainable City,” an environmentally-minded city block under threat by an enormous pollution monster.
This build—which was divided into a 14 hour first part and a 4-hour second part—was a huge emotional roller coaster for me. As we wheeled our build into the gallery during the final two minutes of part one, our table hit a brick on the floor, sending a shock wave up the tall tower and toppling five of its fourteen stories. This catastrophic collapse felt like the lowest of lows… until we got an extremely lucky twist!
In part two of the challenge, during which we were instructed to put our city blocks “under attack,” Christian and I managed to both rebuild our fallen tower and create an iconic monster of which we were quite proud. Our finished model definitely made its mark; it turned out to be the tallest building of all.
“Attack on Sustainable City” landed us in the top two teams for this week. Read on for my special dissection of this model’s process, design choices, and more.
Read MoreFor Episode 3 of LEGO Masters, “Movie Genres” (2/26/2020), Christian and I created “Heartbreak of the Dragon Prince,” a fantasy romance with a thrilling conclusion!
In our final build, the Dragon Prince and his princess are threatened by a pair of nefarious necromancer brothers, who have summoned an army of skeletons to attack the castle. In the blockbuster moment we captured, the Dragon Prince—chained by wicked magic—has managed to delay the horde of skeletons with fire, but cannot prevent one of the necromancers from pushing his love from the top of the tower. Will he be able to save her from a deadly drop?
Read on for my special dissection of this 13-hour model’s process, design choices, and more.
Read MoreIn the winter of 2020, my friend Christian Cowgill and I appeared in the first American season of LEGO Masters, a reality-style building competition show. For Episode 3 of the series, “Cut in Half” (2/19/2020), Christian and I created “Beneath the Surface,” a epic underwater vignette built on the side of a halved antique diving helmet.
Read on for my special dissection of this 12-hour model’s process, design choices, and more!
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I built this original creature as an entry into a contest on LEGO Ideas. The premise: “show us your take on a nature build with an alternative twist.” Building an animal comprised of plants was one of the first ideas that occurred to me. For my animal, I decided to build a predator—emulate a lion, or maybe a tiger—to go as much against the grain of the typical, peaceful connotations surrounding plants as I could.
Read on to learn more about the design process of this one-of-a-kind monster!
Read MoreI assembled this creation to imaginatively showcase the new plastic “skins” from LEGO Forma, a LEGO-produced crowdfunded product that I pledged several months ago. As soon as received and unwrapped my myriad “skin packs,” I knew that I’d want to find special ways to integrate their unique, vibrant elements in designs of my own!
The first Forma-based creation I built was this Bird of Paradise, which used the Splash Koi’s fins as its plumage. Read on to find out more about its design, as well as that of the rest of this diorama!
Read MoreAs soon as I got my hands on LEGO set 70828 Pop-Up Party Bus, and its huge supply of bricks in coral, I knew I wanted to jump on using this new-for-2019 hue. The question then became: what would be a fitting employment of this bright, idiosyncratic new color?
The first—somewhat absurd—idea that occurred to me, which I ended up running with, was building a pink salmon. After all, I’ve never built a fish before! Read on to learn more about this silly salmon.
Read MorePeter Jackson’s adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings are some of my favorite movies ever— and while I’ve designed within his cinematic vision before (my Balrog and Minas Tirith models are a few of note), it was an enjoyable exercise to recreate some of the films’ most iconic creatures at a tiny scale. I made these quite fast, going from start to photographs in only two days! Making a series of three felt apropos to honoring the trilogy; you might notice I’ve done one build for each movie. Read on to find out more about each build’s design process.
Read MoreI made the first of these LEGO Minifigure collections (affectionately known as “figbarfs” among the fan community) out of characters I’d designed for a fifth wave of my "product line” Dragon Lands. Based on the nice response I got from the first collection, I have designed two others to complement it. Let’s learn a little more about these 21 characters…
From left to right, these are our characters:
• Gnarku, a mischievous goldsmith. Gnarku regularly steals precious metals from work, but his unmatched craftsmanship helps him keep his job.
