See the video on how I created these paintings.
This is a mixed-media creative art project I’ve worked on throughout October-December 2023. Rather than building any major LEGO models during that time, I’ve instead channeled my creative energy into making LEGO-inspired art using various methods combined. This type of project used a lot of experimentation, but ultimately would have several steps including traditional ink printmaking, acrylic painting, abstract paint pours, and decoupage. The main design – the LEGO minifigure walking/smiling – was created from carving a rubber printing block that uses my LEGO Minifigure Vector Design as a reference. I manually printed dozens of copies of this print with ink and a roller, then hand-painted each one with acrylic paint, then cut them each out, and decoupaged them onto the painted wood panels.
The abstract paint backgrounds were achieved through a method called “paint pouring” which consists of mixing paint with large amounts of chemical fluids like glue and varnish, then layering the paints/chemicals into cups, and pouring the colors onto panels to create original abstract concepts. Each design turns out different, and sometimes special effects can be achieved by adding oils to make the paints bubble to make cell patterns. I would improve my techniques of acrylic paint pours much more throughout 2024 and focused on using them on larger canvases to make much bigger LEGO-inspired paintings, with a projector as a tool to maintain consistency of the minifigure design. Using the projector for my artwork is a great tool, because I can replicate the same base design and maintain accurate consistency, no matter the size or background of canvas painting. Whether it’s a small 12”x12” panel or a huge 3’x4′ canvas, the minifigure design can still look similar.
Below is the entire process for the paintings from start to finish, beginning with the paint pour, then to the printmaking, followed by painting, and finally the decoupage. The first step of course is the paint pour. These example pours were made with brevity specifically for the demonstration video on YouTube/TikTok, and the formula for my paint mixture wasn’t mixed properly, hence the colors didn’t turn out quite right:
This is my carved rubber print block with my minifigure design, mounted onto a wooden panel which was treated with shellac. I used oil-based inks in for this project, but originally attempted to use acrylic-based roller inks for the first trials. The acrylic-based inks reacted poorly with acrylic paint, and thus could not be used. The oil-based inks were very messy, a nightmare to clean up, and took several days to dry – but were able to be painted okay with acrylic paints.
Spreading the ink on a flat surface, preparing my brayer, coating the rubber block with ink, and pressing the paper down flat to mass-produce dozens of little outlines of minifigures:
Next comes the part when I hand-paint the ink prints after the ink has dried. Using neon yellow, first I fill in the head and hands of each figure:
Filling in the midtone colors:
Adding orange shadows and white highlights for detail:
Fully-painted artwork with shadows and highlights, ready to be cut out:
In the words of the great Dave Coulier: Cut. It. Out!
Now that the paint pours are complete and my minifigs are all painted and cut out, it’s time to paste them to each paint pour board and then seal them with decoupage:
Adding Mod Podge to the underside and the minifig, then pasting it flat on the board, and finally coating the top with more Mod Podge. This is a special waterproof sealant:
The final step is to coat the paintings with acrylic varnish to protect the artwork. I used Liquitex brand gloss varnish. Liquitex is kind of pricey since it’s professional artist’s-grade supplies, so if you’re looking to mass-produce guerilla street art on a budget, look for any waterproof gloss polyurethane like Minwax water-based outdoor Spar Urethane. You can buy quarts of that stuff for under $25, and it goes a long way:
I made about a dozen or so of these paintings on 12”x12” wood panels, and gave a few of them out to friends around Christmas and then discreetly placed the remaining paintings in random locations in Lancaster County, PA for a guerrilla art project. I didn’t want to vandalize any property by doing graffiti, as I’m strongly opposed to destructive art and vandalism. So instead I’ve concealed these paintings in various spots with the intention that whomever discovers it is free to take photos, feel inspired, or even keep a painting for themselves as a prize. Basically, the signs were graffiti with extra steps: instead of spray-painting my artwork on someone else’s property, I decided to paint my work on a piece of wood, and then place them on the property instead.
The paintings were fixed to wooden stakes that I purchased from Lowe’s during my winter vacation. I was staying at a hotel in Lancaster, and since I didn’t want to wake up any hotel guests by hammering nails, I did the hammering at an abandoned gas station off Route 72! The staked signs were mainly placed underneath covered bridges in Lancaster and Chester Counties. I borrowed a mallet from a relative’s house and would discreetly pound the stakes into the clay under bridges, and sometimes I would pour in small amounts of QuikCrete into the foundation of the stakes to keep them from toppling over.
The entire journey from start to finish of this project was quite a doozy! Over the span of several weeks from October 2023-January 2024, I worked tirelessly to perfect the design and construction concept of the signs, and then had a wild adventure concealing these things around bridges in Pennsylvania. Sometimes trying to find suitable bridge locations was an adventure in itself, since I wanted to efficiently map out my desired targets to place the signs. I went hiking late at night mainly through southern Lancaster County in the freezing cold, dressed in Army fatigues with a spotlight on my head. During my voyages I sped through the country roads of Lancaster drinking Diet Mountain Dew eating Sheetz food, and blasting ’90s rock from my car. After the journey was complete, some people discovered my paintings and sent me photos on social media.
A sign underneath a bridge in Lancaster, as shared by a user on Reddit.
Below are some select paintings from the original dozen in the series:
