Alexandre Coelho

Hello community!

We've asked to our spotlighted artist @alexandrecoelho to provide an exclusive picture for Brickcentral along with some insights on how he made it, and here's what he have to say:

"“Rebuild Time” was the name chosen. It came to me that I could grab a train and make a train station. The Central Brick Station! The problem is that I don’t have any train in my collection.

Well, but has I said, I work with kids and I know that some of them have LEGO sets too, so I asked if any of them have a train set. Fortunately one of the kids have this Passenger Train – 60197. I talked to his mother and in the next day, she brought it to school to lend me for the photo.

Now, why a train station? Trains always make me think about the idea of “leaving something behind”. A teenager that leaves his parents to go to university or that goes to work far from home, a young girl saying goodbye to her lover to chase her dream in a new town, a man that leaves his friends and his home to discover the world. A travel to the unknown. In my case I didn’t jumped on a train, but some years ago, I needed to “Rebuild The My World” and so, I left behind two things that I love, but that used to take most of my free time: Scouts and Music. I’ve tried to represent both of them on the photo with the backpack and the guitar.

The name of the station has a purpose in this story too. After I started my “new journey”, I ended up seeing me in the middle of this incredible hobby: to photograph LEGO and then I found BrickCentral. It was like arriving to the destiny! Because, like a train station, it welcomes an endless number of people and ethnicities and lead all of us on an incredible journey into the world that is LEGO photography.

A quick explanation about the scenario. So, with some cardboard, hot glue, polystyrene foam and paint, I created this train station. That was the easy part. Taking the photo, well, it was not so easy. I took more than 100 photos until achieve this result. Rebuilding and rebuild again. First I had only the train moving and the guy with the guitar. Then I added the girl and the boy moving too. After that, I finished with the backpack. Tough work, but so funny to make."

🤩 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Pedro Alexandre (Instagram: @alexandre_coelho22)

Hello everyone! It's time to direct the spotlight toward our community members, and today we will get to know better Pedro Alexandre!

"Greetings everyone! My name is Pedro Alexandre but I’m known on the social media as alexandre_coelho22. I’m a 36 years old guy that lives in Praia da Barra (Portugal) and I work in a Free Time Activities place for kids in a primary school.

Since I was a little boy my creativity always stood out. I guess that mainly influenced by my father, which, when younger, used to draw, paint and now continues to make all kind of crafts.

Because of that, I constantly searched for activities where I could improve my capacities and then, 5 years ago, when I had to create a photo with a toy for a photo contest, I realized that this could be an amazing way to keep my mind busy and working!

So, in the beginning, when I started to take this photos, I really didn’t used to think about the story behind and I didn’t create scenarios or anything else. I just took a few moments watching my minifigures thinking: “what could I do with you?”. Nowadays, I take most of the time creating the scenarios, first in my head and then with my hands and thinking about the whole story behind the final image.

Although I use almost exclusively minifigures as a Lego element, I always try to make them the main subject of the photos. That´s why I manipulate the minifigures’ limbs: I’m trying to give them a kind of a reality feeling.

To create this photos, I rely on my old friend Sony DSC-HX300, that I’ve bought somewhere around 2016 and his movable display allow me to explore perspectives in an easier way."

Thank you for accepting our invitation and let the community knows you better!

If you want some insights on the exclusive picture and for a better view of the others, head to our blog at https://brickentral.net/.

♥️ FEATURE: @alexandre_coelho22

Hello community! It's me again picking amazing pics from our community.

Portals are always a fascinating topic, especially if you can make a dragon appear out of it. This picture captures the subject perfectly in a circle frame, with a backlight. Your eye is immediately directed there, making you almost miss the wizard in the corner and the teddy bear in the forest. Joking, no teddy bear.

If you like this picture and need more of it, pay a visit to the author's profile and share some love!

Hello everyone, it's time again to look back at the last month and summarize the happenings in the monthly roundup 👋

At first we gave shoutouts to these community members:

@andi_nugroho.art @legohabit @ness_bricks @nicky_sunsun

Monthly Theme 🏆📸

This month things got adventurous! @monsieurkek took us on adventures in his #bc adventurer theme. 🔦🗺🧭

There were a lot of great adventurous photos to look at and @monsieurkek picked a great winner! 🔍

Congratulations to 🏆 @photomark6

Also, the community vote is open, so don't miss your chance to vote for another winning photo on our Discord.

Tips

Also, this month @thebrickdwarf gave us some great tips about creating effects by placing objects in front or at the back of the main subject. 

