
# [012](/012)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/012_jyi-bfc-qle_qng-nzp-sgs-hvn?raw=true)

Alongside the flow fields technique of the previous two designs, this design uses circle packing to fill in the spaces between the strokes, each circle picking its colour from the closest strokes.

Although the dots add a lot to the visual feel of the design, when it came to solving the puzzle they were of little importance, or even a distraction as they sometimes looked deceivingly like the end of a stroke. Chiefly this puzzle was solved by finding pieces that each had two colours of strokes and forming lines between them.



# [010](/010)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/010_xml-luf-yuv-imy_yzh-tuy-zot-dfn?raw=true)

The first in a series of designs based on flow fields - every point on the canvas corresponds to a direction (this is created using two-dimensional [simplex noise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplex_noise)); a stroke starts at a random point on the canvas and travels in the direction of that point corresponds to, landing on a new point and following its direction, and so on, creating a curving stroke. You can read more about flow fields and their uses in generative art in [this excellent essay by Tyler Hobbs](https://tylerxhobbs.com/essays/2020/flow-fields).

In this design the colour of each stroke is determined by its length, strokes thicken as they follow the path of the field, and stop when they come near another stroke. Each stroke being a slightly different colour made it a lot easier to distinguish between different areas of colour than in previous block-colour designs, although the often-minimal difference in shades sometimes required a lot of squinting to differentiate.



# [011](/011)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/011_ahl-bfc-qle_zlq-mpj-hck-swd?raw=true)

In this small evolution from [010](/010) the strokes are much longer and thinner, often with four or five strokes passing through a single piece. This made the puzzle much harder to solve as each piece felt like it could belong anywhere on the board. I tried to follow the path of the longest, darkest strokes, but even these weren't differentiated enough in colour, thickness or curvature to be easy to piece together.
