How to Make a Minecraft Skin - Step-by-Step Guide

What you need

A Minecraft skin is a small PNG picture, 64 by 64 pixels, that is wrapped around your character. You can draw it in any image editor, but it is much easier in an editor made for skins, where you paint right on the 3D model and see the result immediately.

All you need is a browser on a computer, tablet or phone. Our skin editor is free, works without an account and saves your work automatically.

Step 1. Choose a starting point

You don't have to start from an empty skin. There are four ways to begin:

Open a ready-made base from the skin bases page and change it.
Choose “Start from…” in the editor and pick a boy, a girl or a blank skin.
Upload a skin you already have with “Upload PNG”.
Type a Java player's name and press “Load” to start from their skin.

Step 2. Pick the model: classic or slim

Under “Model” choose Classic (Steve) for arms 4 pixels wide or Slim (Alex) for arms 3 pixels wide. Do this before you paint the arms, because the slim model uses fewer pixels. Not sure which one to choose? Read our guide Steve vs Alex.

Step 3. Paint the base layer

The base layer is the body itself: skin, face, clothes and shoes. Pick a color in the palette and paint on the 3D model or on the flat texture on the right. Drag the background to turn the model and scroll or pinch to zoom.

These tools will save you a lot of time:

Fill (G) colors a whole area of the same color, for example a T-shirt.
Mirror (M) paints the left and right sides at the same time.
Color picker (I or right-click) takes a color from the skin.
Noise brush (N) adds slight color variation, so fabric and hair don't look flat.
Lighten (L) and Darken (D) are perfect for quick shading.

Step 4. Add details on the outer layer

Every body part has a second, outer layer that sits slightly above the base. It is used for hats, hair that sticks out, glasses, jackets, sleeves and armor. Switch “Paint on” to “Outer layer” to draw there.

Leave the outer layer transparent wherever you don't need it. The base layer, on the other hand, should have no transparent pixels: the game shows them as black.

Step 5. Check the skin in 3D

Turn the model around and look at every side: the back of the head, the inside of the arms and the soles are easy to forget. Hide the outer layer for a moment to make sure there are no holes under it. For animations, open the skin in the 3D skin viewer and watch it walk, run and fly.

Step 6. Download and put it on

Press “Download PNG”. The file is ready for both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. How to upload it is explained in our guide how to change your Minecraft skin.

Open the skin editor

Tips for a better skin

Use 3–5 shades of each color instead of one flat color.
Pick a light direction, usually from above, and keep it on all body parts.
Make the face readable: eyes, eyebrows and mouth matter more than tiny details.
Undo (Ctrl+Z) is unlimited, so feel free to experiment.
Look at the skin from a distance: it should be recognizable even when it is small.