
# [033](/033)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/033_xoi-lfe_sdk-brg-tmp?raw=true)

Evolving from [032](/032), this design renders the same program with five times the number of layers. As in previous designs each colour is offset half of the width between the bars, which in this case means the colours alternate between the bars and the gaps between them, creating a sort of striped collage of two conflicting patterns. Because the layers are painted on so many times they become almost opaque, revealing swathes of shapes across the design. I love how the build up of different colours create prismatic, multi-tonal vistas.

I thought this jigsaw would be quite boring to solve because it's so reliant on colour rather than also using texture and shape, but the duotone nature of each piece added a really interesting dimension because it wasn't clear which colour to sort by. I was also slowed down by the [contrast effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrast_effect), it was much harder to compare colours by sight when the other half of the pieces had alternative, contrasting colours. Overall a very pleasurable puzzle to solve despite its linearity.



# [032](/032)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/032_plp-otu_jfl-gbc-lzy?raw=true)

In this design I made the gap between the bars match the width of a single bar and tweaked the fidelity so there's less change horizontally across the design but lots of vertical layering. I think the mix of one, three, five, and seven-across bars create an interesting overlaying effect and their curved ends subtly compliment the more prominent motif of stripes.

I found this puzzle much more difficult to solve than anticipated. It was easy to group the pieces by colour (horizontally) but that didn't match with the easiest way to line up and connect the pieces (vertically).



# [031](/031)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/031_rbk-ugr_uha-vuq-alm?raw=true)

This design was inspired by a glitch I found when I was developing [030](/030) where instead of drawing a single bar from the start of the active area it would start a new bar on every row. This creates waterfalls of colour which gradate across the design.

With this piece I found it easy to focus on the central clusters of colour rather than line up the outer edge. It was great fun to assemble areas of bars and then figure out how they all fit together. Because of the varying bar sizes some pieces had two different colours of stripes on them which was a handy but subtle indication to help solve the puzzle.



# [030](/030)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/030_mpe-uka_oln-tau-uis?raw=true)

In a return to simpler forms, this design combines the layering effect of [028](/028) with clusters of vertical bars. Each group of strokes has slightly varied opacities running across it so the colours vary across the design.

Building on the diagonal puzzle pattern first introduced in [026](/026), this refactors the cutting algorithm and adds new corner shapes and five-sided edge pieces. I wanted to make all the pieces roughly the same size without compromising the layout. It's now much easier to line the edges up but as they can't be attached to form a frame you're still encouraged to work outwards from the middle of the puzzle.

My solve on this puzzle was haphazard - I started by grouping the darkest colours and connecting some of the more distinct areas of colour which led to lots of small islands of connected pieces. I leaned quite heavily on lining up the edges which was a bit of a crutch, and then connected the pieces as I saw them without much of a strategy. I think this design had a really good balance of colours and textures, but my solve didn't do it justice.



# [029](/029)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/029_asn-ybq_ojd-ihc-mwh-zmq?raw=true)

This design adds a background grid which is slowly faded out with each layered shape. I removed the lines which divided the shapes in [028](/028), but left the margin between the foreground shapes in place. I really like that this foreground grid is hinted at where the shape edges run parallel, it's a subtle network of whitespace across the design. Also, hearts!

I really enjoyed solving this puzzle with its rich range of colours and textures. Similarly to [027](/027) I was drawn to assembling the areas with obvious lines first, but as that only covered a small portion of the puzzle I was then forced to look at colour groupings and shape edges to fill in the rest.



# [028](/028)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/028_epg-jtq-tqp_bwy-ttq-irx-psd?raw=true)

This design introduces a third shape layer, 3x the fidelity of the first layer, and uses circles, pills, and quatrefoil shapes. I made the lines divide the shapes rather than sit on top of them, highlighting the arrangement of the shapes on the grid rather than overpowering them.

Similarly to my last 2 puzzles, I started this solve by fitting together the brightest colours. Due to the granularity of the shapes this resulted in lots of small islands of assembled pieces, it was fun and a little confusing to figure out how they all fit together.



