As a big fan of Tiki, beaches, color, and Hawaii, it was only a matter of time before I built a mosaic that brought it all together. I made a choice to have the subject in silhouette with vibrant colors in the background. It’s such a pleasure to look at it and see those big splashes of color.

This mosaic was made as a commission for a good friend, and as soon as he mentioned Alien, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. The original poster had these great glowing areas, and I wanted to build the mosaic so that I could add lights under some transparent green bricks to simulate the glow. Sadly, I don’t have any great images of the piece.

My oldest son turned the rest of the family on to Adventure Time, an incredibly heart-filled, funny, and poignant show about two adventurers who go on adventures in the Land of Ooo. When we learned that the voice actors of the two main characters Jeremy Shada as Finn and John DiMaggio as Jake would be in town for the Calgary Expo, we decided to make a mosaic for them to sign. I had met John at an earlier Expo, and…

For Calgary Expo 2017, I decided to make a mosaic of the iconic “boom box” moment from ‘Say Anything’. Normally I manage to get these types of pieces signed by the celebrities in the image, but word came down that this would not be happening. C’est la vie. I’m really pleased at how the boom box itself turned out, and I opted to focus on that and leave the face very plain. the Boom Box is built out a couple…

I had the idea to use 1×1 and 1×2 cylinder pieces (the 1×2 are actually called ‘Pallisade bricks’) to make a piece that looked like it was carved on bamboo. I decided that a cherry blossom image would look great with the style, and set off to work. There are many challenges with studs-up mosaics, and the cylinders brought those out and more! When I realized how “bendy” the piece was, I decided to see if I could make it…

This piece evolved slowly, starting with a desire to have a shock of hair exploding out from the “canvas”. When I started exploring options, I quickly found that from straight on, mohawk haircuts are pretty dull. From the side, waaay more interesting. I found a source image that had a LOT of color, and set off to build. Along the way, I incorporated more curved color pieces. I brought this piece to BrickCan 2017, and was surprised to receive an…

This piece is one I built for the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation’s Candy Cane Gala. In the past, I’ve build the Emerald City, an Aurora Borealis, and a Harry Potter crest (among others). This year’s theme was Star Wars, so I decided to build the scene with X-wings heading to defeat the Death Star.   The front X wing is raised from the background, and some of the “stars” have a transparent 1×1 plate over them to make them shine…

If you’re following my work, by now you’ve noticed a bit of a surf/tropical theme that often pops up (no pun intended). I’m a big fan of the surf/tiki/beach aesthetic, and any chance I get to bring that to life, I take. This piece was one I had been thinking about doing for a long while, and finally made it happen.The surfboard is raised from the background, and laid in with tile, and some of the spray is also raised…

I’ve made a number of pieces celebrating the City of Calgary, my home for almost 40 years. This piece will certainly not be the last. It was developed as a classroom project, a side event for a television piece being filmed about my work. Due to a technical difficulty, the mosaic itself didn’t make it into the piece, but I finished it anyways. We built the majority of this piece at the Langevin Science School, in Mrs. Ware’s class. In…

The 4th entry in my “Cast of Firefly” series, prompted by Calgary Expo’s willingness in bringing the cast members to town. This one is “Wash” played by Alan Tudyk. Alan was kind enough to sign the piece for me, he seemed pretty amazed by the whole concept, and pulled out his phone to send his wife a picture of it. Added here, a shot of the piece in my studio, to give some size perspective. And a picture of the…

This piece is based on the gorgeous print made by Olly Moss for Disney’s The Jungle Book. I love how the bottom of Shere Khan “tears” in to the background, and all the reds and oranges here. Some of the writing was lost here due to sizing, but I think it turned out quite nicely. This piece debuted in Blocks Magazine, in their Jungle Book tribute. John Favreau, who directed the 2016 film version tweeted that he loved the piece,…

I don’t usually post commissions on the site, there’s an issue of privacy there. This commission is so clean and turned out so well, I couldn’t resist. Of course, the subject is the wonderful Dr. Zoidberg, from Futurama, in the style of the famous “Hope” image from Barack Obama’s campaign. We lost the fidelity of the Planet Express logo on his jacket, but apart from that, everything translated really well.

I’ve always been a fan of both Batman and Superman, so naturally I couldn’t resist the chance to put them both in a mosaic. This one wa a bit different in that I used a lot of transparent bricks to add to the effect. Using the “smoke” color for Batman’s suit made Superman’s arm pop out, as though it were 3D. Pretty cool. It’s featured in the March 2016 issue of Blocks Magazine.

