Miso & Lucca LEGO Painting

 Describing the process of painting a "toy portrait."

Trying something different can be a great way to keep things fresh.

So, to that end, I wanted to try a new approach for a birthday present I had planned. Taking inspiration from some of the stylized paintings I've seen around—effectively portraits of LEGO minifigures—I rummaged through my collection of parts until I had found suitable pieces to represent the two characters I wanted to portray: lung dragon (that is, Eastern or Asian-style) Misotopé Kenjicha and black panther (more accurately, a melanistic jaguar) Lucca Silverado, as shown in this sketch I did of them about four years ago.

I mixed and matched until I had a combination that was good enough to use as a reference. Because LEGO's minifigure dragons are all of the Western variety (as awesome as they are), I needed something that would evoke the Eastern dragon's sinuous neck, and the best panther head I had was a different big cat entirely. Furthermore, because none of the torsos or legs I had were the right color and design, I knew I'd only be using them as placeholders, to make sure I got the perspective right:

Part	Miso	Lucca
Head	Maaray Guard - Ninjago	Tazar - Legends of Chima
Torso	Lloyd, Sons of Garmadon - Ninjago	Patrick O’Hara/Web-Slinger, Spider-Man
Tail	medium blue “mouse” tail - Avatar	Scratchy - The Simpsons
Legs	Nya, Build-A-Minifigure - Ninjago	Falconer - CMF 24

Using additional pieces—again, selecting for their shape and not their color—I built up a little scene, using the light aqua arch (from 43218 Anna and Elsa's Magical Carousel) to frame one of the many decorative printed windows included in 80116 Trotting Lantern. Now that I had a suitable setting, I took a picture and shifted it to black and white, the better to see lighting and form:

Once I had this as a reference of the physical shapes of my subjects (the rug and ship painting tiles were added later on, to fill empty corners in the image and give more of a lived-in feel to the space), I could begin planning. I started with a brief bust-length sketch of the two characters, to make sure I could adapt my models to the desired result:

Satisfied with the charm that the current LEGO minifigure eye treatment provides (which neither of the reference figures have, you'll notice), I did a few more study-sketches of important details like the arch, the clouds, and the teacups, then roughed out a thumbnail version of the composition. Below that you can see the beginning of my "menu:" a diagrammatic system to keep track of what colors to use where, and also a way to test them out simplistically before trying them in more elaborate ways.
 

You can also see the color wheel I used to pick the palettes of their costumes, as well as the list of Posca paint pen colors I have on hand. Working with limited colors is a challenge, but a good one. You're forced to make choices and the limitation itself becomes an opportunity, allowing you to focus on finding solutions. Add to that the opaque and non-blendable nature of Posca pens (yes, I know there are ways to blend them, but I wanted to lean into the strength and simplicity of their solidness, especially since I'm still getting used to using them in the first place), and this becomes quite the creative exercise. After a little trial and error, I decided on the colors shown below, and then applied them to the little thumbnail sketch to make sure they worked well together in the final proportions:

At this stage I had decided to use white for highlights on everything, and then designated a color to be the shade tone for each part. One of the benefits of Posca markers, however, is that you can pretty easily paint over something if it doesn't work out [cue the ominous foreshadowing music]. Since I was confident that things were going in the right direction, I sketched out the full-size picture (adding in the decorative elements mentioned above), then inked it.

Posca pens take some getting used to, and their chemical and physical makeup doesn't always play nice with other media. Regular paper will tear and pill under their stiff nibs, for example, and the brushpen I usually use for inking watercolor and even normal acrylics actually made some of the Posca colors bleed; their opacity also meant that, unlike with watercolor, any linework would be lost after the first pass, turning a well-planned canvas into a muddle.

Through earlier experiments, I found that thick watercolor paper (130 lb or thicker) with a smooth or hot press finish works pretty well as a substrate, and that normal BIC ballpoint pens not only show faintly through several layers of Posca paint, and not only does the act of drawing with them create a sufficient depression on the canvas or paper to re-find any lost lines, but they also don't interact with the paint on a chemical level, and can be used for linework over the top of dried Posca. In short: thick, smooth watercolor paper and ballpoint pens are the winning combination to use with Posca paint pens.

I began filling in the areas, treating it like a coloring book for the moment: I needed to be sure that every area had the right color, and that there were no gaps. This would form the base coat over which I could work any needed effects.

As I worked, I continued evaluating the result vs. my plan, which resulted in a few decisions.

First, I chose to omit the "shadow" colors on the figures. Having a single color for the various purples of Miso's robe, and a different one for Lucca's outfit, didn't really fit color theory; and even as an artistic conceit it would have been too heavy-handed, resulting in big swathes of dark color on either side of the figures. The limited color palette of Poscas precluded the possibility of having a shadow color for every color in their wardrobe—it was hard enough getting enough greens and purples to give their clothes a bit of visual variety. Similarly, after trying it out on Lucca, I decided to omit the highlight lines as well. While LEGO minifigures (and indeed, all LEGO bricks) are known for their glossy shine, it would have proved too distracting.

Thankfully, as mentioned before, Poscas' opacity acts like a built-in undo button. So it was easy enough to re-color and then re-ink things. And so, after several days of working (and waiting for each color to dry, lest I smudge it in my eagerness to finish), it was finally done.

While the limited colors of Posca pens can pose a challenge, with a creative approach it's possible to work within that constraint, and the bright, solid colors really do fit well with LEGO's own friendly style. I'm pleased with this first attempt at minifigure portraiture, and enjoyed the process and learning along the way. True, I can see some proportion issues (their hands and arms, for example, are too small, and their legs too big) which can only be improved through study and practice. Perhaps next time I'll try painting a monocolor minifgure (sand green, for example) so I can focus on the form and have highlight and shadow colors as well.

But most importantly it was a success as a birthday present, showcasing the two character's companionship and brightening my friend's day with something special made just for him.