# [027](/027)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/027_bmw-egh-mew_ekg-ymi-bat-oyf?raw=true)

Evolving from [026](/026), this design is on a smaller grid and uses a different set of shapes - circles, squares with two or three rounded corners, and [quatrefoils](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatrefoil). I really like how the quatrefoil extends out of its grid cell and overlaps with the shapes around it (much like the buggy-but-it-looks-nice-that-way squares in [026](/026)). There's a higher chance of more plain pieces because of the larger shapes and higher piece count, so I added another layer of randomly-placed jointed lines across the design for an extra visual element.

Because the lines are so prominent I focused on connecting them during the solve instead of grouping areas of colour and connecting the edges of the shapes, which was a little disappointing.



# [026](/026)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/026_plq-jpm_qtj-fvs-rxj-itc?raw=true)

The start of a series of grid-based artwork on a contrasting diagonal puzzle grid.

The first step in solving a normal puzzle is to find all the edge pieces and create the frame of the jigsaw, and then work inwards from there. I'd been finding that with my recent puzzles I was using the frame as a crutch, and relying a lot more on finding related pieces based on the alignment of their tabs than their surface design. For this series I wanted to shake that up, and force myself to engage with the visual design as well as the piece design.

I didn't want to move too far away from the traditional piece shape yet, but by turning them 45 degrees all the edge pieces become triangles - very easy to differentiate but impossible to form as a frame on their own. I made all the tabs for the edge pieces face out and combined the two corner pieces into one large triangle for structural integrity.

By using a non-cartesian grid I was also freed up to base the visual design on a cartesian grid without it conflicting with the pieces. Heavily inspired by [Matt Deslauriers'](https://www.instagram.com/mattdesl_art/) and [Manolo Gamboa Naon's](http://manoloide.com/) work with grids I started placing random configurations of circles, semi-circles, and squares on the canvas. The eureka moment came when I added a second layer of double the size, but offset it by half a cell.

Each layer has two colours, and by using different blend modes for each layer it generates a mostly-harmonious palette out of completely random hues. Each shape also has a random opacity - this doesn't add much to the work as a piece of art, but as jigsaw artwork, having slightly different colours across the puzzle makes it so much easier and more pleasant to solve.

I found this jigsaw a delight. Because I wasn't able to make a frame, I concentrated on the most distinct groups of colour and worked out from there. The puzzle had a good mix of pieces with straight lines, curved lines, and more complex intersections. It was discomforting to lay out the pieces on the diagonal initially instead of building the whole puzzle as a diamond, but a fun, fizzy sort of discomfort.



# [025](/025)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/025_prb-zxv-efv-qqj-hoj-zio_zla-xqt-tvh-xcg?raw=true)

For the last design in this painting series I wanted to focus on the texture of the strokes so reduced the palette to a single colour, and I zoomed in on the flow field to focus on one main sweep across the design.

I think the artwork is exceptionally beautiful, I feel the power in each of the strokes and they look quite realistic, but with a tiny hint of the synthetic. I struggled with how much to vary the lightness of the strokes to make it a solvable puzzle, and think I dissatisfied both sides. The artwork is compromised by artificial highs and lows, while the majority of the puzzle pieces were so samey they were very difficult to place.



# [024](/024)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/024_qgd-zsn-vhu-dpe-ycp-iig_akk-zbx-sms-frz?raw=true)

This design daubs short, thick brushstrokes on the digital canvas. I thought its basic colour groupings would make for quite an easy and boring puzzle, but I was surprised how the subtle changes in colours and the soft edges between the blotches made it fun to solve. I was stumped towards the end with the larger planes of light blue but they came together eventually.



# [023](/023)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/023_jzz-nxc-jix-olt-qdo-hey_ins-syq-xeq-kca?raw=true)

An evolution of [022](/022), this tapers the start and end of each stroke and varies their lightness more significantly, creating more natural paint-like shapes on the canvas.



# [022](/022)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/022_lza-tnj-vkb-lug-ors-zgw_ete-yxl-vlv-ius?raw=true)

This is the start in a series of expressionist paintings using flow fields.

For each stroke a set of bristles is created - small circles randomly arranged within a larger circle, with slightly varying brightnesses. The bristles are dragged across the design in the direction of the flow. The low opacity strokes overlapping create a mottled paintbrush effect.

The outcomes look like they could be made by a toddler splashing paint on a canvas, so decided to lean in to that and opt with bright, clashing poster paint-esque colours.

