How I built in a cartoon style for “The Midnight Knock” [Guest Feature]

Will Kee (@legokee), is the co-founder of the Rocky Mountain TFOL Club for teen builders. Today, Will talks us through the creation of his prize-winning build “The Midnight Knock,” and how he captured a cartoony style through innovative building techniques.

Inspired by Boston brownstone architecture and the whimsical feel of Over the Garden Wall, the goal of this build was to create a composition and texture that resemble a cartoon, while incorporating unique parts usage.

When considering the composition of this build, I focused primarily on shape and color: i.e., organic vs. geometric and orange vs. gray. Combining these elements creates strong visual contrast between the bright, organic flora and the grayscale architecture. Additionally, I used a primarily warm color palette, except for the two minifigs, which utilize cooler colors to create a subtle focal point.

Another major factor I considered when trying to make this build feel cartoony was texture. There are a few things to think about with texture, such as stud dispersion, the combination of small shapes, and NPU (nice parts usage). The sidewalk took multiple tries to achieve cohesive stud dispersion while also incorporating the sideways building techniques necessary for the manhole and gutter.

One of my other favorite textures is the roof of the house. The roof incorporates Minecraft heads and ModuleX, along with Clikits, to create a layered, cartoony look.

A few other of my favorite details include the ivy on the back of the house, which uses Harry Potter snakes, Raya and the Last Dragon swords, and hot dogs. The tan fence/retaining wall uses Minecraft heads, ModuleX, window panes, and SNOT (studs not on top) techniques to create a unique texture. The pumpkins in front of the house use an astronaut’s helmet and an upside-down Scala/Bellville bottle. And lastly, my favorite part of the build is the use of 17 LEGO stickers to hold part of the house together…

I’m truly proud of how this build turned out and how all of the techniques and textures work together to create a cartoony depiction of two brothers on Halloween. This genuinely might be my favorite build I’ve ever done, which I think is saying something!

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