Artist Furloughed creates incredible lego portraits of celebrities made from thousands of bricks

An artist on leave spent her free time in lockdown creating stunning celebrity portraits made out of thousands of LEGO blocks.
Charlotte Tyrer, 25, has spent hours a day painstakingly creating more than a dozen masterpieces with her bedroom’s iconic toy bricks.
The fine arts graduate has gone viral with her stunning designs of pop stars, TV and sports personalities as well as The Mona Lisa and the Queen.
Each room takes about a week to finish using an average of 2,500 Lego bricks, which Charlotte collected from her loft during a lockdown cleanup.
She had wanted to find a way to get creative ever since she was laid off from her job as an event sales manager at a hotel on March 23.
Charlotte’s works include striking portraits of Billie Eilish, Joe Exotic, Amy Winehouse, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jordan, and John Lennon.
She is now considering selling them online after her work has been viewed on social media channels such as TikTok hundreds of thousands of times.
Charlotte, from Wollaton, Nottingham, said: “I was put on leave from work, which I had mixed feelings about, but was happy to do so from a safety point of view.
“But I’m a busy person. I like going out and socializing, meeting new people, so I got bored quickly.
“Going from work Monday through Friday and then being told you have to stay indoors and you have to stay safe was pretty tough.
“I studied fine arts in college and haven’t really done anything creative in a while. So I thought, why not take this opportunity to step into something that I have always loved.
“I’ve always done things with painting and drawing, but at university we were encouraged to use objects found in our art.
“It’s stuff like litter, pimples, things you wouldn’t normally use as a medium.
“I had a clearance at the start of the lockdown, and I ran into an old Lego that I was playing with as a kid.
“I just thought why not try something a little different. It really started from there.
“If I’m building stuff with Lego, why don’t I try to make it some kind of illustration?”
Charlotte, who studied fine art at Nottingham Trent University, decided to do celebrity faces because she wanted people to recognize the artwork instantly.
However, people are now asking him to create custom portraits of them as his popularity grows.
On TikTok, a time-lapse video of her creating a portrait of David Bowie has been viewed 86,000 times.
She added, “If I went down the street and showed someone a picture of this person, they would recognize it.
“I wanted the work to be able to be told to people who saw this original image.

“In Lego, you lose a lot of detail. I wanted to use people you could see in this medium.
“On this David Bowie TikTok, he has 86,000 views. I was so shocked by this, but I also really like the Mona Lisa that I created.
“I used a really, very famous old piece. I created it and made it a reiteration in my own way and expressing the joy that is in it.
“Someone asked for Nelson Mandela and people also asked me to do their own portraits, which is pretty exciting.
“Whenever you talk about Lego, it always brings them back to their childhood.
“I used it a lot when I was a kid and played with my brother and sister.
“It just reminds me of when you were a little kid and it’s a very recognizable toy.”

Charlotte, who works at the Delta by Marriott Hotel Nottingham Belfry, said carrying out the work helped her get out of bed during the pandemic.
She added, “It gave me a reason to get up in the morning and go for it and be creative.
“I have used my artwork to get to my happy place and I find using Lego to be a really relaxing process.
“My first projects, and the more colorful ones like David Bowie, took me about a week.
“It just depends on the image I give.
“When I did Freddie Mercury, trying to find a picture where he doesn’t have a microphone, just a good head shot, it’s pretty difficult.

“Even just the process of finding an image that will translate well into the Lego. is tricky.
“I managed to sell one of them that I was really happy with, David Bowie’s, to a friend of mine. I won’t say for how much. She really wanted him in her new home.
“A lot of people have asked me and hopefully in the long run maybe I can consider starting to sell them.
“I will definitely continue because it gives me so much pleasure and joy.”