The human form is challenging to capture in LEGO Bricks. Even with the ever-increasing library of wedges, slopes, and curves that LEGO has added to their element vocabulary, the complex curvature of a person’s face is hard. Builder Y. Muto manages to capture the human profile quite expertly with a classic silhouette.

The art form of silhouettes became popular in the mid-18th century and was quite a common and inexpensive way to capture the likeness of a loved one before the advent of inexpensive photography. Silhouettes are generally cuttings of black card stock mounted to a lighter base, although they could also be painted. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

Y. Muto successfully captures that cut cardstock look in LEGO bricks. The majority of the head is built upside-down, using hinge bricks and the 53˚ sloped brick with studs (part 6044) to get an elegant forward tilt to the head. The frame and flowers, while simple, also adds a fantastic burst of color to the whole thing and make you feel like you've taken a step back through time.

We reached out to Y. Muto to ask how he accomplished getting the shape of the silhouette so perfectly:

In order to make the smooth outline, I first placed curved slope parts in various directions to make the outline then worked my way in—which was the most difficult part in this build. One of the hardest things about building a human’s face with LEGO is nailing facial expressions including the eyes and mouth. Luckily for a silhouette, we do not have to worry about such a difficult thing and can make it beautiful much more easily.

If you ever get into an argument and are defending that LEGO building is art, this is a great example to prove your point. Make sure to check out the rest of Y. Muto’s photostream on Flickr and Instagram for more moments of brilliance and bursts of color!

Recreating realistic human shapes is difficult with LEGO. What builds have you found that do it well? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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