Forest Cottage

[LittleJohn]

My fourth entry to the CCC XIV, for the Woodland Hideaway category. The layout and design of the house were inspired by this image. The bottom-right window lights up, and the river is made of SNOT cheese slopes.

Herbert the hermit lives in a cozy cottage nestled in the Western Woods. He lives a secluded life, preferring to spend his time tending to his gardens, and feeding his many animal friends.

More pictures on Brickbuilt
Thanks for looking, C&C welcome 

[Exetrius]

Beautiful work! Aside from the cosy house, the detailed irregular base takes the cake here! The large tree with the green leaves is also very nice. 

[Slegengr]

Nice cottage, LJ!

Lovely landscaping here, especially with the cheese slope stream, mushrooms, and trees!  Sand green makes for a nice grass color.  The cottage is more detailed than a LEGO set, but it looks like it could be a set with the apparent sturdiness.  The gardens are a great addition around the cottage, especially the mushroom patch.  I like your birds and squirrel!  Cute hair bird nest in the tree.  That smoke technique is also quite interesting and I do not think I have seen that used before.  Nice work!

[TheLordOfBricks]

Nice job John! The whole thing is great! Especially the color schemes... Keep it up!

[Henjin_Quilones]

Looks great, LJ! I love that blue roof! It looks spectacular here. Your birds of a feather, though, are what catch my eye the most. They are so simple, yet look so good! I also like the use of the black hands for the window grate, something I do not believe I've seen before. Had you not pointed it out, I never would have noticed that the river was SNOT cheese slopes, yet it looks lovely, too. Great work on the trees, the walls, the base, and pretty much everything. This one has a certain something that most builds do not, a sense of aesthetic arrangement and balance of color that makes it pop. The blues of the roof, bird, and water tie in splendidly, the orange and dark red are nicely mixed throughout, and the greens, greys, and browns play their background neutral roles perfectly. Can you tell I like this one? The only thing I'm not sold on is the brick-built squirrel, but it is better than the Friends/Elves ones at least...

[Garmadon]

Very nice build, LJ, the house definitely looks cozy and hospitable, and the trees and landscaping are excellent as well!   Nice choice of colors, and those birds are great additions too - keep it up! 

[Kai NRG]

Very cozy looking house LJ, I really like the colors you've chosen for it especially the dark blue roof!  The little details like the birds and mushrooms add a lot!  The only thing I'm not so sure about is the stream - it seems to be too dark a shade of blue considering how small it is - a lighter trans-blue, or even trans clear, might have looked more realistic and gone better with the sand green & brown.  On the other hand though, that cheese slope technique does look really good!

[Leonardo da Bricki]

Great build LJ! The window bars are great, and the base is cool. Just one thing, the stream needs to be a lighter blue, IMO. It seems to close to the roof's color.

[Blufiji]

That color scheme really gives this build life, particulaly the blue roof. I like the one of light in the window, it is a quaint touch. Are you going for MB? I think you have two more to go?

[soccerkid6]

Beautiful cottage and landscape The little gardens are a great touch, and the winding stream is superb

[TitusV]

Now, you're defenitely on a building roll sir!  

Nothing to remark on, and I absolutely love that dark-blue roof!  

[Full Plate]

Very nice, cosy build! I really love the custombuilt birds and birdhouse! Great work all around, and wonderful composition :)

[en_zoo]

awesome! really like the shape of the base, the texture of the wall and, indeed, the colours you've picked. Would love to see it expanded [especially given the image you got inspired from]. literally in love with the feather birds 

[Grover]

This is one of my favorite builds I've seen in a long time.  It is a real masterpiece in my opinion.  The color palette, the placement of everything, the awesome brickwork (I really, really like this) and the birds are all first class.  Awesome job!

[MaasEffekt]

Very nice! Congrats! 

[Umbra-Manis]

Beautiful irregular base there LJ! The house looks great and the last dark background shot look wonderful!

I just can't figure out what that hair piece in the tree is supposed to be... 

[soccerkid6]

11 hours ago, Umbra-Manis said:

Beautiful irregular base there LJ! The house looks great and the last dark background shot look wonderful!

I just can't figure out what that hair piece in the tree is supposed to be... 

A bird's nest

[LittleJohn]

On 12/12/2016 at 9:34 AM, Exetrius said:

Beautiful work! Aside from the cosy house, the detailed irregular base takes the cake here! The large tree with the green leaves is also very nice. 

Thanks Exetrius! That tree by far took the most trial and error, so I'm glad you like how it turned out 

On 12/12/2016 at 9:39 AM, Slegengr said:

Nice cottage, LJ!

Lovely landscaping here, especially with the cheese slope stream, mushrooms, and trees!  Sand green makes for a nice grass color.  The cottage is more detailed than a LEGO set, but it looks like it could be a set with the apparent sturdiness.  The gardens are a great addition around the cottage, especially the mushroom patch.  I like your birds and squirrel!  Cute hair bird nest in the tree.  That smoke technique is also quite interesting and I do not think I have seen that used before.  Nice work!

