I've always enjoyed creating art within minecraft. I really like Joy of Painting but always felt that i wanted to be able to paint on other surfaces. And other objects (like doors and chest). And entities (like boats and mobs).

Unfortunately, i have zero modding experience. Luckily, i have access to Codex so I asked it to build this mod. Which it has done a pretty good job of doing. The majority of this mod was completed in an afternoon. The painting on entities was not really thought of till my wife recommended it. That took a bit of time but eventually it got most of it down pretty good. THIS IS STILL BETA SO USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Pixel Painter 2.0 is a painting, dyeing, and color expansion mod that lets you bring hundreds of custom named colors into Minecraft. Mix pigments, store exact paint colors, dye supported blocks and items, and physically paint directly onto objects in the world.

Features include:

Around 600 named paint colors beyond vanilla dyes
Pigment mixing with cauldrons and supported cisterns
Paintbrushes, paint buckets, palettes, canvases, easels, and a Painter’s Color Guide
Direct painting on blocks and supported objects, letting you add custom artwork, markings, color patches, and details in-world
Custom dyed wool, beds, shulker boxes, stained glass, panes, banners, shields, furniture, sails, awnings, buntings, and more
Compatibility with Create, Create Aeronautics, Create Simulated, Supplementaries, Another Furniture, Copycats, and other decor mods
Exact color preservation using Pixel Painter dye data
Texture-aware overlays that keep trim, frames, wood, buttons, stitching, and other details visible

How Painting Works

Hold a Pixel Painter brush in one hand and a dye in your other hand. Aim at a surface and paint directly onto it. The preview pixel shows where the paint will land before you click.

You can use:

Vanilla dyes
Modded dyes
Gold ingots for gold leaf paint
An empty offhand to erase
Primitive materials like coal, charcoal, and bone for rough hand-applied paint

Paint size can be changed with the Pixel Painter keybind, allowing small detail work or larger strokes.

Gold Leaf

Gold leaf no longer requires a special dedicated item. Just hold a gold ingot in your other hand while using a brush, and the paint will render as shiny gold leaf.

This is useful for trim, icons, decorative markings, and fancy highlights on blocks, chests, armor, signs, and canvases.

Persistent Painted Blocks

Painted blocks keep their paint when broken and placed again. The paint also keeps the correct orientation, so if you rotate the block when placing it, the painted sides rotate with it instead of staying locked to world directions.

This applies to many supported painted objects, including:

Chests and modded chests
Flower pots and planters
Signs and hanging signs
Doors and trapdoors

Moving Parts

Pixel Painter is designed so paint follows the thing it was painted on.

Paint can follow:

Chest lids as they open and close
Doors as they swing open
Hanging signs as they sway
Rotated or replaced painted blocks
Carried blocks from compatible moving/carrying mods

This means markings stay attached to the correct part of the model instead of floating in space.

Signs And Hanging Signs

Signs can be painted like other surfaces, and the paint stays on the sign when it is broken and replaced. Hanging signs are also supported, including swinging signs from compatible mods, so the paint moves with the sign instead of lagging behind or floating.

Canvas And Easel

Pixel Painter includes canvases and easels for more traditional artwork.

Canvas recipe:

Paper around wool

Easel recipe:

Sticks in an easel shape (Use JEI)

You can place a canvas on a wall or work on it from an easel. Sneak-click with an empty hand to lift canvas artwork back up. Canvas artwork keeps its painted image, making it useful for signs, decorations, maps, labels, or portable art.

Stencil Tool

The stencil lets you copy painted pixels from one surface and paste them somewhere else.

Use it to:

Duplicate designs
Repeat symbols
Transfer markings
Copy painted panels more easily

Right-click painted pixels to copy. Right-click another face to paste. Sneak-right-click can overwrite the copied stencil.

Primitive Painting

Some basic materials can be used for rough primitive painting, such as coal, charcoal, and bone. Primitive painting is done by hand and leaves a dirty hand effect on the player.

Primitive paint is less permanent than normal brush paint. It can wash away when exposed to rain or water.

Thrown Ink Sacs

Ink sacs can be thrown like projectiles. They use an egg-like arc, so if you throw one upward, it comes back down. When an ink sac hits a surface or mob, it leaves an ink splat.

Ink splats:

Have multiple shape variations
Can stick to mobs
Are temporary
Fade after a few minutes
Can wash away with rain or water

This makes ink sacs useful for messy markings, pranks, quick warnings, or temporary decoration.

Painting Mobs And Armor

Pixel Painter can paint living entities and armor. Armor can be painted while worn or while placed on an armor stand, and the paint stays on the armor item when removed.

Armor paint is slightly transparent, so the original armor texture still shows underneath instead of being completely covered. This allows custom markings, team colors, scratches, stains, symbols, and decorative patterns while keeping the armor recognizable.

The system is designed to work with vanilla and modded armor models where possible.

Multiplayer And Server Support