You can find the tips on our Instagram account Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

and soon on our blog too!

In line with this, there will be a small challenge on our Discord again next month, so go ahead and read the tips. 

More info about this soon on our Discord!

Features

Also, @sarouxbastoux did his best this month to bring you some beautiful images and photographers in the features. 

At this point I would like to remind you that you should tag your pictures with #brickcentral or even better, share them on our Discord too, so that our feature mods have a change to find your pictures.

Artis Spotlight

@theaphol also introduced us to another great LEGO photographer this month and featured @archiminibricks in our artist spotlight. 

Photo Essay

We also had two wonderful photo essays this month. 

First, @photomark6 showed us a great story about the LEGO CITY 60347 Grocery Store set. 🛒🥕

Second, @alexandrecoelho conjured up a great setup around LEGO CITY stunt sets and presents us the "Lunacy Wheels stunt show". 🏍🏁

Furthermore, he has shared an exclusive BTS with us!

Thanks to all of you for your contributions this month!

For the next month i’ve thought about a great topic for the monthly theme and i’m looking forward to see your creations. Charge your camera batteries, get your LEGO bricks & figures ready and get excited! 📸

Also, @monsieurkek will be responsible for the features and show you some great photos from the community. 

See you next time! 

Hello community! It's time for another photo essay and this time we asked to @alexandrecoelho to share a photo essay featuring the LEGO City Stuntz sets 60333: LEGO Bathtub Stunt Bike, 60293: LEGO Stunt Park and 60294: LEGO Stunt Show Truck and you better be ready for some action!

“Welcome, welcome, to the most magnificent stunt show of the world: Lunacy Wheels!”.

This is what Tread “The Phoenix” Octane used to listen every day for almost 10 years. He was the star of the show. Always trying to overcome himself and presenting to his audience the most risky stunts that his crazy mind could invent. But like someone said one day, “He who play with fire…gets burned”. And so it happened. After a bad landing, Tread suffered a huge lesion and The Phoenix”, just like the mythological bird, “burned to ashes” and ended up moving away from the show. So now is where our story begins.

After about 2 years, Tread sees a giant billboard announcing that the “Lunacy Wheels” is back in town. Full of enthusiasm and curiosity to see how the show is now, he decides to put his feet on the way.

But his eyes can’t believe what they see! Only a very small group of people remains in the audience and he can’t understand why, until…the show begins. “But what the hell…” he thinks! There’s nothing about lunacy now! That’s why no one goes to see the spectacle!

After a truly unexciting introduction from his old friend Citrus “The Clown”, he presents what used to be one of the most hilarious attractions. “A huge applause to Sudsy “Duck” Simon”! But all the comic parts were cut out of the stunt. He used to jump over 10 giants bathtubs, landing on a pool full of ducks that flew and quacked over people in the audience. Sometimes, someone were unlucky enough to catch a “gift” from a duck, but it made people laugh even more. Now, he only jump over a small rubber duck and land on the same pool…but no duck’s to fly in the end.

Tread expectations about the main attraction starts to vanish. If Citrus and Sudsy couldn’t make the crowd laugh, what in the world would make the new stunt star? “We now present to you, the extraordinary Incognitro”. “It’s starting”! And like Tread suspects, no lunacy, no craziness, no fearless. Despite the presenter’s encouraging presentation, there was nothing about infamous on Incognitro. Very small jumps, no flames, without taking risks. Like…he was afraid of something. In his mind, Tread only saw one option, because, he couldn’t believe that the show has reached this point.

So, in the end of the show, Tread went to talk with Nate, the owner of the (no so far) entertainment. The team couldn’t be happier for seeing him. Only Incognitro doesn’t seems to be with the same party mood. But regardless of all the satisfaction for this reunion, Octane had to express his concern about all that he saw and despite being very apprehensive, he volunteers to help them rebuild the show to give it back the lunacy of other times.

Nate take Tread to the old material warehouse and with the assistance of the rest of the crew, they uncover all the old ramps and props. In a few days and with a huge enthusiasm of everyone, everything looks brand new again. All the ramps were painted, all the pyrotechnic devices were replaced, all the gears have been oiled and the water tanks were filled. It’s time to share the renewed “LUNACY WHEELS”.

“Dear people of the LEGO Valley, we are pleased to present you again in our arena, back from the ashes, the incredible, Tread “The Phoenix” Octane”! And…baaaammmm! Like a thunder, rumbling and crashing, Tread makes its entry making the crowd go wild.

