A few months ago I was busy searching for steampunk concept art (for no particular reason I’m sure) and I ran across one that I thought was pretty cool. Then just a week or so after that, I was startled to run across it again—but this time on Flickr and built out of bricks! Hejjo Demkowicz (Flickr | Instagram) had done a brilliant job translating a really complex piece of art into a wonderfully atmospheric scene: District 1.

There’s so much I enjoy about this MOC, from the way the tan looks a bit golden in this light to the excellent greebles on top of the car to the clever use of a tiny Heroica hat for a bell. I’m one of the pickiest Flickr users around when it comes to favs (seriously, after ten years on Flickr I only have 182 favs), but this was an instant favorite for me. (Usually I wait a week or so and if I keep coming back to the build, then I fav it. See, you would only have 182 favs too if you took them that seriously!)

Anyway, I wanted to know more about the MOC, and I remembered just in time that BrickNerd is the perfect excuse to send a builder a bunch of questions and beg for WIP pictures. Fortunately, Hejjo was happy to share!

Geneva: You said in the description that it took you five months to build this! What part was the most complicated? How does that compare to your average building time for a MOC?

Hejjo: I tend to spend about 0.5 to 2 months at a time working on a single MOC, so this one definitely did not land in my comfort zone. I started during summer break and didn’t finish before the start of the school year. As every TFOL knows, the amount of work put into your MOC is inversely proportional to the amount of homework you’ve got to do. A couple of other side projects during the summer including work, other MOCs, writing, and spending time with my friends also slowed some things down

Right off the bat, I expected this MOC to take a little longer than usual. I treated it as a sort of mixture of two MOCs: the buildings, which work as a frame for the final shot, and the cable car itself, which took up a surprising amount of time – I went through about five different designs before I came to one I was satisfied with. The original was made with the intention of being able to hang from overhead rails without support from below. In the end, I didn’t like the look of it and went for a more “post-production heavy” option, painting out the supports holding up the car.

Geneva: What is it like building from concept art?

Hejjo: Unless I’m building a commissioned MOC, all of my projects start with some sort of inspiration. This can be an atmosphere, a curious technique I wish to try out, or in this case concept art. Usually, once I’ve found my core, base idea, I’ll go looking for previous MOCs or other artistic works within the same style, just to kind of see what’s out there, what’s possible.

One of the most defining characteristics of LEGO as an art form is that it offers a system with endless possibilities, but also endless limitations. Try as you might, some pieces work one way, others another, and you’ve got to work with what you’ve got.

When building from any sort of previous existing art, the question is always how similar will your piece look, and what exactly inspires me about this piece. This is never the same for me, with some of my MOCs being instantly recognizable and others seeming to bear no resemblance at all. Looking at this concept art, three things stood out to me from the very beginning – the idea of a steampunk-ish cable car, the general atmosphere, and colors, and finally the small, lady dressed in white who provided a nice contrast to the rest of the artwork. Those three things were a must for me, and I planned the build process around that.

Geneva: How do you decide what to include, what to remove, and how to turn the colors from paint to the more limited LEGO palette?

The original idea for this model was to have a brick-built background as well as a brick-built foreground. Instead of a wall of mist behind the car, I originally planned on adding a row of huge industrial windows to give off the effect that the entire station was inside a larger structure. However, due to the pressure of time and a general lack of pieces, I had to lower my sights a bit.

The color was not much of a problem for me. I knew this MOC was supposed to be more on the industrial, steampunk side of things, so I went with a very safe color scheme consisting of grays, dark tan, and a bit of gold here and there. The thing that stood out to me about the concept art and that which sets it apart from other steampunk creations is its lack of brown – I was extra careful to bring the brown down to a minimum in my MOC. Indeed, LEGO doesn’t offer an awful lot of colors and so when trying to achieve an exact atmosphere, you may find yourself limited to a choice few. But with a good knowledge of existing parts and a bit of creative lighting, you can still achieve something great.

Geneva: This seems to be part of a big idea you have of doing different districts from a world you are making up. Is there anything you can share about future MOCs you have planned, or will we just have to wait and see?

Hejjo: For the most part, I like to keep my projects a secret until I have something a bit more substantial to show. At the moment I’m afraid I won’t be giving away any detailed information, however, if you want to take a look at the artwork which inspired and continues to fuel the entire project, you can take a peek at my Pinterest.

Geneva: Thanks for sharing that with us Hejjo! It was great to get a closer look at your process for this build and we can’t wait to see what District 2 looks like!

When was the last time you built something from concept art? How about the last time you built something steampunk? It’s been too long, right? Get inspired!

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