You may be familiar with Minecraft as the popular sandbox/survival video game played by both kids and adults, but did you know that it can also be used to create stunning and outlandish pieces of pixel art?
A quick Google search will pull of hundreds and hundreds of crazy Minecraft pixel art pieces, but for the sake of conciseness, we will just focus on 20 of the craziest and most impressive pieces out there.
Back in 2015, the self-described "Pixel Art King" Thorlar Thorlarian broke a world record at the time when he used a whopping 1.1 million blocks to recreate a dazzling wallpaper design from BlizzCon, which is an annual convention held by video game company Blizzard.
It took him 23 weeks to complete the project, and even more impressively, he did the entire piece by hand. He livestreamed the unveiling of the piece to thousands and thousands of Twitch users and ended up raking in about $3,500 for charity.
How's that for a crazy piece of Minecraft pixel art?
If you want to check out the actual Mona Lisa painting, you need to make the trip over to France and then go to the Louvre, where you'll probably have to wait in a long line. Honestly, who really wants to deal with all that hassle? Save money on plane tickets and enjoy the Mona Lisa from the comfort of your home with this Minecraft pixel art recreation.
Ok, maybe it's not as good as the real thing, but it's still pretty impressive, right?
These days, the Instagram logo is probably one of the most recognizable logos out there. And while it may not look like it's that difficult to recreate, this Minecraft pixel artist did a pretty stellar job adding shadow and detail to the logo to make it look larger than life. It looks more like a massive monument than just a mere logo, doesn't it?
If you've ever seen Game of Thrones (and honestly, who hasn't by this point?), then you know that King's Landing is a vast and intricate kingdom that most Minecraft pixel artists would probably not even bother attempting to undertake. One artist not only attempted a pixelated rendering of King's Landing, but pulled off a breathtaking creation that you wouldn't believe.
On top of recreating King's Landing, this artist has a host of Game of Thrones-inspired pixel art that you absolutely need to check out.
What Game of Thrones is to fantasy fans, Battlestar Galactica is to science fiction fans, and one look at this recreation of the eponymous Battlestar Galactica spaceship will have even the most casual fan of the show completely awestruck.
This intricate art piece required more than five million blocks. This thing is pretty close to the real deal with working lifts, control rooms, a hanger deck, and other interior spaces. It's really a Minecraft marvel.
If you've ever seen the Pixar movie Up (and if you've never seen it, we highly recommended it. Just be sure you're stocked up on tissues.), then you're familiar with the focal point of the film: the balloon house
One Minecraft artist's tribute to the house is nothing short of extraordinary. Not only is the outside of the house a perfect recreation, but you can actually check out the interior of the house as well, where the attention to detail is equally as impressive. Pixar needs to hire this artist, pronto!
Sure, this is pretty meta, but you know that someone was bound to do it.
Reminiscent of a scene from the hit show Lost, this Minecraft pixel artist's rendering of a plane crash may not present the most uplifting scene, but if we're talking straight-up artistic value, it's actually quite well done.
If you're acquainted at all with biblical history, you probably know that the story of the Tower of Babel tackles the origin myth of how humans came to speak different languages. Of course, at the center of that myth is the tower itself, and this artist's rendering of the tower is pretty close to biblical proportions.
According to the blueprint provided by the artist, the rendering includes more than 7 million blocks, 100 floors, and 90,000 lights. Just a quick look through the interior will show the great attention to detail. This is one seriously impressive piece.
While most Minecraft artistic renderings tend to be based on some other existing work, one Minecraft artist tried his hand at something completely original, which he referred to as Marine Traffic World.
According to the artist, it took months and months for him to develop his ocean world filled with a whole host of ships. If you take a quick scroll through this massive project page, you'll see that the artist made two container ships, a survey ship, a lighthouse, a research vessel, a helicopter, an oil terminal, a fishing port, a yacht, and several ferries.
Marine Traffic World, indeed!
Both a work of art and a playable game, this Sonic the Hedgehog-inspired game really is quite incredible. If you've ever played Sonic the Hedgehog, you know that this artist actually did a pretty stellar job capturing its essence, as the mini game contains power-ups, checkpoints, and spring-loaded pressure plates.
Who knew that something as simple as an eye could look so dazzling as a Minecraft pixel art piece? Sure, the artist didn't create an entire world or a towering structure, but the precision and striking color balance of the image is extremely impressive nonetheless.
We guess they call him the "cool pope" for a reason, because Pope Francis has his very own Minecraft pixel art portrait.
Houston, we have an art piece. There's absolutely no problem with this amazing recreation of the Space Shuttle, as this artist's use of layers and impressive shadowing work really makes this pixelated piece pop.
This is just one of dozens and dozens of renderings of the Space Shuttle, each one offering a slightly different and unique take on space exploration. For a bonus art piece, take a look at this Minecraft artist's crack at the Space Shuttle. Just check out that magnificent sunset that the artist included. Isn't that something?
So, this may be hard to wrap your head around (it's a little hard for us to grasp, if we're being honest), but one Minecraft artist was somehow able to find a way to build an actual functioning computer in Minecraft.
Basically, the half artist, half computer scientist used something known as redstone circuitry to make a computer that performs division, displays hexadecimal notation, and loads 16 lines of code into RAM. Speaking of the Space Shuttle, someone needs to get this person a job at NASA!
If you know anything about comic books or Power Rangers, you'll recognize War Machine as one of the buddies of Marvel's Iron Man and Megazord as the battle robot that all five Power Rangers combine to form.
Well, one artist decided to do a crossover of sorts when he recreated both characters for this Minecraft art project. We never thought about it until now, but having these two team up wouldn't make for a half-bad comic book. You're welcome, Marvel.
We've already included Games of Thrones and Battlestar Galactica, so why not throw in TheLord of the Rings for good measure? The location of the epic battle from Return of the King, Minas Tirith is recreated in all its splendor thanks to one artist's painstaking attention to detail.
Now, this is a regular marvel of Minecraft engineering. It took the artist two months to render this interstate, which takes you on an eight-mile, 30-minute mine cart ride in-game. When it was first created back in 2010, it even managed to impress Minecraft creator Markus Persson. That's how you know you've made it as a Minecraft artist.
Say what you will about My Little Pony, but one artist's two-dimensional creations inspired by the kid's cartoon are still exceedingly remarkable. It took between 10,000 and 50,000 blocks for the artist to create each character, resulting in a collection that is pretty impressive, to say the least.
It's a one-bedroom apartment from a mouse's point of view. Need we say more?
Mona Lisa Minecraft pixel art recreation
Striking color balance of the image is extremely impressive nonetheless
Minecraft pixel art is not your most traditional art form, but as you can see, it does require some painstaking attention to detail, and the finished products tend to be nothing short of extraordinary. From massively expansive worlds to awe-inspiring structures to simple-yet-detailed portraits, the sky's the limit when it comes to Minecraft's pixelated potential.
If you ever feel inspired to take a crack at some Minecraft art yourself, then there are a number of different how-to guides online that can give you step-by-step instructions on how to make some eye-popping Minecraft images.
But, if you're just interested in simply appreciating the art form, there are plenty and plenty of examples out there for your viewing pleasure. We highly recommended checking out as many pieces as you can because they're absolutely wonderful to look at.
