How to Make Minecraft Pixel Art and Map Art

Quick answer

Pixel art is a picture built from blocks, one block per pixel.
Map art is pixel art built flat on the ground, so it shows up as an image on a map.
One map covers 128 × 128 blocks, which is 16,384 blocks of art.

Want a giant creeper face on your wall, or a custom picture hanging in an item frame? It all starts with turning an image into blocks.

Wall art vs map art

	Wall pixel art	Map art
Built	Standing up, on a wall or hillside	Flat on the ground
You see it	In the world	On a map in an item frame
Colours come from	The block textures	The map's colour for each block
Good size	16 to 64 pixels wide	Exactly 128 × 128

Matching a specific colour? Find the closest block to any hex code:

Maps don't show block textures. Each block becomes one flat colour, and the height of the block changes how light or dark it looks.

61colours if you build completely flat

183colours if you use height (staircasing)

Start flatFlat map art is way easier and still looks great. Try staircasing once you've done one or two.

Turn your picture into blocks with the pixel art maker, at 128 × 128.
Find a flat area and line it up with a map's edges (open a map and check where its borders are).
Build the art row by row using the block list.
Hold a map and walk across the art to fill it in.
Put the map in an item frame. Lock it with a glass pane in a cartography table so it never changes.

It's a lot of blocks16,384 blocks is about 10 shulker boxes. Plan your materials before you start.