Paintings in Minecraft are simple, low-resolution versions of a canvas; they currently appear in Beta, Alpha, Infdev, and Indev. Most of the twenty four (19 in indev and infdev) current canvases are by Kristoffer Zetterstrand and are shrunken to a low resolution to fit Minecraft's graphical theme. 5 more are edits or new paintings. A random image from among these is chosen each time a painting is placed. Paintings currently are not flammable, nor do they stop light or players from passing through if blocks behind them are removed after their placement. Paintings can only be placed on flat, vertical surfaces. An easy way to get a painting to fill up the area you want is to place it in the bottom-left corner. It expands canvas size to the top-right to fill up the wall the best it can, though it may still take a few tries to get a large painting.
If hit with a throw-able item (such as an Egg, a Snowball or an Arrow), the painting will drop from the wall and can be picked up and placed again. Arrows will disappear when they hit a painting.
Crafting
| Ingredients | Input » Output |
|---|---|
| Sticks + Wool | Template:Crafting grid |
Paintings can be crafted with any color of wool. The color of Wool used does not have an influence of the picture chosen when the painting is placed.
As of Beta 1.2, paintings will drop when any supporting block is removed, making the creation of "Secret Doors" more difficult. You can still attach a larger painting to a block beside a door, and it will cover the door, making it hidden. Note that ladders, signs, and weight-plates technically count as full blocks, and can be used to aid in the creation of covered doors.
Paintings may additionally be used to hide chests in walls, as the painting will not prevent a player from opening the chest. This is especially useful on large multi-player servers.
Paintings are not technically a block, and thus can simultaneously exist with water and sometimes other blocks such as torches in the same space as itself.
Canvases
There are currently 19 canvases in Indev, but there are 24 in Beta. These are mostly based on paintings by Kristoffer Zetterstrand, who also created the Minecraft versions.
| Canvas | Size | Original | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Canvas 16 1.png | 1x1 blocks 16x16 pixels |
Kebab med tre pepperoni | Kebab | A kebab with three pepperoni (Swedish to English translation). |
| File:Canvas 16 2.png | 1x1 blocks 16x16 pixels |
de_aztec | Aztec | Free-look perspective of the map de_aztec from the video game Counter-Strike. |
| File:Canvas 16 3.png | 1x1 blocks 16x16 pixels |
Albanian | Alban | A man in a desert-type land stood next to a house and a bush. |
| File:Canvas 16 4.png | 1x1 blocks 16x16 pixels |
de_aztec | Aztec2 | Free-look perspective of the map de_aztec from the video game Counter-Strike. |
| File:Canvas 16 5.png | 1x1 blocks 16x16 pixels |
Target successfully bombed | Bomb | Painting of the Counter-Strike map de_dust2, named "target successfully bombed" in reference to the game. |
| File:Canvas 16 6.png | 1x1 blocks 16x16 pixels |
Paradisträd | Plant | Still life painting of two plants in pots. |
| File:Canvas 16 7.png | 1x1 blocks 16x16 pixels |
Wasteland | Wasteland | Painting of a view of wastelands; a small animal is sat on the window ledge. |
| File:Canvas 16 s.png | 1x2 blocks 16x32 pixels |
Wanderer | Wanderer | Painting of a man with a walking stick, traversing rocky plains. An "overdressed hiker", one might say. Reference to Romantic painter Casper David Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. |
| File:Painting new 1x2 man.png | 1x2 blocks 16x32 pixels |
Graham | Graham | A small picture of King Graham, the player character in the King's Quest series. |
| File:Canvas 32 1.png | 2x1 blocks 32x16 pixels |
The pool | Pool | Some men and women skinny-dipping. |
| File:Canvas 32 2.png | 2x1 blocks 32x16 pixels |
Bonjour monsieur Courbet | Courbet | Two hikers with pointy beards. |
| File:Canvas 32 4.png | 2x1 blocks 32x16 pixels |
sunset_dense | Sunset | Painting of a view of mountains at sunset. |
| File:Canvas 32 3.png | 2x1 blocks 32x16 pixels |
Seaside | Sea | Painting of a view of mountains and a lake, with a small photo of a mountain and a plant on the window ledge. Note: In Alpha, this painting has been replaced by the one below. |
| File:Painting new 2x1 table.png | 2x1 blocks 32x16 pixels |
Seaside | Sea | Painting of a view of mountains and a lake, with a small photo of a mountain and a plant with red dots on the window ledge. |
| File:Painting new 2x1 table creeper.png | 2x1 blocks 32x16 pixels |
Seaside | Creebet | Painting of a view of mountains and a lake, with a small photo of a mountain and a creeper looking at you through a window. |
| File:Canvas 32-2 1.png | 2x2 blocks 32x32 pixels |
Match | Match | A hand holding a match, causing pixelated fire. |
| File:Canvas 32-2 2.png | 2x2 blocks 32x32 pixels |
Bust | Bust | Painting of a statue surrounded by pixelated fire. |
| File:Canvas 32-2 3.png | 2x2 blocks 32x32 pixels |
The stage is set | Stage | Painting of scenery from Space Quest I, with the character Graham from King's Quest. |
| File:Canvas 32-2 4.png | 2x2 blocks 32x32 pixels |
The Void | Void | Painting of a pig eating a mushroom next to an angel praying into what appears to be a void with fire below. |
| File:Canvas 32-2 5.png | 2x2 blocks 32x32 pixels |
Moonlight Installation | SkullAndRoses | Painting of a skeleton at night with red flowers in the foreground. |
| File:Canvas 64 1.png | 4x2 blocks 64x32 pixels |
Fighters | Fighters | Two men poised to fight. |
| File:Painting new 4x3 skeleton.png | 4x3 blocks 64x48 pixels |
Mortal Coil | Skeleton | A painting of the "Mean Midget" from Grim Fandango. You can also think of it as a skeleton from Minecraft sitting in a seashell. |
| File:Painting new 4x3 building.png | 4x3 blocks 64x48 pixels |
Kong | DonkeyKong | A screenshot from the "Donkey Kong" game series. |
| File:Canvas 64 2.png | 4x4 blocks 64x64 pixels |
Pointer | Pointer | A small man fighting a large hand. |
| File:Painting new 4x4 rider.png | 4x4 blocks 64x64 pixels |
RGB | Pigscene | Painting of a girl that is pointing to a pig on a canvas. In the original version, the canvas shows a red, green and blue block, representing the three colors of the RGB color model that is typically used by computer displays. |
Bugs
- It is possible to get two paintings from destroying one painting.
- Used to be indestructible in SMP, only dropping "fake" paintings every hit, which could not be destroyed or picked up. This was fixed in Beta 1.2.
- When a painting is placed it sometimes shows a four by four area of solid purple with darker purple between each block. This is because Notch forgot to update the painting texture for the Beta 1.2_01 build, when he added a new painting.[1]
- A painting placed over a light source (like a Jack-O-Lantern) will allow the painting to act as a lamp-shade, lighting the room.