Designing Skylines
Posted by benbuildslego,
While the LEGO Architecture series has been around since 2008, the Skyline sub-genre only made its first appearance in 2016.
Ever since then LEGO fans around the world have delighted in creating their own MOCs using the distinctive skyline style. You could probably say I’m one of those fans: to date I have created over 40 of my own skylines using Bricklink Stud.io.
Instead of depicting world-famous cities, my skylines mostly portray popular fictional worlds,including “Star Wars,” “The Lord of the Rings,” and “Harry Potter.”
When it comes to designing skyline, I know that it can often be difficult to decide where to even begin. What iconic settings should I include? How long should the skyline be? What techniques and pieces will I need to use? All of these questions are important; however, once I decide on which settings I want to incorporate, the next thing I actually consider is the overall shape or “silhouette” of the skyline.
Since skylines contain a lot of tiny details within a small space, they can have the tendency to look messy or cluttered if you are not careful. So, my personal design philosophy is that the overall shape of a LEGO skyline should form a simple silhouette shape. I feel that providing a skyline with a basic shape can help guide the viewers’ eyes when they are first bombarded with all the tiny details. By no means am I saying this is the only design approach, this is simply a rule of thumb that I have found useful when first setting out on a new design.
Over time, I have identified four general silhouette shapes that my skylines tend to fall within. The first basic shape is what I have termed a “Slope Silhouette.” You can see this shape very clearly in the official Shanghai Skyline set (21039-1) as well as in my own Walt Disney World skyline. This design is accomplished simply by lining up your selected icons so that they go from shortest to tallest (or vice versa). This style can look somewhat simplistic but orderly and pleasing.
The second silhouette type, which I've termed the "Bell Curve," works great when the skyline will have a singular and tall point of focus. For example, in my Hogwarts skyline, I knew I wanted the iconic castle to be prominent by placing it in the dead centre. While the castle draws your immediate attention, the smaller sides include cute recreations of the rest of Hogwarts grounds, including the Quidditch Pitch / Whomping Willow and Hagrid’s Hut / Aragog / Hogwarts Express.
If you believe your skyline will include two larger set pieces, then the Bell Curve style can be inverted. For example, my “Sleeping Beauty” skyline features two larger castles on either side with the infamous spinning wheel in the centre.
The next design is the Flat Silhouette, which is the least dynamic shape for skylines. This shape is useful when you need to include a lot of different elements that do not vary too much in height. However, you will need to be aware that this type of skyline shape is naturally the most prone to looking chaotic and busy if you are not careful.
As seen in my “Mario Kart 64” skyline, you can help avoid a cluttered skyline by not cramming in too many details or smaller pieces. If possible, you can help to further break up the monotony of a flat silhouette skyline by using distinct colours between each section.
And the last silhouette design I find myself using often is what I have termed “Waves.” This shape works great when you will have three primary points of interest. The shape can look the most dynamic if the centre section is taller than the flanks.
While this Waves Silhouette lends itself well to three main focus points, you can also see in my “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” skyline there are two smaller locations within the depressions of the waves (Fangorn Forest and The Dead Marshes).
Like with the Bell Curve silhouette, this shape can also be inverted and it will have two taller focal points instead of three. You can see this inverted shape in the official Paris skyline set (21044-1) with the Eiffel Tower and Tour Montparnasse rising high above the rest of the icons.
I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about my own skyline design philosophy and perhaps you are now inspired to try designing your own skyline! I know I’d love to see it!
You can see all my skylines on Instagram @BenBuildsLego!
If you have an article you'd like us to publish, get in touch!
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32 comments on this article
Those Lord of the Rings skylines are now on the top of my Wanted List.
I love your builds. They all make me smile. Thanks for the insights!
Have you considered doing a Legend of Zelda landscape? I guess it might be a little too vast though....
These recreations are very impressive, capturing so much detail at a micro-scale. Amazing! :)
Wow, these are absolutely amazing. Great inspiration!
Mario Kart one is so cool. l played all those courses as a kid.
Excellent writeup of your design philosophy with great visuals. Thanks!
@LuvKernow said:
"Really like the Harry Potter one, do you do instructions...? "
The instructions for all of these are for sale on Rebrickable.
