To make a painting in Minecraft, you craft it with 8 sticks and 1 wool on a crafting table, then place it on a wall and let the game pick (or cycle) the artwork for you.

What you need

  • 8 sticks.
  • 1 block of wool (any color works).
  • A crafting table.

Example: Kill a sheep for wool (or craft wool from string), turn planks into sticks, and you’re ready to go.

Crafting the painting (step‑by‑step)

  1. Open your crafting table (3×3 grid).
  1. Put the wool block in the center slot.
  1. Put sticks in all 8 remaining slots surrounding the wool (top row 3 sticks, middle row left and right, bottom row 3 sticks).
  1. Take the painting from the result box into your inventory.

This recipe always gives 1 painting per craft.

Placing and changing the painting

  • Place the painting on a solid vertical surface (like a wall block).
  • The game randomly chooses an artwork and size that fits the empty space available (from 1×1 up to 4×4 blocks).

To “reroll” the image:

  • Break the painting and place it again until you get the one you like.

To control the size:

  • Build a “frame” of blocks so only the size you want is available (for example, a 2×2 hole in the wall forces only 2×2 paintings).

Fun extra: secret painting door

You can hide an entrance behind a painting.

  1. Make a doorway 2 blocks high in a wall.
  1. Inside the doorway, place signs or trapdoors on the blocks so a painting can hang over the gap.
  1. Place a painting so it covers the entire hole (2×1 or 2×2 usually works).
  1. Walk through the painting; you’ll pass through the doorway while it still looks like a solid wall.

Custom paintings (advanced idea)

On Java Edition, players often create custom art by editing the painting texture inside a resource pack and then loading that pack in-game. This replaces the default paintings with your own images but uses the exact same crafting recipe and placement rules.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.