Minecraft Canvas Paintings

Anyone who has spent more than five minutes with Little Crafter in the past six months knows he’s completely obsessed with the game Minecraft. He loves playing it by himself, playing with friends, and watching walkthroughs to learn more about it. My mom found him a book at the library called Craft Projects for Minecraft and Pixel Art Fans {by Choly Knight} and it inspired us to create this fun set of Minecraft character Canvases. LC has always loved painting, so he couldn’t wait to make these characters to hang in his room. Here’s how we did it.

Materials:
– square canvas {one per character}: We used 6×6, but you could also use 12×12.
– pencil
– ruler
– acrylic or multi-surface paint
– paintbrushes

No matter which character you’re painting, the first step is to divide the canvas into 64 squares. If you’re using a 6×6″ canvas like we did, use your ruler to mark off 3/4″ increments, then use the straight edge to help you lightly draw in the lines.

Once your squares are drawn, it’s time to fill them in with various paint colors to create the characters your child knows so well. We did it one color at a time; I’d give Little Crafter a plate with a color of paint on it and place a check mark in the boxes that needed that color. He would then paint the checked squares {with a little help from mama to make the edges nice and neat}.

Here is a closer look at each of the four he chose to create.

THE CREEPER

Creepers are the popular “face of Minecraft.” Even folks {like me} who know next to nothing about the game recognize this guy. What I didn’t realize until LC got into the game was that they’re actually bad dudes who will walk up to you and then explode. Not the type of fellow you want to keep around. For this canvas, you need four shades of green paint varying from light to dark, plus black.

The center two blocks of the canvas are black to form a nose, with two 2×2 square eyes coming off of it diagonally. Below the nose {attached to it} is a 2×4 black rectangle, and there’s a black block coming off of each bottom corner of the rectangle to form a frown. I guess if you were going to explode, you’d frown too. The rest of the squares are a mixture of the four shades of green.

THE ZOMBIE

Don’t let the similarity in color and appearance of this guy form you, this is not another Creeper…it’s a ZOMBIE! This one requires the three darker shades of green paint, black, and a fourth even darker shade of green than what you used before.

Zombie eyes are five squares down and one square in from the edges of the canvas, spanning two blocks with black paint. One row lower and just between the eyes is the very dark green nose. Everything else is once again a mixture of greens, but this time the lightest one isn’t used. The area around the eyes is lightest and the outsides of the canvas are the darker shades.

THE SLIME

Once again, don’t be fooled…this green guy is neither a Creeper nor a Zombie. It’s a Slime, which I’m told is exceedingly rare. This guy requires the lightest shade of green you used for the Creeper as well as the two darker ones, leaving out #2 in the light – dark scale. All you need are the three shades of green; no black or any other color this time.

Slime eyes are 2×2 blocks and begin 3 blocks down and 1 block in from each side of the canvas. They are dark green, and so is the mouth, which is one block two rows down and one block over from the lower left corner of the right eye. Got all that? The top, bottom, and side rows of blocks are all the lightest green, with the exception of one block in each row. The remaining blocks are the middle shade.

THE ENDERMAN

At last, a character that’s not green! He is, like his other counterparts, a bad dude. Among other things, Endermen guard the Dragon at the end of the game. For this character, you need black, grey, purple, and pink or light purple paint.

Enderman eyes are five blocks down from the top and go all the way to the edges of the canvas. The center of each eye is a purple block, and it’s sandwiched in between two pink or light purple ones. The remainder of the canvas is black and grey.

There you have it; all four characters…or as LC says it, “Bad Guy Alley.” Display them in a square formation, line them up straight, place them on a diagonal, or any alignment you like!

Little Crafter is beyond excited about them!  In fact, he already has plans for making more, including Steve, a Pig, a Skeleton, and probably others too. Do you have a little Minecraft fan in your life who would love making a set of these?