Thanks a lot, Sleg! Glad you noticed the gardens. Credit for the bird design goes to Eklund.

On 12/12/2016 at 10:25 AM, TheLordOfBricks said:

Nice job John! The whole thing is great! Especially the color schemes... Keep it up!

Thanks Roanoke! 

On 12/12/2016 at 10:29 AM, Henjin_Quilones said:

Looks great, LJ! I love that blue roof! It looks spectacular here. Your birds of a feather, though, are what catch my eye the most. They are so simple, yet look so good! I also like the use of the black hands for the window grate, something I do not believe I've seen before. Had you not pointed it out, I never would have noticed that the river was SNOT cheese slopes, yet it looks lovely, too. Great work on the trees, the walls, the base, and pretty much everything. This one has a certain something that most builds do not, a sense of aesthetic arrangement and balance of color that makes it pop. The blues of the roof, bird, and water tie in splendidly, the orange and dark red are nicely mixed throughout, and the greens, greys, and browns play their background neutral roles perfectly. Can you tell I like this one? The only thing I'm not sold on is the brick-built squirrel, but it is better than the Friends/Elves ones at least...

Thanks HQ!  Really glad you like it so much. As I mentioned above, credit for the bird design goes to Eklund. Yes, the squirrel was one thing I wasn't completely sure about either, but as you said, it works better than the friends one (which I was initially going to use). I'll keep trying to improve on it in the future though 

On 12/12/2016 at 10:55 AM, Garmadon said:

Very nice build, LJ, the house definitely looks cozy and hospitable, and the trees and landscaping are excellent as well!   Nice choice of colors, and those birds are great additions too - keep it up! 

Thanks Garmadon! Glad you like it! 

On 12/12/2016 at 0:24 PM, Kai NRG said:

Very cozy looking house LJ, I really like the colors you've chosen for it especially the dark blue roof!  The little details like the birds and mushrooms add a lot!  The only thing I'm not so sure about is the stream - it seems to be too dark a shade of blue considering how small it is - a lighter trans-blue, or even trans clear, might have looked more realistic and gone better with the sand green & brown.  On the other hand though, that cheese slope technique does look really good!

Thanks Kai, I've wanted to try a dark blue roof for a while, but we don't have much of it; for a build this size, however, it's just enough! I see what you mean about the stream, though for this particular build I didn't want to use trans clear, and we don't have enough trans light blue cheese for it. I'll keep it in mind for future builds though 

On 12/12/2016 at 5:24 PM, Leonardo da Bricki said:

Great build LJ! The window bars are great, and the base is cool. Just one thing, the stream needs to be a lighter blue, IMO. It seems to close to the roof's color.

Thanks, Leonardo! 

On 12/12/2016 at 8:22 PM, Blufiji said:

That color scheme really gives this build life, particulaly the blue roof. I like the one of light in the window, it is a quaint touch. Are you going for MB? I think you have two more to go?

Thanks Blufiji! And yes indeed, I am going for MB this year 

On 12/13/2016 at 9:29 AM, soccerkid6 said:

Beautiful cottage and landscape The little gardens are a great touch, and the winding stream is superb

Thanks Isaac!

On 12/13/2016 at 10:00 AM, TitusV said:

Now, you're defenitely on a building roll sir!  

Nothing to remark on, and I absolutely love that dark-blue roof!  

Thanks Titus! Glad you like it!

On 12/15/2016 at 5:25 AM, Full Plate said:

Very nice, cosy build! I really love the custombuilt birds and birdhouse! Great work all around, and wonderful composition :)

Thanks FP! Composition is something I always something I concentrate on in my builds, glad you like it! 

On 12/19/2016 at 6:31 PM, en_zoo said:

awesome! really like the shape of the base, the texture of the wall and, indeed, the colours you've picked. Would love to see it expanded [especially given the image you got inspired from]. literally in love with the feather birds 

Thanks en_zoo! It would be interesting to try expanding it a little, though I'm afraid it's been dis-assembled long ago.   

On 12/20/2016 at 10:08 AM, Grover said:

This is one of my favorite builds I've seen in a long time.  It is a real masterpiece in my opinion.  The color palette, the placement of everything, the awesome brickwork (I really, really like this) and the birds are all first class.  Awesome job!

Thank you very much! 

On 12/20/2016 at 1:52 PM, Lazer said:

Very nice! Congrats! 

Thanks 

On 12/20/2016 at 8:38 PM, Umbra-Manis said:

Beautiful irregular base there LJ! The house looks great and the last dark background shot look wonderful!

I just can't figure out what that hair piece in the tree is supposed to be... 

Thanks UM! Glad you liked the last picture. As Isaac said, the hair piece is supposed to be a birds nest