Minimalist Ichthys House

One of my favorite Minecraft let's players, Pakratt0013, had a nice house on the Mindcrack season 3 map. It was in the shape of an ichthys. Today I built a new version of it, one which had a somewhat simpler external design, with a more modern touch.

This time, it floats!

Here are the next few layers of construction.

The completed inside. I used spruce slabs to break up the otherwise bland look.

Pictures from the top. Note the use of birch stairs and sandstone slabs. Also, it's outlined with more spruce slabs.

General pictures. One of them is of the fish tail. The original build had a little dinky tail. I opted to elongate it for this design.

Small Stone House with Depth

This house took about 90 minutes for me to put together. It's a small demonstration of the depth skills I have picked up so far. I first made it in Creative mode, and liked the outcome.

It begins with a simple, L-shaped layout with cobblestone walls.

Applying what I call the "canvas technique," I divide the walls with stone brick and light blue stained clay. This brings a layer of depth and forms little sections of the walls I can decorate later. For the top of each section I choose stone brick slabs and stairs.

Bam, more depth to it. With the basic elements of the bottom floor in place, it's time to start decorating. First is a trick I found online. When putting in windows, make the top and bottom block of the window a stair block, and use glass panes. (I add the glass later.)

Let's decorate the sections. Leaves are a good way to decorate the walls. It would act as good contrast to the primarily blue theme to the house.

This last picture is the left side of the house. It's the longest part of the build but it's also kind of flat. Cobblestone walls fit the house's theme and don't look too bad. I'll add those. While I'm at it, I also add cobble walls to the back of the house too.

So the bottom looks nice now, but the top might benefit from decoration as well. I could do some more walls, but I feel like mixing things up a bit. I settle on doing cobble walls for some, and stone brick slabs for others. Variety is the spice of life.

Those are just kind of floating, though. Wouldn't it be nice to give them some support? Fences are quite adept for this part.

Great! Now we're done with the bottom floor. Let's get started with the second floor, which is a single room. Put up the walls:

Before going further, I want to finish the first floor's roof. It's kind of a modern-themed build so there's no need for crazy arched roofs. A flat one will be good, with a small raised portion for detail and depth.

See that middle fence? There was a stone brick stair over it but it looked out of place, so I replaced it with a full block. Now onto the second floor's roof. Again, a flat design seems fine for it. I use stairs in a square formation.

While examining the right side of the house, I find that this newly added second floor gives an opportunity to add a bit more detail.

The outside is finish! A quick walk-around.

Interior decoration is kind of my Achilles' heel. I threw together a few things that look like they could fit in the house. I also gave the second floor an actual floor. You can see the nearby river.

And that's that!

Depth

Over the last three years I've gotten better at choosing block palettes for construction, as well as giving my builds some more variation in shape. There's still one thing I kind of suck at: depth. It's the latest thing I've been trying to get good at.

I have a basic understanding of depth. Back when I did a guide to making things look good, I mentioned adding curves to houses, forming alcoves and whatnot. There was also the little awning I added over the front entrance. Those are pretty basic. There are a few areas I will look into right now.

Canvas Technique

My experience indicates the key aspect of adding depth is what I call the "canvas technique." In it, you take a wall and around its perimeter, adding support beams on the top and sides.

Let's compare the one on the right with my standard build style.

The one on the left, my typical style, doesn't look half bad. But on the right I have moved the blocks out an additional unit. Granted, this required squeezing the smooth sandstone blocks in (so there's only a tiny space inside the right one) but it is rewarded from the new level of depth shown here.

I call this the canvas technique because with the log support pillars, it creates a sort of "canvas" we can then decorate. There are tons of way to do this. Foliage seems to be a popular and logical choice.

You might also use fences, fence gates, and the cobble/mossy cobble walls. After some quick experimentation, I find fence gates to be rather nice looking.

This kinda fits here. A nice technique I came across was using stairs above and below windows. I imagine this doesn't work as well if the stairs don't match the blocks making up the wall.

You can expand the support buttresses as far as you think is appropriate. Nice touches can also include stairs, fences lining them, half-slab awnings, and so on. This picture right here is probably the most depth-laden piece of work I've ever made. If you add a wooden button on each of the smooth sandstone blocks that aren't covered by a fence gate, it adds a little extra.

Roof Design

A long time ago I wanted to put together a tutorial on making roofs. It would have been as useful as me as for anyone else. Roofs are surprisingly good for adding depth. The most basic measure of adding depth is extending roofs outward. Here is what I mean. Consider the roof module on the left, and the one on the right. The right one adds depth and in my eyes, is very nice.

One on the right is a bit more festive, wouldn't you say? You can also add the extra stuff like fences and whatnot to a roof unit as well, for added depth and detail.

Put It All Together

I went ahead and tried making a house using the depth techniques I've mentioned here. It could probably benefit from having a door, but this is stuff I'm still new to.

Others' Work

A really good way to get better with depth is to mimic the works of others. There are many Minecrafters out there who seem to have a natural talent at depth. Try watching their stuff and recreating their builds yourself. Add a little variation if you can come up with one. This will give you hands-on experience in depth and detail. This in turn will give you a feel for it and you'll be able to reproduce the skill.