How to get and use paintings in Minecraft

Paintings have been a part of Minecraft since its earliest days, and they remain an excellent way to decorate builds. It can even be used in secret doors and other intriguing contraptions.

However, for new players, it may be unclear how the paintings were obtained and used. Fortunately, creating paintings is a very simple process; players can even snag a few without needing to craft them if they'd like. Using them to decorate your base or other builds is just as easy, and newcomers will be decorating quickly and effectively before they know it.

If Minecraft players want to capture many paintings, they may want to grab some materials first and foremost.

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How to Obtain and Use Paintings as of Minecraft 1.19

Various paintings as they're seen in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

When it comes to acquiring paintings in Minecraft, there are three primary ways: crafting them, breaking an existing one from a wall, or trading with a master-level shepherd villager.

Traditionally, the simplest and most economical way to acquire paintings is simply to craft them using sticks and wool blocks. Specifically, players will need at least eight sticks and one wool block to create a painting.

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Crafting a Painting in Minecraft

1. Collect at least eight sticks and one wool block. Sticks can be obtained by stacking wooden plank blocks or bamboo vertically in the crafting grid. These items can also be acquired by breaking dead bushes, or leaf blocks, killing witches, or dropping boats from a determined height. Killing/shearing sheep mobs can obtain woolen bock and is also found in villages, woodland mansions, ancient cities, and pillager outposts as breakable blocks.
2. Open the UI of a crafting table, as the player's personal crafting menu isn't large enough to create paintings.
3. Place the wool block in the center of the grid and surround it with sticks, the painting should appear in the output slot.
4. Remove the painting from the output slot and place it in your inventory or hotbar.

To use a painting, Minecraft players need to place the item into their hands either directly or via their hotbar. Once they've found an appropriate surface for the painting, they can right-click on the PC or press the use/interact button on their console to place it. Different paintings can be placed on the surface depending on how much space is available and where the player is aiming.

The good news is that if players don't place a painting that fits their tastes, they can break the painting to retrieve it and place it again. It may take a few repetitions and some careful aiming, but players will eventually find a painting that will suit their needs quite nicely.

In addition to the stock paintings provided in the vanilla build of the game, there are numerous mods and resource packs that expand on the available paintings that can be used.

If a stock collection of paintings isn't particularly suitable for a player, pursuing one of these many means of getting custom paintings is not a bad idea.