The resulting puzzle had a good spread of colours, and although the textures of the brushstrokes were quite subtle they helped to guide the solve; overall very enjoyable.



# [021](/021)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/021_sdh-vts-mbs-nzu_wab-zdg-khr-cje?raw=true)

This uses triangles to form the strokes on a higher fidelity flow field, resulting in highly chaotic, crystalline designs.

I found the jigsaw much harder to solve than expected, because although there are clear swathes of colour throughout the puzzle, the pieces don't lead on from one another in an obvious way.



# [020](/020)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/020_iyo-lks-mrj-hpg_ivl-rtu-yvc-ppm?raw=true)

In this design strokes are formed from a series of rectangles, creating thick marker lines when straight but splaying out as they curve. The strokes vary in width much more than in recent designs, so the results are much less predictable (and with the re-intoduction of a larger range of hues, often ugly). The lack of rounded corners give the design a glitchy aesthetic which work well.

I picked quite a tame result to turn into the jigsaw - not too far from the gradient effect seen in [019](/019) - but I enjoyed following the edges of the larger block-coloured shapes to complete the composition.



# [019](/019)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/019_les-ata-zpn_gfq-ioy-jgv-gkb?raw=true)

The strokes are packed tightly together at a low opacity, making sweeping, feathery fans. In high density areas the strokes blend together to create a painterly effect, but in emptier areas the shape of the spines is made clear.

This was the closest to a gradient puzzle I've made so far - where the main strategy of solving it was to find the brightest / darkest / pinkest / bluest pieces and place them in order; I find this type of design much less engaging than having also to consider the texture, orientation, or composition of pieces to put them together.



# [018](/018)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/018_ico-omr-mlv-vwi_fdn-bay-xlt-ire?raw=true)

Instead of the solid colour strokes in [017](/017) and [018](/018), this turns them into spines where the rounded spokes fill out the width of the stroke.

I selected a design for the puzzle which had a very distinct gradient running across it, making it much easier to put together from one side rather than doing all the edge pieces first.



# [017](/017)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/017_zao-ozs-qlq-osa_prm-vxo-jlb-vue?raw=true)

In this design the strokes expand to fill the empty space, creating eerie, almost biological forms. This inverts the colours of [016](/016) with a luminous light-on-dark pallette.

I found it fun to match the more-isolated groups of colour together before connecting all the edge pieces of the puzzle and work outwards from there.



# [016](/016)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/016_hmy-osy-bwk-unc_quv-sjw-wmk-fbo?raw=true)

Evolving from [015](/015), the strokes on each layer are positioned using noise, creating clusters of strokes across the design.

This also introduces a generative colour palette; the hue and brightness are selected using noise, light layers use a 'multiply' blend mode and dark colours use 'screen', creating really unique and beautiful intersections between the strokes.

I found this much more pleasant to solve than [015](/015) because of how the colours are grouped across the design.



# [015](/015)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/015_gld-bjl-lvq_ubp-vxr-svd-ncj?raw=true)

Layers of strokes are composited over one another with slightly altered flow fields; the blend modes of each layer create a vivid palette where the colours intersect.

Although the layered effect created a beautiful design it made for a really tricky jigsaw. Finding the thickest strokes to follow was confused by all of the stacked strokes, and it was impossible to group pieces by colour as the colours are spread across the design.



# [014](/014)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/014_bub-ahr-pba_zgf-kbo-rwn-sxo?raw=true)

In this design the longest strokes are transparent, leaving thick empty trails in a design otherwise crowded with curves.

I thought leaving gaps in the design would make it really clear which pieces border the empty strokes and provide a skeleton to work from, but the solid green pieces were the hardest to match up (in retrospect, a very obvious consequence), so solving the puzzle relied on finding the thickest pieces and working outwards from there.



# [013](/013)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/013_eui-xjv-ter_grw-guj-xfx-yqv?raw=true)

This design renders the strokes from flow fields as a series of dots. The colours of the dots correspond to the orientation of the stroke, the total length of the stroke, and how far through the stroke the dot is.

This was a terrifically difficult and unenjoyable puzzle to solve because there was very little continuity of the strokes between the pieces, and the colours aren't significantly distinguished across the design to be able to group in any meaningful way.



