Painting Piece by Piece – What a Puzzle Game Taught Me About Seeing Like an Artist

by Elizabeth Ragona. © 2025 Alabama Art Supply.

Lately, I’ve been playing a puzzle game on my phone—one of those soothing, color-rich apps where you slide tiles into place to complete an image. But something surprising happened while I was playing: I realized how much this game was training my artist’s eye.

When you’re working on a puzzle, you’re not looking at the whole image—you’re focused on just one piece. Maybe it’s a soft peach-pink rectangle with a curved edge, or a corner where two unlikely colors meet. You’re not thinking, “This is a flower petal,” or “This is part of the sky.” You’re asking, “What color is this? Where does it fit?”

And that’s exactly what painting demands of us.

See What’s Really There—Not What You Think You See

One of the hardest parts of painting—especially for beginners—is learning to see. Our brains want to jump ahead and label everything: That’s a leaf, that’s a nose, that’s a shadow. But in doing that, we often miss the actual color, value, or shape.

That puzzle piece mindset—where you isolate just one section and focus on what it really looks like—is an incredibly useful mental shift for painting. You're not thinking about what the thing is. You’re just asking, What color is this? How light or dark is it? What shape is it?

The Paper Window Trick from Artist Kathy Prince

My friend Kathy Prince, an artist and art teacher, shared a fantastic tip that fits right into this puzzle-piece thinking. She showed me how to take a small white piece of paper or napkin and cut a hole in the middle—just big enough to frame a single spot in an image.

You hold it up like a little viewfinder and look through the hole to isolate one area of your reference photo. It filters out all the surrounding distractions and lets you really see the true color and value of that one piece.

Try it next time you’re painting. It’s almost shocking how often your brain has been guessing wrong—until you see the color in context.

Seeing Like a Puzzle Piece – Use a View Catcher

One of the most powerful tools an artist can use to train their eye is something incredibly simple: a view catcher.

Think of it as a real-life version of a puzzle piece. A view catcher helps you isolate just one part of an image, blocking out everything around it so you can focus on shape, value, and color—without distraction.

It could be a fancy adjustable frame, a cardboard cutout, or—if you're like my friend and artist Kathy Prince—a napkin with a hole in it. Commercial view catchers like the one shown in the picture above are made of plastic colored at 50% neutral gray to help you determine if a color is lighter or darker than the gray. This works better than using a white viewfinder because every color is darker than white.  View catchers also have holes just like Kathy's napkin so you can isolate a tiny piece of your reference image to see color value and hue.

Just like when you’re solving a puzzle and focusing on one piece at a time, using a view catcher helps you stop thinking and start seeing—as in really noticing what's there, not what your brain thinks should be there.

Try This:

• Hold your view catcher over a reference photo and study the color or value through the hole. Try to mix a swatch of what you see before checking the rest of the image.

• Compare what you thought it was vs. what it actually is.

It’s amazing how often we’re wrong—and how much better our paintings get when we start seeing like that little piece of the puzzle.

Tips for Artists: Practicing Puzzle Vision

Here are a few ways to train your eye to see like a puzzle solver:

• Use a grid: Divide your reference image into smaller blocks and paint one square at a time.

• Zoom in or crop your photo reference to study individual areas more closely.

• Flip the image upside down to focus on shapes and values instead of objects.

• Make a “paper window or hole” to isolate colors in your reference image.

• Create your own puzzles: Turn your artwork or photo references into actual puzzles—digitally using apps or websites, or physically by printing and cutting them up. Studying and reassembling them will sharpen your awareness of edges, shapes, and color zones.

• Do a swatch study: Try matching small color areas before committing to your canvas.

These practices help break down overwhelm and train you to observe more closely and honestly.

Final Thoughts: One Piece at a Time

We don’t talk about it enough, but a big part of painting is seeing. Not imagining, not interpreting—just noticing what’s really there. A phone puzzle game reminded me of that, and Kathy’s paper window tool brought it into the studio.

Whether you’re painting a portrait or a landscape, try approaching it like a puzzle. Don’t rush to see the whole picture. Just find the next piece. Match the colors. Follow the edges. Trust the process.

Because, like with puzzles, sometimes the joy is in how all the little pieces come together.

Have you tried isolating part of a reference with a napkin or viewfinder? Tag us in your studies or share your favorite “aha” moment in the comments below!

 

Alabama Art Supply is your one-stop shop for all things art! Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned artist, we have everything you need to bring your creative vision to life. From paints and brushes to canvases, sketchbooks, custom framing, and more—if you’re looking for art supplies, we’ve got you covered. Don’t see what you need? Just reach out to us at 205-322-4741—we’re happy to help you find exactly what you're looking for!

Tags: #yourartstore #arttips #arttechniques #artsupplies #birmingham #alabama #artist #creativeexpression #puzzle #painting

← Previous Post Next Post →