The flames light up the arena, giving to the jumps a ferocious and dangerous feature. Even the maniac robots are looking more harmful than they used to be. Tread is so full of adrenaline that the stunts seems to be greater than ever. “But wait a minute, dears spectators! Incognitro is joining the show!” - announce Citrus. Unexpectedly and without any previously training, the dark rider that have replaced Octane during his time of absence, break the lane inside, almost throwing him to the ground.

Using the last stunt of the night, just like he’s challenging him, Incognitro jump at the same time than Tread, but he hit the target first, throwing Incognitro to the fish tank. In the middle of the fall, his helmet jump of, finally revealing his identity. To everyone’s surprise, Incognitro is in fact…a girl! But not just any girl! It’s Foxy, Nate’s daughter and Tread apprentice when he was the star of the show.

Foxy explains how sad she was after Octane left the show and how that sadness turns to angry after a while. Also the team thought she had disappeared after Tread accident, because they didn’t know that was her riding the black motorcycle. Tread hug her and apologize for all the time that he was away. And well, what’s better than a big attraction? Two of course! Foxy became to be part of the show too of course and now, every person, little or old, could start to be astonish after they enter in the arena and listen: “Welcome, welcome to the most magnificent stunt show of the world: Lunacy Wheels!”

If you want to see more, have a look at the amazing behind the scenes, paying a visit to brickcentral.net

Hello community!

We've asked to our photo essayist @alexandrecoelho to provide an exclusive picture for @brickcentral along with some insights on how he made it, and here's what he have to say:

I usually don’t put on paper the ideas for the photos that I want to take. I let the ideas maturing in my head and then, well, I just try to make them. But this time was very different because, with a story behind all the images, I had to write down all the suggestions that my creative brain was giving me. And so, during the process of writing the story, I’ve draw some drafts so I don’t forget what I was thinking at the time.

The only thing that I didn’t draw came to be my biggest, and with more time spend, project to take photos with LEGO. An (almost at scale) Stunt Arena! It took me about 5 to 6 hours to build/make it. I’ve use a 1,2mx0,80m cardboard for the ground base, probably 20 meters of corrugated cardboard stripes and 7 hot glue sticks. It’s huuuuuge! After assembling everything, I painted it with some black spray, so that all the stunt modules, minifigures and props, could stand out in the photos.

With the arena ready, I’ve think to myself: “You should design a logo to decorate everything.” So well, I took some pictures of a bike wheel, turned on my computer and with the help of a graphic design program, I’ve create this colorful Lunacy Wheels logo. I’ve printed them on sticker paper sheets and after cut them all, I’ve glue them on the top and base of the audience staircase.

To make the image that appears on the outdoor in the first photo, I’ve took a photo of a stunt rider and used the logo design. To give it a more worn look, I’ve used some coffee scraps applying with a brush tool. To make the outdoor, I’ve used a small piece of laminated wood and tiny aluminum bars that I’ve painted to make them look rusty.

The process to make the posters that appear in the second photo was pretty the same that I’ve used on the outdoor, but they are considerably tinier of course. I’ve also built the arena entrance with some cardboard and grey paperboard.

With all the scenario and props created, I’ve started to take the photos. And I have to say that I didn’t take them by the correct order. In fact the first that I’ve took was the number 5, the family reunion, because I had to used sand and dry grass and then I’ve took the number 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Why? Because in the story, the audience increases, or better, the number of minifigures in the audience increases. And that means going from 8 to…100 minifigures! I’ve never, not even close, used such a vast amount of minifigures and I´m proud to say that they are almost all from my collectable minifigures series.

Some of the photos required a few hours of preparations, other a little less, but wire and double tape were fundamental in every single one!

Photo number 6 was the last one. And I´m pretty sure that it will be a photo that I would never forget. In a quick explanation: my story talks about an old warehouse and right in the moment that I was writing that part, the idea of the place that I would like to take the photo came right to my head. I instantly thought that would it be amazing shoot the photo in this old fish canning factory that still exists in the very small town where I live and that is been used as a warehouse for the last 30 years by a former employee that still live near by. A 90 years old, for whom all of us locals have enormous respect, for the extraordinary human being that he is, continued to use the factory as a warehouse. The place is about to came down to give place to new buildings, but luckily, when all that was missing was this photo, I’ve found him at the door of the factory. I’ve quickly run to my house, put all the LEGO that I needed in a box, grabbed my camera and run back to there. With this photo I’ve finalized my essay, but in my mind, it was like I was finishing a work of a lifetime…just like mr. Aureliano.

Thank you for the exaustive insights @alexandrecoelho! I took notes of some of your tricks!