
# [050](/050)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/050_pzd-rpe-ojt-xxl_twm-akj-rdr?raw=true)

This design uses exactly the same algorithm as [049](/049) but with much chunkier rotated lines. I love this visual effect, it envelopes me in warm invented memories like looking up at the sun from under the sea or smelling a gorgeous bouquet of flowers gifted by a lover.

In [022](/022) to [025](/025) I was exploring painting with code, making digital brushstrokes with thousands of tiny circles. This algorithm feels more true to digital painting to me; its clearly-perfect lines and curves are appropriately technical, but the expressiveness of the colours and composition speak to an intention that’s rooted in a human perception of beauty.

Although, as a puzzle, it was not particularly effective because the colours had undefined zones which led to frustration. I often find myself taken by a beautiful design without thinking about the implications on the enjoyment of the puzzle; this could have been massively improved by adding more variation in the size and shape of the pieces to compensate for the simplicity of the surface design.



# [049](/049)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/049_tkd-nzb-jwg-hnx_ofy-kzj-hgx?raw=true)

I went in a different direction with this design, focusing on the smeared abstract background and then rotating thin strips of it. I’m really happy with how the softness of the strokes butts up against the sharpness of the rotated lines, at a distance they look painterly while retaining a digital aesthetic. The generated colour schemes and blending are very successful, although I’m a bit disappointed with my decision to add rounded caps to the ends of the rotated lines, I think more organically-shaped caps would have felt less Paint Shop Pro.

I found the repeating smaller areas of colour more challenging to solve, but I was glad I restricted the rotated strips to 30° increments because this gave a hint at the orientation of each piece. This was a delightful puzzle.



# [048](/048)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/048_yxa-wiw-los-roj_csf-wok-drx?raw=true)

In this design I’m using a grid of rotated squares rather than randomly-placed circles so the output is much more angular. I found that with a simpler refraction effect the blurred-circle background wasn’t having the same impact, so instead I used smears of different colours to make the background image. I think this blended the colours more seamlessly and added more intrigue across the design, especially in pastel-coloured outputs.



# [047](/047)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/047_ier-szd-bvq-lqz_fig-ubk-oyk?raw=true)

I loved the direction [046](/046) went in so I wanted to turn that up to the max. I increased the number and size of the rotating circles which resulted in a lot more refraction, akin to shattered glass. Although I think this made a more attractive overall design, the level of chaos in each piece made them much harder to align. It was easy to group pieces by size and colour but within each large area pairing up the pieces was a guessing game.



# [046](/046)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/046_gvj-dmr-yin-siz_uio-aeo-hgx?raw=true)

Evolving from [045](/045), this design uses the same rotated circle system but increases the size and angle variance of the circles, disguising the circular forms and making them look more like folded sculptures. It reminds me of a piece of digital art I made years ago where I divided a slow-motion video into triangles and varied the replay delay, [you can watch that here](https://youtu.be/WanNTjMZqXs).

Since [042](/042) colours have been selected randomly by hue which often resulted in garish combinations and it took a lot of curation to find attractive designs. For this design, I developed a colour scheme generator by selecting analogous hues (hues separated by the same degree) and using the [LCH colour space](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HCL_color_space) to give the colours a similar perceptive brightness. Some of the colour schemes lack variance but the colours are always harmonic.

I developed the cut algorithm by placing the tabs asymmetrically on the sides of larger pieces. For sides without tabs I removed the curve and returned to straight edges because I was finding these small curves an easy giveaway of tricky placements. The tab placement was just enough of an extra indication to help with the solve but without being too easy. The spread of gradients and lines across the puzzle felt perfect, a very enjoyable puzzle to solve.



# [045](/045)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/045_ioy-wgt-cgg-zjc_djt-nsu-xjn?raw=true)

I've been thinking about different ways to add visual complexity to an otherwise blurry design and the cones of [044](/044) resembling beams from lighthouses made me think about refraction as a mechanism. This returns to the simpler background of [042](/042) but randomly places circles on the design which rotate the artwork; in areas where multiple circles overlap the refraction effect is compounded resulting in a glitchy look. I think this mechanic can create some beautiful, distinct designs but the placement of the spinning circles has a huge influence on their effectiveness.

Solving this jigsaw was incredibly fun. I enjoyed following the edges of the refracted circles but also had the colour areas and the piece shapes to go off of. I think I've almost reached the platonic ideal of this series of voronoi-generated puzzles.



# [044](/044)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/044_hly-knn-wak-aml-spf_ffe-rel-aev?raw=true)

This design uses multiple layers of cone shapes instead of circles to build the composition. I really like that all the sharp lines are straight but there's still a lot of blending across the pieces. It also has a slightly more chaotic layout than the last few puzzles which made the solve a bit more engaging.