• Orion, a plot-armored dragon rider. Don’t get in the way of this guy’s Quest, since it rolls forward like a freight train no matter what!
• Wotoq, a temperamental Elemental. Wotoq serves as Guardian of the Ice Crystal, and he’s fiercely proud of his impressive beard.
• Nynia, a potent faerie wizard. Yes, her hair is naturally that color and yes, she’d prefer that you stop asking. She’s got more important stuff to do.
• Moscha, a sinister venommancer. Moscha is the more “toxic” of a sibling pair; she’s always scheming to poison her warlock brother Mogrot.
• Eliake, a displaced ocean nymph. Due to man-and-orc-induced climate change, Eliake’s homesea has become uninhabitable to him.
• Fifrir, a clever war engineer. Like Gnarku (but without the stealing), Fifrir is prized for his unique gifts as an inventor.
From left to right, these are our characters:
• Awari, an enthusiastic apprentice. She only got that staff earlier this week, so be careful— she’s not good at using it yet.
• Bramblebark, a thorny spirit. Would tell you dang kids to get off his lawn, but his “lawn” is all of nature!
• Oussa, a magnificent queen. A strong and wise ruler, Oussa is best known for incorporating the Five Principalities into one realm.
• Horpo, a self-serious owl trainer. Will tell you his work is more important than Queen Oussa’s.
• Kalec, a silent headhunter. “…”
• "Wind-up Willy," a clockwork soldier. One of a batch of a hundred such soldiers, Willy stands out from his peers by routinely malfunctioning.
• Lev, a good-hearted baker. Believes that bread is the secret to peace between species. So far, he hasn’t been proven wrong.
From left to right, these are our characters:
• Sam Flot, a snappy scavenger. Snappy, in this case, applies to both Sam’s wit and his huge jaws.
• Vorash, a militant prince. He maintains leadership of the ustokal tribes by beating challengers in mortal combat, and has the scars to prove it.
• Aia, a short-fused archer. Don’t believe she can hit a fly in midair? She’ll pull her bow on you faster than you can say “shoo.”
• Serserild, a foreign diplomat. She really feels like a fish out of water up here, so be nice!
• Qotow, an icy guardian. This is Wotoq’s child, tasked with inheriting his sacred position and more-sacred beard.
• Iero, a vengeful duelist. He bears no similarities to a character from any other intellectual property.
• Thuin, a shady assassin. You’re not likely to see his face… unless it’s the last thing you ever see.
Thanks for reading! If you have any other questions or comments about the model, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
I designed this scene for the 2018 Summer Joust, as an entry for the "Interiors" category. However, it originated as something very different... something involving magic bananas!
Read on to learn what I mean.
Read MoreI designed this pair of companion models for the 2018 Summer Joust. The competition had a "Mesoamerican Setting" sub-category, which excited me, but the judges decided that fantasy elements would not be allowed in those builds. This wasn't a limitation I personally understood or agreed with, but I would have to adhere to it in order to participate. It's funny, though, how sometimes constraints can drive ideas...
In fact, this ban on fantasy in the Mesoamerican Setting category led me to choose a beast of Mesoamerican myth for my entry into the Creatures category. I endeavored to build Quetzalcoatl, a Feathered Serpent god from the Aztec pantheon. I paired Quetzalcoatl with my "Temple of the Feathered Serpent" to make the image you see above. Even though I had to enter the two builds separately in the contest, didn't mean I couldn't photograph them together for my own purposes!
Read on to learn more about the processes and designs of these two models.
Read MoreI've been a LEGO® dragon builder for a long time, so when set the task of building some of prehistory's "dragons," they came pretty easily to me! Anatomically, dinosaurs and dragons aren't all that different; I designed similar "skeletons" on these models as I have used on a few dozen fantastical creatures. While the Stegosaurus is an older build—it's from 2016—I designed the Hadrosaur and Velociraptor recently as separate commissions... and with their completion, the opportunity to present a new "Dinosaurs Series" was too good to pass up!
Read on to see all three dinos.
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