A List of All Minecraft Paintings (2025) (2024)

After completing the structural design of your Minecraft house, the decorating phase begins where paintings become essential for adding character and atmosphere. These versatile decorative elements transform bland walls into expressive surfaces that reflect your personal style. Unlike complex redstone contraptions, paintings offer straightforward visual enhancement that even beginner builders can master.

Content refreshed on July 30, 2025, with enhanced organization and additional painting insights

Many players underestimate the transformative power of well-placed artwork. A strategically chosen painting can establish room themes, conceal secret entrances, or simply break up monotonous wall patterns. The key lies in understanding both the aesthetic and functional possibilities these items offer.

Creating paintings requires minimal resources but offers maximum decorative impact. The crafting recipe combines eight sticks arranged around a single wool block in the crafting grid, creating a versatile decoration item that adapts to various architectural styles.

When placed, paintings randomly select from 26 available artworks in varying dimensions. This randomness adds an element of surprise, though experienced builders have developed techniques to manipulate placement for specific outcomes. Survival mode players should prioritize sheep farming for wool production, while creative mode users can access paintings directly from the decoration inventory tab.

Pro Tip: Always craft multiple paintings simultaneously since placement attempts consume the item regardless of the selected artwork size. Keep a stack of 8-10 paintings handy for complex wall decoration projects to avoid frequent return trips to your crafting station.

• Artist: Kristoffer Zetterstrand
• Description: A kebab with three green chili peppers – this painting humorously references Swedish street food culture
• Artist: Kristoffer Zetterstrand
• Description: De_aztec map from the Counter Strike video game – one of several gaming crossovers in the collection
• Artist: Kristoffer Zetterstrand
• Description: A man wearing a fez next to a house and a bush – this piece showcases Zetterstrand’s signature surreal style
• Artist: Kristoffer Zetterstrand
• Description: De_aztec map from the Counter Strike video game – appears twice in the collection with slight variations

Swedish artist Kristoffer Zetterstrand brings a distinctive aesthetic to Minecraft’s painting collection, blending classical painting techniques with modern gaming culture references. His works often contain subtle humor and cultural commentary that dedicated fans appreciate.

The collection includes several gaming easter eggs beyond Counter-Strike references. Keen observers have identified influences from other popular titles, making painting hunting an engaging side activity for gaming enthusiasts exploring Minecraft’s artistic dimension.

Mastering painting placement requires understanding spatial relationships and visual composition. Large paintings like “The Wither” (4×4 blocks) demand substantial wall space but create dramatic focal points, while smaller 1×1 and 1×2 artworks work perfectly in hallways or above furniture.

Avoid These Common Mistakes: Never place paintings on incomplete walls (they’ll pop off), don’t mix clashing art styles in small spaces, and always ensure adequate lighting to prevent mob spawning behind larger pieces. For optimal results, plan your wall dimensions around desired painting sizes during the building phase.

Creative builders incorporate paintings into functional designs beyond mere decoration. Use them to conceal hidden rooms by placing paintings over doorway-sized openings. Create gallery walls by mixing painting sizes in coordinated arrangements. Establish room themes by selecting artworks that complement your color scheme and architectural style.

For redstone enthusiasts, paintings can serve as decorative elements in complex mechanisms. Consider using them as backgrounds for item displays or as visual indicators for machine status. The versatility of these decorative items extends far beyond their apparent simplicity when approached with creative thinking.

Kristoffer Zetterstrand represents a unique bridge between traditional artistic techniques and modern gaming culture. As a Swedish digital artist and painter, he has developed a distinctive visual language that merges classical composition with contemporary gaming references. His work demonstrates how gaming aesthetics can transcend their digital origins to become legitimate art forms worthy of gallery exhibition and academic study.

What makes Zetterstrand particularly noteworthy is his ability to create works that appeal to both art connoisseurs and gaming enthusiasts simultaneously. This dual appeal has positioned him as one of the most influential crossover artists in the gaming world, with his pieces often exploring the relationship between virtual and physical realities.

Studio Scene with Observation: This piece showcases Zetterstrand’s fascination with meta-artistic concepts—art about the creation of art. The composition features a figure peering into what appears to be an excavation or portal, surrounded by professional lighting equipment that suggests both archaeological discovery and artistic documentation. The careful lighting setup indicates Zetterstrand’s background in traditional studio painting, while the mysterious hole introduces elements of surrealism and exploration that resonate deeply with gaming narratives.

Digital Mountain Landscape: As a master of digital rendering, Zetterstrand creates breathtaking mountainous terrains that demonstrate his technical proficiency with digital tools. These landscapes often serve as backdrops for more complex compositions or stand alone as examples of how digital art can achieve the grandeur traditionally associated with landscape painting. The precision in texture and lighting reveals his understanding of both natural formations and digital manipulation techniques.

Character Portrayal Techniques: Zetterstrand’s approach to character design blends realistic human proportions with stylized elements that hint at their gaming origins. His figures maintain a tangible physical presence while clearly belonging to imaginative worlds, creating what many describe as ‘hyper-realistic game art’ that feels both familiar and fantastical.

Grim Fandango Resurrection: Zetterstrand’s portrayal of Bruno Martinez from the classic adventure game demonstrates his deep understanding of gaming history and character archetypes. Grim Fandango’s distinctive art deco inspired aesthetic and film noir influences are reinterpreted through Zetterstrand’s unique visual filter, creating a bridge between the game’s original 1998 release and contemporary artistic sensibilities.

Donkey Kong Level Recreation: The 100m level from the arcade classic receives artistic treatment that both honors the original pixel-based design while reimagining it through sophisticated painting techniques. This approach showcases how classic gaming iconography can be elevated to fine art status without losing its nostalgic appeal.

International Karate Tribute: In this particularly intriguing composition, the main character from International Karate interacts with a massive hand—a visual metaphor that could represent divine intervention, player agency, or the interface between game characters and their controllers. This piece exemplifies Zetterstrand’s ability to create works that operate on multiple interpretive levels.

Contemporary game developers and artists can learn numerous valuable techniques from studying Zetterstrand’s approach. His method of blending traditional artistic principles with gaming culture references provides a template for creating works that have both immediate appeal and lasting artistic merit. Understanding his techniques can significantly enhance character design, environment creation, and visual storytelling in games.

Common Creative Pitfalls to Avoid: Many artists attempting similar crossover works fall into the trap of either being too slavish to their source material or too detached from it. Zetterstrand demonstrates the perfect balance—creating pieces that are clearly inspired by specific games while functioning as independent artistic statements.

For those interested in deeper game development strategies, our BF6 Class Selection Guide explores how character design principles similar to Zetterstrand’s can be applied to modern military shooters. Additionally, understanding artistic composition can enhance how players approach Battlefield 6 gameplay, particularly in mastering the game’s Conquest mode dynamics and completing challenging Assignments.

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