Minecraft axolotls are weirdly adorable. Honestly, when Mojang added them in the 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update, the internet basically lost its mind. They’ve got those tiny, vacant eyes and the little pink frills that just make you want to carry them around in a bucket forever. But here is the thing: drawing them is actually harder than it looks because of the game's strict grid system. If you miss a pixel or mess up the proportions, your cute little amphibian suddenly looks like a pink rectangle with an identity crisis.
Drawing a Minecraft axolotl is all about mastering the block. You aren't just drawing a creature; you're replicating a 3D model made of cubes.
Getting the Rectangular Proportions Just Right
Start with the body. Most people make the mistake of drawing a square. Don't do that. The Minecraft axolotl body is a long, horizontal rectangle. If you're looking at the official game model, the body is roughly 7 pixels wide and maybe 4 pixels high from a side profile, though for a front-facing drawing, you want a wide rectangle for the head.
Think of it like a loaf of bread. A pink, underwater loaf of bread.
You’ve gotta keep your lines straight. Since we're mimicking a game that lives on a grid, using a ruler isn't "cheating"—it's actually the only way to make it look authentic. If you're drawing digitally, hold down the Shift key to snap those lines. If you're using paper, grid paper is your best friend here. It’s way easier to count squares than to guess if your lines are parallel.
The Face: Where the Magic (and the Derp) Happens
The face is basically just two dots and a line. But the placement is everything. In the game, the eyes are set wide apart. If you put them too close together, it looks like a generic cartoon character, not a Minecraft mob.
Put the eyes on the very outer edges of the face rectangle.
Then there's the mouth. It’s just a flat line, usually one or two pixels wide, right in the center. It’s that blank expression that makes them look so "derpy" and lovable. The gills are the next part. You have three on each side. They aren't round. They are little L-shaped or rectangular blocks sticking out from the head. In the game, these actually have a bit of a darker pink or magenta hue compared to the main body.
Why the Colors Matter More Than You Think
Minecraft axolotls come in five distinct colors: Lucy (pink), Wild (brown), Gold (yellow), Cyan (which is actually white with blue spots), and the legendary Blue axolotl. If you want to be a purist, the blue one is a one-in-1200 chance spawn.
When you're coloring your drawing, don't just use one shade of pink. Look closely at the textures Mojang designed. There is a "base" color and then a slightly darker shade for the "shadows" or the spots. The Lucy variety is mostly a pale, "creamy" pink, while the gills are a sharp, vibrant magenta. Using these contrasting tones is what makes the drawing "pop" and look like it’s actually pulled from a screen.
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The Tail and the Fins
The tail is a flat, vertical plane. It isn't thick like the body. When you draw it, it should look like a thin fin attached to the back of the "loaf." It tapers off slightly, but it still maintains those jagged, pixelated edges.
The legs are tiny.
Literally just little nubs.
Four of them.
They stick out from the bottom corners of the body. In the game, when they swim, these legs sort of paddle, but in a static drawing, you just want them to look like little square supports. Don't add toes. Minecraft creatures don't have toes. They have blocks.
The Secret to the "3D" Look
If you want your drawing to look like it’s actually in Minecraft and not just a flat sticker, you need to use isometric perspective. This sounds fancy, but it basically just means you draw the front, the top, and one side of the axolotl all at once.
- Draw your face rectangle.
- Extend lines back at a 45-degree angle from the corners.
- Connect those lines to create the "depth."
This gives the creature volume. It’s the difference between a drawing that looks like a 2nd-grade art project and one that looks like a professional concept sketch. Pay attention to where the light is coming from. If the light is "above" the axolotl, the top of its back should be the lightest color, while the side and the belly should be darker. This is called "shading by plane," and it's how pixel artists create the illusion of 3D space without using gradients.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
One of the biggest blunders is rounding the corners. I get it, you want it to look "natural." But the whole aesthetic of Minecraft is its rigidity. If you round the corners, you lose the "Minecraft-ness" of the piece. Keep those 90-degree angles sharp.
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Another issue is the scale of the gills. Sometimes people draw them too big, and the axolotl ends up looking like a dragon or a weird flower. Keep them small and tight to the head.
Also, watch the tail length. If the tail is too long, it looks like a salamander (well, they are salamanders, but you know what I mean). If it’s too short, it looks like a pig. The tail should be about half the length of the main body.
Beyond the Basics: Adding a Scene
Once you've nailed the axolotl itself, you can’t just leave it floating in a white void. Put it in a bucket! The "Axolotl in a Bucket" is one of the most iconic items in the game. To do this, draw a gray cylinder (well, a pixelated version of a cylinder) around the lower half of your axolotl. Add some light blue "water" pixels and a handle.
Or, draw it in a lush cave. These little guys love clay and hanging roots. Adding some glow berries in the background or some moss blocks underneath can really set the scene and show that you actually know the game mechanics. It shows E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) because you aren't just drawing a pink fish—you're drawing a specific creature from a specific biome.
Practical Steps to Master the Minecraft Style
If you are struggling to get the proportions right, here is a trick: open Minecraft and spawn an axolotl. Use the F1 key to hide your HUD and take a screenshot. Then, open that screenshot in a photo editor and zoom in until you can see the individual pixels. Count them.
- Count the pixels for the width of the head.
- Count the pixels for the eye placement.
- Count the pixels for the gill length.
This is the "blueprint" method. It’s how the pros do it. Once you have the numbers, you can scale it up. If 1 pixel in the game equals 1 centimeter on your paper, your drawing will be perfectly proportional every single time.
Start with a light pencil sketch. Use a ruler for every single line. Don't worry about being "artistic" yet—just be accurate. Once the skeleton of the boxes is there, go over it with a fine-tip black marker. Erase the pencil lines. Finally, fill in the colors using flat markers or colored pencils. Avoid blending. You want the colors to be distinct, blocky, and bold.
Once you’ve finished your first Lucy (pink) axolotl, try the rare Blue one. It uses the same shape but requires a dark blue base with bright orange gills. Mastering the shape is the hard part; once you’ve got that down, you can create an entire army of these blocky little friends in every color available in the game.
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To take your skills further, try drawing the axolotl in its "playing dead" pose. This is a unique mechanic in Minecraft where they flop onto their side and turn slightly gray to stop mobs from attacking them. It’s a great way to practice drawing the model from a different, more complex angle while staying true to the game's physics.