A few years back I had the pleasure of working with Matthew McNerney and RAA to design dioramas for the Lego museum that just opened in Denmark. I’ve created reportage illustrations in some of the worlds most exciting cities, but to create reportage illustrations of a Lego world that only existed in my mind was the most fantastic reportage of all! Below are some of the drawings I made for the design of the City Zone, Town and Country Zone, and Island Amusement Park zone. As they are production drawings they were sent over to Denmark during construction, to be used as a reference, so please excuse the quality of some of the scans and photos of the works in progress. You can see a few pictures of the finished exhibit at the bottom of this post. What a great feeling it is to see my drawings come to life! Thanks to RAA for the opportunity and especially to Matthew for his great direction on this – we had a blast making ourselves laugh with all of the little stories we embedded into the illustrations. Can’t wait to see the finished dioramas at the museum – –
The full drawing of the City scene, complete with Restaurant row, a Fire and Police station, hospital, construction site, loading docks, skyscrapers, CBGBs, and a robot attack!
Photo of the Restaurant Row section – notice Batman standing on top of the Parisian restaurant. My early years working at DC comics keep showing up in my work. ;)
At the top of the City there is a robot attack, and, of course, a Superman min-fig flying out to help save the mini-figs! I liked the glass atrium and window washers – the RAA offices are high above Manhattan, and I remember looking out the window and seeing two intrepid window washers on a neighboring skyscraper – had to add some to our Lego city.
The full Town and Country drawing, complete with Enchanted Castle, flying dragon, train, busloads of tourists, billboards, forest, campers, fishermen, country estate, skiers, ski jump, spelunkers, surfers, swimmers, mermaids, and a mini-fig going over the falls in a barrel! That one really made us laugh…
Close-up of the castle top, complete with review stand for the joust. I had fun drawing the billboards along the road leading to the castle.
Close up of the bottom part of the Town and Country – can you find Neptune?
Close-up of mountain sports.
The full mountain.
The Island Zone – complete with amusement park, cruise liner, sea monster, and tunnel dig. I love when an illustration brief includes, by the way, on the side, a full roller coaster. lol
View of the massive mini-figure line for the roller coaster. Having spent so many summers working and teaching at Disney, I felt it very necessary to include this!
Better view of the scene.
Close up of the sea monster, complete with pirate ship and attack on the beach!
Besides the three main dioramas, there were plenty of additional scenes to be illustrated – –
What Lego City would be complete without a mini-fig parade?
And of course, the town Haunted House and Manor.
Train station and sports stadium, complete with parking lot.
Inside of the train station – where only one mini-fig is running late. ;)
The ski chalet with ski lift, ice skating, lodge, and hot tub.
Japanese wood hot tub. :)
The Western Town!
The farm – powered by wind, of course!
Under the sea, complete with whale!
The Lego factory – fully automated and manned by one mini-fig!
Architectural model of the Diorama, later entitled the World Explorer.
Computer rendering of the design, later in the process.
The finished City design!
Vignette of the island scene, including the amusement park!
Vignette of the Art Deco theater in the City. (Of course I had to get an Art Deco theater in!)
Another vignette of the city.
And of course, the store on the way out of the museum, to bring some of the Lego magic home. :)
Did I already mention that this was a fun job? LOVED it! I hope you enjoy seeing these drawings and finding the stories inside them. I really enjoyed making them.