I’m often asked how I decide what to build, how I choose subjects for mosaics. I really don’t know how to answer that. Sometimes it’s based on who might be at a Con or show that I’m also at, and sometimes I just get an idea and go with it. IN this case, it’s the latter. I first became aware of Hamilton after hearing two or three people speak about it on social media. I looked in to it, and…

I was thrilled to be a part of a summer event in Calgary this year, called “Circle The Wagons”. It was a one-day outdoor festival with music, food trucks, and tons of fun and interesting things going on. As well as having a free build table set up, I also built their Logo in bricks, having fun with small type using lego plate.

I’m a HUGE James Bond fan, and had been toying with the idea of making something Bond themed for a while, when I received an email from Bricks UK magazine, looking for submissions. Since the release of SPECTRE was imminent, they wanted some Iconic Bond moments. I pondered for a while, and tried to find the right image. I finally settled on Urusla Andress coming out of the water in 1962’s “Doctor No”.

When spring arrives, my thoughts turn to Expo. In this case, Calgary Expo. I always try to pick a few subjects whom I find interesting, and would potentially like to meet if the chance arises. One of those this year was Brandon Routh, and I chose a classic Superman pose for the piece. Sadly, he was unable to attend the show due to a last minute conflict, but I think the piece speaks volumes for itself, and I’m really glad…

One the coolest things about making Lego mosaics is when you find someone who is eager to make something really cool. K is certainly one of those people. She and I spent a lot of time looking at different ideas for a commissioned piece for her husband, and we settled on a classic travel poster featuring Jasper National Park. The writing on the poster had to be remade from scratch in order to fit, and we also decided to raise…

One of my favorite events of the year is the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation’s Candy Cane Gala. It’s a brilliant celebration in honor of those who give so much to help so many, and I’ve been honored to be part of it for many years now. 2014’s theme was “Northern Lights”, and we built the mosaic as a “Secret mosaic”, where the kids (and some parents) each got a 6×6 plate and a map of what that square should look…

Every commissioned piece is a brand new challenge, and this piece was no different. The biggest problem to solve was adding a word bubble with text. I opted to build the word bubble on top of the mosaic itself, and using both plates and bricks, created the text. To mount the word bubble, I surrounded it with “headlight bricks” which attach both below and to the side. The piece is based on Roy Lichtenstein’s “Drowning Girl” which was itself based…

If you’re a regular Brickwares visitor, or if you you know me, you know that one of my passions is surfing. Being a landlocked Calgarian, my opportunities to hit the beach are few and far between, but that hasn’t stopped me from dreaming, and occasionally building Surf related Lego projects. From the Surf Shack to my recent Tiki project, I’ve been able to express that interest in different ways. So it seemed fitting that I build a Surfboard Mosaic. Now…

In the middle of a very busy spring, I received a call from a PR group in Canada, asking if I could build a version of the WB shield. After sorting out the details, I set to work on the job, which had to be turned around in about 4 days. It was a frantic build, but ultimately, it turned out nicely. Due to the size of the mosaic, they decided to add the words on the banner after the…

Part of the Brickwares project for Calgary Expo in 2014 was building Lego Mosaics live on site. Working with the Expo team, we settled on three pieces: An image from Fiona Staples’ work on Saga, a picture of Sean Astin as Sam Gamgee from Lord of the Rings, and a collage of Pixar characters voiced by John Ratzenberger. The Pixar piece was the most challenging, as we had to get discernible images in a small space. Much drawing and correcting,…

One of my favorite things about Calgary Expo is scanning the list of celebrity guests and seeing whom I’d like to build a mosaic of. Normally it comes down to “Who do I want to meet this year”. For 2014, Bruce Campbell was at the top of the list. Sadly, it doesn’t always work out, and this year I found myself insanely busy at the booth. So no meeting Bruce 🙁 However, I did get to build this kick-ass mosaic…

As part of Calgary Expo 2014, the organizers asked me to build 3 pieces live on site. This led to a lot of thought about what the images should be. We wanted to lean towards things related to the Expo, and knowing that Fiona Staples would be signing at Expo, it seemed a perfect fit (Fiona is also a Calgarian!). I found an image that had a lot of bright colors, and it was off to the races. We used…

As part of Calgary Expo 2014, Brickwares was invited to build 3 pieces on site, with the help of the attendees. This was such a great event, we had a blast building and creating the mosaics. One of the three was a mosaic of Sam Gamgee from Lord of the Rings. Sean Astin (who played Sam in the films) was a guest at Expo, and graciously agreed to sign the piece, which was later auctioned off, with the proceeds going…