Thank you so much for this!
I made years ago in Architecture style the pride of my town Baia Mare, a XV century Tower.
I wanted to create also a skyline of my city but we have some rather small buildings and churches, and the impediment is we "inherited" from communism era a factory tower of 352 m high.
It is one of the highest in Europe and this one is ruining all attempts, because ignoring it is not an option and replicating it in a skyline will result in very small size for the rest of the important city buildings.
If bored, please watch a crazy "wedding" here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNYGquC00d0
@leetshoe said:
"Mario Kart one is so cool. l played all those courses as a kid."
I still play these with my kids ;-)
Thanks, @BenBuildsLego - fascinating article. Love the skylines. I'll have to go and have a look to see what else you've done.
Now that Two Towers skyline is astonishing.
I’ve been following you for a while on instagram. Amazing skylines, really enjoying them all and can’t wait to see what you come up with next. Really like your style and technique. And the fact that you sell and package these sets up for others to buy is really great.
The lotr skyline really hit me... amazing! Great article and thank you for some insights. Do you do instructions by any change?
@juulhorst said:
"The lotr skyline really hit me... amazing! Great article and thank you for some insights. Do you do instructions by any change? "
Thanks for the kind words! I felt a lot of pressure to make my "Lord of the Rings" skylines as good as possible since they're all so iconic! You can find a lot of my instructions over on Rebrickable.com and via the link in my bio on Instagram.
Lego could use your ideas. I would find myself buying most of these skylines listed in the article.
Those are cool!
@Slobrojoe said:
"Have you considered doing a Legend of Zelda landscape? I guess it might be a little too vast though...."
I think this would work if he limited it to one game. Majora's Mask would be great since there are really only five locations + the Moon.
Oh my god ALL of these builds are STUNNING!!!
Absolutely love Ben’s stuff, all amazing, getting so much detail into such little scenes.
I was never interested in Architecture, but you've single-handedly changed my mind! It's remarkable how a whole fictional world can be conveyed at that scale.
@LuvKernow said:
"Really like the Harry Potter one, do you do instructions...? "
He sells instructions on Rebrickable here: https://rebrickable.com/users/benbuildslego/mocs/
I just bought the Harry Potter one too, which is here: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-29067/benbuildslego/hogvvarts-skyline
Brilliant article! Thanks for sharing this! I have bought all the European skylines (also London) and Sydney of course! Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Personally microscale building is not my thing however I can very much appreciate the workmanship in both the offical Lego sets and your MOCs. While I am also not much of a HP or LOTR fan, those two look awesome and have so many instantly recognisable details!
My favourite has to be the mariokart 64 one. Ive never played the original however I can more or less guess all the tracks which means youve done a pretty awesome job considering how flat it is and a mariokart track is not necessary as easily recognisable as say hogwarts castle.
The first one has got to be Koopa beach, followed by mario circuit/raceway, bowsers castle, sherbet land, Im not sure if thats wario or waluigi stadium, id say wario stadium and rainbow road. (the version with the fireworks and steamtrain)
Has anyone built a Vienna skyline yet? Id really like to see that.
Apart from maybe Melbourne Australia doesnt really have many skylines other then Sydney LOL, or at least one's that would be internationally recognised.
Cleverly done and these are very cool. Just fantastic and thanks for sharing with us.
I love these skylines and the ones you sell on rebrickable, I really wish lego would venture into expanding the skyline architecture into more of their other themes, it would be really good.
The HP one is cool, but the Two Towers one knocks it out of the park! Absolutely amazing.
I really didn’t need to know the instruction for these were available for purchase! I want like 10 of them:(
Really interesting read! I absolutely love that two towers one!
wewantadisneyworldskyline
I found and immediately followed @benbuiuldslego on Instagram. I currently have the Harry Potter skyline on display in front of the books on our bookshelf and it never fails to get a positive comment. He is a fabulous artist and I am so thankful that he makes instructions available so the rest of us can enjoy these cool creations in our own homes!
On deck are the Disney and LOTR skylines, as soon as I get the bricks...
YOU...you have some skills. :)
Love your builds.