Tuesday, January 19, 2010

CALAMITY JACK LEGO

Since Monday was a holiday, and last week was Deadline-a-palooza. I thought I'd take it easy for a bit and get out the LEGO.

You remember LEGO Yellowbelly, and LEGO Rapunzel, well, here's LEGO Calamity Jack.


That sky uses just about all the light blue bricks I have--light blue's hard to come by.

The challenge with LEGO is using only existing pieces, no painting or customizing is allowed, you have to use legitimate factory pieces. For example, Freddy's head and torso are from a Doc Ock minifig--Rapunzel's head is a reverse Catwoman. Jack's bag and Rapunzel's pants both belong to Indiana Jones. There is no LEGO bowler hat--so Jack had to go hatless. One day they'll figure out how to put a hat on top of LEGO hair (Playmobil does it, c'mon LEGO!) I did have to fudge the color on two items with Photoshop, can you guess what?

19 comments:

Jill said...

Is one the lens color of Freddy's goggles?

I never realized LEGOS were so versatile.

Nathan said...

They are only versatile if you have a TON of them.

And, no, not Freddy's goggles--although, speaking of Freddy, I should have Photoshopped out the Doc Ock muscles--Freddy's been working out!

Clint C. said...

Some of the newer Lego pirate sets have hats that go on top of the hair. Very impressive. Do you sleep?

Clint C. said...

I take that back. The pirates have hats, but painted hair.

Debbie Barr said...

Very impressive!

Is Rapunzel's "braid" photoshopped?

Nathan said...

A-Ha! Yes, Rapunzel's Braid is Photoshopped. Had to turn the white "rope" piece red. One down.

And sleep? What's that?

Melinda said...

That is fantastic. We have a lego room in our house. You can't even walk through the basement.

Nathan said...

I WISH I had a LEGO room. I have a LEGO closet.

edith said...

That is so cool! I love your clouds, especially. What is a "reverse catwoman?" Does that mean she has her head on backward?

Nathan said...

Yup, a reverse Catwoman, means I'm using the alternate face printed on the back of Catwoman's head. The front has shiny goggles. The double printed head is a recent innovation at LEGO. Totally fun, one side will be a mean face, the other will be a scared face. With superheroes it's the secret identity face.

Myrna Foster said...

You Photoshopped the braid. Did you Photoshop Rapunzel's hair too?

Nathan said...

Nope, just the braid, if you look closely, you'll see than Rapunzel's torso is the same dark red as her hair piece (it's also the same mold as Jack's hair piece.)

Heather Zundel said...

I want a LEGO closet. Seriously, this made me giddy all over.

Laura Z M said...

Is it the purple . . . er . . . thing?

Nathan said...

Nope, not Pru. I'm proud of Pru, I'd like to see anyone come up with a better LEGO fairy in four pieces.

Still one thing Photoshopped (it's not THAT exciting.)

shannon hale said...

Hm...Jack's skin? Or is Lego fairly multi-cultural these days?

I was pretty startled when I first saw the characters. They look so much like the real ones!

Amy Finnegan {BookshopTalk.com} said...

You honestly amaze me :) Very, very cool!

DaNae said...

I'm guessing Jack's tie.

Can I go on record that I want my job to include playin . . . I mean, working with LEGOs.

It is devine, now I must get back to Calamity Jack, my copy arrived today.

Nathan said...

Ding Ding Ding! Shannon got it. I darkened Jack's skin. They do make a dark tan head in that exact shade, but all of my dark tan heads have beards printed on them. So I don't feel like I'm cheating by 'shopping the color.

This is really more of a sign that I'm short on freelance work at the moment. It's feast or famine for freelance illustrators--last week I was working until 3am every day. This week I'm playing (well working, DaNae) with LEGO.

Come back tomorrow--this has only just begun.