# [043](/043)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/043_nrw-ael-aio_wyc-kjz-kdn?raw=true)

This design evolves from the blurry colourscapes of [042](/042) with much more intentionality about the layering and blending of colours, inspired by [Zach Lieberman](https://www.instagram.com/zach.lieberman/)'s recent colour blending sketches. The spots lean to one side instead of expanding outwards from the centre, creating a composition of circles falling in and out of focus. I really like the astronomical vibe to the result but I'm finding the randomised colour palette a little too saturated and often clashing.

The addition of the sharp circle edges added a lot of intrigue to the individual pieces but didn't significantly influence how I went about solving the puzzle. Beyond broad swathes of colour I was more likely to look at matching the edge shape rather that the colour gradation of the piece itself. I think that's more an indication that the piece distribution and cut algorithm are working really well rather than a slight on this design, but it'll be interesting to keep the same piece shapes and experiment with what sort of visual design can have a more dominant effect on how I approach the solve.



# [042](/042)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/042_yfi-huh-iuc_ojp-vmm-fve?raw=true)

Moving away from harsh grids, this design creates a soft look by layering blurred spots. The four randomly-generated colours overlap to make a dreamy gradiated palette across the design.

It uses a similar cut algorithm to [040](/040) - the centres of each puzzle piece are lightly distorted, making areas of giant pieces and areas of small pieces, but with mostly uniform shapes.

I've shied away from making gradient-esque puzzles (the closest I came was probably in [019](/019)) because I think they present such a minor challenge compared to the complex strategies of puzzles where you have texture and orientation and shapes to guide a solve. Gradient puzzles are all about sorting each piece by its general colour rather than anything exciting about the design of each piece, but for this I quite enjoyed the linearity of completing the puzzle, there weren't any gotchas. I think there was still enough intrigue in the colour matching and looking for matching edges that it didn't feel boring, it was just a very calming jigsaw.



# [041](/041)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/041_izu-plk_kbb-fjx-oxe?raw=true)

The design for this puzzle uses the same colour band algorithm I've been working on since [038](/038). It has more rows than columns so the angles aren't 45 degrees, and adds a subtle grid overlay as well as some distortion for craggier edges, it feels a lot more topological than the previous iterations.

The cut algorithm is the same as [040](/040) but the noise field which determines the piece centers has much more macro distortion, which means that some areas of the puzzle have giant pieces and some have tiny pieces.

I found the solve more boring than expected because of the linearity of solving colour band by band, I wish I'd picked a design that had more visual complexity in it. Despite that, I absolutely loved the variation in piece sizes, and the grid on the design added a counter-intuitive element which was refreshing.



# [040](/040)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/040_pnx-hrz_bhn-cca-rii?raw=true)

In [038](/038) and [039](/039) there was a small bug in the design algorithm which would occasionally result in glitchy hourglass shapes at the edges of the colour bands. For this design I wanted to lean in to that by keeping a small grid but increasing the fidelity of the noise, so there would be more glitches. I like how this spread out the colour groups more across the design.

This uses the same Voronoi-based cut algorithm I've been developing since [038](/038) but increases the distortion of the initial piece centers, leading to a much more varied piece shapes. To ensure the design creates contiguous, laser-cut-able pieces I added collision detection for the tabs; each tab has a preferred side but will flip if it's too close to an edge or another tab, and for edges where there's no safe place to position a tab it's replaced with a curve instead.

Overall I thought this was a really effective puzzle. Although it was still quite easy to follow the islands of colour outwards band by band, the intermix of the colours made this more challenging, and I often found myself searching for pieces by edge length and corner angles rather than colour. I think the range of piece shapes and particularly the amount of edges (and tabs) on each piece, is what makes this puzzle a triumph.



# [039](/039)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/039_cge-ewe_vsg-uwl-wje?raw=true)

This design uses a similar algorithm to [038](/038) but with a smaller, asymmetrical grid. It uses the same set of colours as [038](/038) but enforces a contrast of 1:1.5 between each band and allows repeated colours, resulting in more harmonious generative palettes.

Evolving the Voronoi layout, this tweaks the curve of each piece's tab so they're all one of a kind, and replaces the straight lines on the short edges with curves, making some pieces look much more organic and others with curved cutouts at their corners.

As with the last puzzle, I found this quite easy and satisfying to complete. Because of the straight lines and limited angles of the design, orienting pieces was simple, and the distinctive edges to each piece made filling in even plain areas of colour quite easy and fun.