# [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.



# [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.



# [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.



# [009](/009)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/009_lah-lll-yjd-edr-yqn_uav-efp-cka-xja?raw=true)

In this design the start and end of each stroke blur into their surroundings because the circles that make up the thick strokes are drawn with a low opacity.

The small hints of where the colours blend into each other made this puzzle a treat to solve, compared to the samey hard line edges in [007](/007) and [008](/008).



# [008](/008)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/008_qog-djz-nlo-ymb-kpn_qps-jrl-yww-wji?raw=true)

Similar to the simple block-colour design of [007](/007) but where the thickness of each mirrored worm varies along its path, resulting in glutinous, yonic forms.

Although the shapes created with this design feel very different to [007](/007), the resultant jigsaw solve felt extremely similar, paying attention solely to how the curves separate the contrasting colours.



# [007](/007)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/007_ogt-gad-uby-xhl-soc_xpl-gbj-bqy-ebu?raw=true)

Returning to simpler forms, a happy accident while trying to make mirrored pairs of worms led to this block-colour design. The jagged edges from worm clashes appear sparingly; brash colours and simple curves are the primary features of the design.

Unlike the dense textures of the previous few puzzles, this pattern was more pure - the solve relying entirely on matching neigbouring colours, made more difficult by the restricted colour palette.



# [006](/006)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/006_kdo-zya-xnv-uum-ejs_gtx-xat-eoh-que?raw=true)

Evolving from the previous two puzzles, this design adds one more degree of orientational complexity by using triangular worms pointing in two directions.

I found the solve less engaging than [005](/005) because the curves were much looser, so there wasn't a lot of variation in the thicknesses of the lines between neighbours. I was largely reliant on grouping colours and orientations rather than being able to pick out neighbouring pieces by eye.



# [005](/005)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/005_acr-arl-ayd-qxv-zya_tol-zop-ovo-qfo?raw=true)

Evolving from [004](/004), this design uses square instead of circular worms. Each piece has lines at right angles with varying thicknesses and offsets.

The constraints in this design made it a delightful puzzle to solve; the limited colour pallette loosely groups areas of the puzzle, but the gradation of the lines and edges where the two orientations meet were the keys to solving it.



# [004](/004)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/004_bhx-wni-eri-qgn-hyx_rpv-wzk-yiv-phv?raw=true)

Similarly to [002](/002), this design has worms exploding from the centre, but the shadow points away from the worms' starting point. With a tight gap between the two offset circles the resulting crescents are much more defined.

This puzzles presented an interesting challenge because almost all the pieces are the single background colour, with only five foreground colours to differentiate between. Solving the puzzle was largely contingent on matching up the highlighted edges of the curves and matching orientations between the crescents.



# [003](/003)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/003_nqp-luy-ntg-ghj_aum-wln-bqg-sac?raw=true)

This design uses one main accent colour to offset each of the worms. The worms oscillate horizontally in alternating directions, limiting the spiky texture to two orientations.



# [002](/002)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/002_zeb-usb-gcg-xgj-qod_hsj-usg-zlg-nnh?raw=true)

With a more limited colour palette, each worm starts in the centre of the design and travels outwards. Unlike [001](/001) the layers are rendered sequentially instead of one worm at a time, resulting in craggy lines where the worms clash into one other.



# [001](/001)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/001_rtb-wzn-tii-xnq-qgo-enq_rsj-gbc-ptu-hnw?raw=true)

For my first series of jigsaws I wanted to use a classic jigsaw pattern so I could explore what makes traditional jigsaws so engaging - what levels of complexity in colour, shape, and texture hit the sweet spot between a puzzle being boring because it's too easy and frustrating because it's too hard?

The jigsaw pattern is created using a cartesian grid where each of the cross points is distorted by layers of 2D simplex noise, the distortion is softened towards the outside to make the edge pieces more uniform in shape. To make the pieces lines are drawn between each of the points, adding a tab that points in a random direction. The first pass of this algorithm is lightweight - there's no intelligent mapping to ensure the pieces are similar sizes or to avoid pieces with four or zero tabs.

The design for this puzzle is inspired by [one of my first generative art sketches](https://twitter.com/charlotte_dann/status/785482524621467650). It uses wondering worms (curving at a constant speed but changing direction every now and then) where the head of each worm is drawn as two circles offset from one another, resulting in a crescent hatching between the two layers. The vibrant colours and bold shapes made this a joy to solve.