I’m a big fan of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films. The attention to detail, the sweeping vistas, the sheer “size” of the films is so impressive to me. When I discovered that Weta Workshop, the creators of costume/character/set design for the films was going to have a booth at Calgary Expo, I decided to build a small (well, for me, small) version of their logo, in hopes of giving it to them, as a way of…

For Calgary Expo every year, I try to find images that are exciting and interesting, as well as current. The Walking Dead fit every category perfectly. This mosaic has some great muted colors, giving a feeling of suspense and uncertainty. The railroad tracks at the bottom help to extend the imagine in the mind as well. Here’s a shot form the Expo, with a cosplay “Corl”. And a work in progress shot, before the bricks over the baseplate seams have…

As part of their recent Western Canada Convention, the good folks at Lafarge contacted about being part of the festivities. We shared some ideas, and came up with the idea of creating a large scale mosaic on site during the convention, as well as building some centerpieces for the tables. Over the course of two days, I build the mosaic on site. Due to time constraints, the piece was partially pre-built. You can see the purple colored bricks on the…

After an interview on the Kevin Newman Live program, Kevin asked about the possibility of creating the show’s logo as a mosaic. I’ve always thought Logo mosaics are great idea, and wonder why more companies don’t think of it… This one was 15×15 inches, and features a lot of raised text, which really pops out. It also uses a lot of Earth Blue, one of the coolest Lego(r) colors you can find.

Pretty exciting news! A friend of mine suggested that I build a mosaic of Jimmy Fallon, the Late Night master of all things cool. I’ve been a fan of Jimmy for a long time, I really like his energy, and his positivity. Plus, how can you not like a guy who goes the extra mile and makes musical numbers, the history of rap, etc. This seemed like a great idea to me, so I got to work. I built the…

Can’t say enough good things about the folks at Village Brewery in Calgary. I was introduced to Jim Button by my friend Roger, while I was trying to help out Loose Moose Theatre get their concession up and running. Jim and the gang at Village host an artist’s afternoon each Wednesday, and some of Calgary’s artists get together and network. Village is committed to its community, investing in local art, and helping promote the work of its people. I was…

i built this piece in the fall of 2013. Roger Kingkade is a local radio personality, Loose Moose alumni, and a really great person. I’m lucky to count him among my closest friends, and we spend many hours discussing, planning, pondering and making one another laugh. He’s a great sounding board for advice. It seemed like he should be built in Lego, so I did. Here a shot of the piece on my busy worktable. A shot of the piece…

This year has a blur so far, I’ve been building like a mad man! Finally, once the summer rolled around and I had a chance to breather, i was able to get around to one of those projects I wanted to build just for me. I guess in the world of art, this would be called a “spec piece”. I found the image while wandering around the internet, and loved the colors. It has a very Art Deco feel with…

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 straight) it’s about 60 pounds or so. here’s a wider shot. And a comparison with the actual source. If you’re interested in a commission of…

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 was pleased with the results, and plan to use the level effect more often in future. Peter Dinklage was kind enough to sign it for…

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 Mosaics” is meeting the subject. Nathan was kind enough to sign the mosaic for me. “I Aim to Misbehave”. When I brought it over to…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 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,…

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.

Hey folks, it’s been a while, I’ve been busy preparing for an upcoming show, but here’s a little something I built recently.

When most people think convention, they think ugly suits, bad sandwiches, and name tag stickers. I started attending BrickCon in Seattle a few years ago, and those conventions are nothing of the sort. No one wears suits, the food is good, and the nametags are made out of LEGO. At my very first convention, I was lucky enough to end sitting beside a super-friendly guy. Literally. His name is Guy. Guy Himber. (OOh, that sounds all Bond-like). Guy and I struck up a conversation, and we found that a couple of our pieces were placed next to one another in the “Art” section. Both pieces ended up taking home a prize, and one of my first blog posts was about Guy’s “Voyage To The Moon”.

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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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Pictures of my Stampede Poster Lego Mosaic, currently on display at Chinook Centre. Took a while to get everything set up correctly, but it’s finally up. Will be on display at Chinook Centre for about a month. Measures 7ft by 5ft, and contains 55,296 studs, or about 45,000 bricks.

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 the poster from “The Rocketeer”. In order to bring out the kind of detail I wanted, I decided to make the mosaic larger than my…

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 to use the opportunity to write a post showing the fixes. I get a lot of questions about how I build the mosaics, and how…