How to Craft a Painting in Minecraft

Last Updated: December 3, 2022

Paintings are used for decoration and to conceal secret rooms in the game of Minecraft. Making them is very simple. If you'd like to know how you can easily craft a painting in Minecraft, then read this article.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Finding the Materials

1
Find wool. You'll need one piece of wool. This can be obtained by shearing a sheep with a pair of shears.
- Any color of wool is fine. Currently, the shade of the wool has no influence over the resulting painting.
2
Find eight sticks. These are crafted from wooden planks, in the same way that the image above shows.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Crafting the Painting

1
Place the wool and sticks into the crafting grid. For the Painting Recipe, arrange as follows:
- Place the wool in the center slot.
- Place the 8 sticks in all of the remaining slots.
2
Craft the painting. To remove it to your inventory once it is crafted, shift click or drag.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Hanging the Painting

1
Right click on a wall or other flat, vertical surface, while holding the painting. It will hang where you've clicked. The type of painting that will hang is completely random and you'll get a different picture each time.
- Paintings can only be placed on flat vertical surfaces.
2
Know what to do if you want to get the painting to fill up an area:
- Mark the bounds using any solid block.
- Place the painting in the lower left corner.
- Expect the painting to expand to the top right corner, to try to fill the space.
3
Note that the direction your painting faces affects its brightness.
- Paintings placed facing north/south are brighter.
- Paintings placed facing east/west are darker.

Community Q&A

Question

Can you create your own painting?

Community Answer

Not without modifying the game files. The painting is a preset image based on the size of the canvas. You can change the painting images by editing the texture files for the paintings. Minecraft Painter Maker is a popular web tool that will allow you to create new paintings.
Question

How do you make your own custom painting?

Community Answer

You can only make custom paintings with resource packs. However, you can use maps and item frames, and make pixel art in the area the map is covering to create something that looks like a painting - but it takes a very long time and a huge amount of blocks.
Question

How do I make a sign in Minecraft?

Community Answer

To make a sign in Minecraft, arrange wood planks and sticks like this (w = wood plank, s = stick): w w w w w w = 4 Signs s. w w w s