Lego Colors
No matter how many Lego you have in your collection it is always important to consider color when creating your MOCs. Clicking through MOCpages I’m sure at one time you’ve all seen examples of multi-color creations that made you wince a little. We all have made things like that ourselves at sometime and it’s perfectly fine. That’s part of the fun of using Lego is to feel free to experiment. But if your specific goal in building is to really wow people and get attention for your building skill then the color you use becomes important.
I know how it feels when you want to use a certain special brick for your blue space ship but only have it in red. It can be frustrating. But it’s also part of the challenge of creating with Lego. Even people who work as designers for the Lego Group of companies are limited in what pieces they can use for their creations. At any given time Lego only manufactures certain bricks and in certain colors. That’s why it is common to see parts repeated in sets that are released at the same time even across the various themes.
So first step is accepting the limits of you collection. The second step is to try and use what bricks you have to create what you have imagined. There are several ways to do this. First off be aware that good designs are often simple. So one way to keep your Lego MOCs simple is to only use one or two colors. This technique is best used for vehicle MOCs like ships and robots. (If you are building a whole castle or diorama scene you may need lots of colors). As with the example of a robot, building it out of all red bricks with maybe a few black ones can really make it look great. Color can act as a way to unify or make the bricks look good together.
What happens if you want to make a gray space ship using a particular gray slope as the tip of the ship but you don’t have enough gray bricks to go with it? In this case look at the Lego collection you have and see what color you have the most of to work with. Let’s say you have mostly blue bricks. Well Lego blue and gray go great together so use blue as the second color and gray as the accent, or second color. In this example, only using the two colors blue and gray will make your MOC seem designed and not just thrown together.
You may wonder “how do I know what colors will look good together?” Well for those of you who don’t know much about using color here are a few basic tips.
When talking about color we call red, blue and yellow primary colors. Green, violet and orange are called secondary colors because they are created by mixing two primary colors together. Each primary color compliments or looks good next to one secondary color. As you can see in the color wheel they are the ones that are across from each other. For instance, blue goes well with orange, red goes well with green and violet goes well with yellow. Colors like white, black and gray are neutrals and can go well with most colors. Brown is an example of a tertiary color and depending on how light or dark it is can usually go well with most of the other colors too.
Another helpful thing to realize about color is that there are warm colors (red, yellow and orange) and cool colors (blue, green and violet). Warm colors often grab people’s attention and stand out while cool colors are more calming. So for instance try mixing red and orange bricks for your race car MOC and it may look even faster!
Keeping in mind these ideas about how color works will really help your Lego creations look even better. Plus, it can help you if you have limited bricks to work with. For example, what if you want to build a green dinosaur but have more blue bricks than green. Then just mix blue and green bricks in a strip pattern and add claws out of complementary orange bricks. It will look great.
Lego Dinosaur
On the other hand, if you have the big munnies and can invest in bricks of a particular color then you are in luck. The Lego Pick a Brick site lets you buy specific bricks of many different colors. However, the specific brick types and colors are still dependent on what Lego is manufacturing at that time. If you can’t find the bricks you need there I’m sure you’re all aware of websites like bricklink.com where you can also find specific bricks. Plus, with Bricklink you can find older brick types and colors that are no longer being made. For instance, a few years back people were buying up things like the “old” gray color bricks and the Lego electric train tracks when they were discontinued.
Below are some helpful links regarding Lego color. They show what Lego colors are available out there and offer help on how to use them.
-Daniel
Lego Color Tips
http://www.lego.com/eng/create/designschool/lesson.asp?id=3_a
Peeron Lego Color Guide
http://www.peeron.com/cgi-bin/invcgis/colorguide.cgi
Lugnet Lego Color Guide
http://guide.lugnet.com/color/
Isodomos Color Guide
http://isodomos.com/Color-Tree/Lego-Colors.html
Brickiwiki Lego Color Chart
http://www.brickiwiki.com/page/Lego+Color+Chart
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