# [038](/038)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/038_yfj-wya_zew-wmn-lqj?raw=true)

This puzzle introduces a new layout algorithm and a new design algorithm. The piece shapes are created using [Voronoi tessellation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram) - the centre of each piece is positioned in a noise-distorted grid, and the lines between pieces are equidistant to the nearest two centres; if a line is long enough a tab is drawn into it. As this is the first puzzle using this algorithm I wanted to keep the pieces fairly regular, but this does result in pieces with up to six edges.

The design is inspired by [Topography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topography), a digital map is created using noise and each band of depth corresponds to a different colour, and the lines between the bands are only drawn at 45-degree angles.

Many of my recent puzzles have relied on layering and blending a small selection of random colours to create a pleasing palette, but for this series I wanted to engage with colour more directly. I picked a set of ten colours from across the rainbow which, if I'm honest, clash quite horribly. The artwork only uses seven at a time though, and it's interesting to see which combinations and neighbours work well together and which don't. The iteration I picked to produce has a particularly garish palette!

Solving the puzzle was surprisingly easy; I filled in the islands of colour first and worked outwards band by band. Although many of the piece shapes look rectangular, a lot of them have slightly bevelled corners which are big indicators of whether they fit in a space or not. I also really enjoyed placing the occasional wacky piece shape.



# [037](/037)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/037_cfz-ngc_vri-zwz-okd-moj-iuq?raw=true)

The design for this puzzle uses a very similar algorithm to [036](/036) but by using strokes instead of fills the outcome has a very different aesthetic. The grid of rosettes has only three rows and columns, but with some offset by half a unit and rotating in the opposite direction, the clashing lines lead to a lot of variation in the design of each of the pieces.

Continuing to play with the format of a standard puzzle grid, this jigsaw has horizontal slashes across the layout, resulting in about half the board being edge pieces.

I felt that the unusual piece layout didn't have a huge effect on the solve of this puzzle because of the clarity of the design. Since [026](/026) the orientation of the pieces has been at odds to the design (diagonal grid with a square-derived design or vice versa), but here the clearest motifs in the design were the vertical and horizontal lines which align with the piece orientation, making it much easier to follow the lines between the pieces and reducing the distraction of the edge pieces.



# [036](/036)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/036_csw-hkd_kde-lss-gxc-itl-ikk?raw=true)

The design for this puzzle uses a variation of the [034](/034) design of recursively rotating and shrinking diamonds, with a much more shallow rotation, bigger size, and a low-opacity fill instead of stroke. It uses a standard cut layout but with mini-puzzles hidden inside, ranging from 1×3 to 5×5.

Unlike [035](/035) where I could solve all the mini puzzles first, this layout was a confusing mishmash of 1- 2- 3- and 4-sided pieces. I had to unlearn what each of these piece types meant and concentrate only on the design and single edge by single edge.

More so than any puzzle I've done so far I felt this was an interesting study into subverting the expectations of what a jigsaw puzzle is and how they're meant to be solved.

I'm enjoying playing with the format of the jigsaw while maintaining what mostly look like standard pieces - it's reminiscent of [Yuu Asaka's Jigsaw Puzzle 29](https://puzzlescore.com/en/brands/yuu-asaka/), considered an extremely hard puzzle to solve at only 29 pieces, complicated by containing 5 corners. I'm looking forward to more of this sort of deception.



# [035](/035)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/035_nqg-wzo_yiu-sez-fsl-civ-wkj?raw=true)

This puzzle is a slight variation on [034](/034) with a much more dense, zoomed-out design. The cut layout has a series of small 2×2 puzzles inside of it, so there are about 30 corner pieces and more edge pieces than plain pieces.

I began by solving each of the 2×2 puzzles and then focusing on areas of the most distinctive patterns, fitting the 2×2s in as I went. It was difficult to remove the association of edge pieces equalling the outside of the puzzle, and disorienting to connect edge pieces to plain pieces, but I found the challenge really engaging.



# [034](/034)

![canvas](https://res.cloudinary.com/abstract-puzzles/image/upload/w_2000/034_vrv-baz_snk-ggy-xgp-fxm-bjn?raw=true)

This series of designs uses the same structure of a cartesian grid and noise-generated areas of shapes that I've been employing since [026](/026). This time the shape is a diamond that recursively shrinks and rotates 45 degrees based on the depth of the noise in an area. I set the scale so the squares and diamonds fit inside each other, and alternate between screen and multiply blend modes to make little orthogonal rosettes. I filled the gaps between the outer layer of diamonds with square rosettes.

The cut on this puzzle returns to a cartesian grid last seen in [025](/025), but with seven rectangular pieces across the design, resulting in about one and a half as many edge pieces. This layout discouraged me from solving the outer frame first but it was still quite easy to group by the shapes and colours on the pieces so the overall solve wasn't very disrupted by the odd layout.



# [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 palette.

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.
