80 ideas

Puzzle Drawing Ideas for One Piece or a Whole Jigsaw

One puzzle to draw per press: a picture across the pieces, a single piece, a gap or a maze.

More filters

Show all 80

Drawn: A frame of edge pieces with an empty middleA frame of edge pieces with an empty middleJoin only the pieces that have a straight side into a rectangle. The middle is bare table.

Next step Patterns to fill one piece Shadows that lift a piece off the page

All 80 ideas

One picture across the pieces 20

A class mural with one piece per person Everyone gets a blank piece. Agree where the lines cross each edge so the drawings join up.
A face with each piece in a different style One piece in dots, one in hatching, one in flat colour, one in pencil shading. The features still line up.
A family portrait, one person per piece Head and shoulders on each piece. Let one arm reach across a join onto the next.
A favourite-things puzzle Six pieces, one thing you like on each: a food, an animal, a place, a game, a colour, a song.
A globe cut into jigsaw pieces A circle with curved lines of latitude. The puzzle cuts bend with them near the edge.
A half-finished jigsaw on a table Edge pieces joined in a frame, a patch done in the middle, loose pieces and the box lid beside it.
A landscape with different weather on every piece One set of hills running right across. Sun on one piece, rain on the next, snow on a third.

Show all 80 ideas (73 more)

One picture across the pieces, continued

A map of your town as a jigsaw Roads and a river first, in pen. Cut the puzzle lines so no piece holds more than one landmark.
A night sky with a comet crossing the joins Dark pieces scattered with stars, and one long comet tail that passes through four of them.
A rainbow across a row of five pieces One arc running through all five. The bands must meet exactly at each join.
A self-portrait cut into nine jigsaw pieces Draw the face first, then rule a three by three grid over it and turn each line into tabs and blanks.
A street with one house on every piece Different roofs and doors, one pavement running along the bottom through all of them.
A sunset where every piece is one flat colour No blending. Step the colours from yellow at the bottom pieces to deep purple at the top.
A train with one carriage on every piece Engine on the first piece, a different load in each carriage, and the track running through every join.
An animal put together in the wrong order Draw it on six pieces, then redraw the pieces shuffled, so the tail sits beside the nose.
Day on one half of the puzzle, night on the other The same street on both halves. Change only the sky, the windows and the shadows.
Fish swimming across the joins An underwater scene where every fish is split between two pieces. It shows how the puzzle fits.
The four seasons on four pieces One tree in the middle, where the four pieces meet. Each piece gets its own season round it.
Your day from morning to night on six pieces Breakfast on the first, bed on the last. A low sun, a high sun and a moon in the corners.
Your name with one letter on each piece A row of pieces, as many as the letters. Fill each letter with a different pattern.

Inside one puzzle piece 20

A biscuit shaped like a puzzle piece Golden brown with darker edges, a few crumbs, and one bite taken out of a tab.
A corner piece, an edge piece and a middle piece The corner has two straight sides, the edge has one and the middle has none.
A heart made of two interlocking pieces Draw the heart, then one puzzle cut down the middle with a single tab.
A piece doodled from edge to edge Start in one tab and do not lift off until every corner is full. No two doodles the same.
A piece holding a constellation you invent Dark blue with seven stars joined by thin lines. Name it underneath in small letters.
A piece torn from a treasure map A dotted trail enters at one tab and leaves at another. Half a compass rose shows at the edge.
A puzzle piece as a house A door in the bottom tab, windows either side, and the top tab as the chimney.
A puzzle piece as a small island Sand round the rim, green in the middle, one tree on the top tab and waves all round.
A puzzle piece as a window onto a garden Draw a thick edge all round as the frame. The view carries on behind it, out of sight.
A puzzle piece as an aquarium Water line near the top, weed growing up from the lower edge, and one fish inside each tab.
A puzzle piece cut from wood Grain lines run the same way across the whole piece and bend round one knot.
A puzzle piece cut out of the sky Blue with two clouds, one of them sliced off where the piece ends.
A puzzle piece made of clear glass Only the outline, a pale tint and two white streaks. Whatever is behind it shows through, slightly shifted.
A puzzle piece melting at one corner Keep three sides crisp. Let the fourth tab droop, stretch and drip onto the table.
A puzzle piece with thickness and a shadow Draw the outline twice, the second a little down and to the right. Join the corners and shade below.
A puzzle piece wrapped as a present Ribbon crossing over the middle, a bow on top, and wrapping paper that follows every tab.
A puzzle-piece character with arms and legs The side tabs are its shoulders. Add stick arms, legs from the bottom edge and a face in the middle.
Four pieces with four different edge layouts Two tabs and two blanks, three and one, all tabs, all blanks. Line them up in a row.
One giant piece filled with a single pattern Draw the piece as large as the page: four sides, each with a tab or a blank. Fill it edge to edge.
Two pieces shaking hands Face them toward each other and let one tab reach into the other's blank.

Missing and loose pieces 16

A cat sitting on the missing piece A finished puzzle with one gap, and beside it a cat with a corner of cardboard under its paw.
A dog carrying off one piece The piece sticks out of its mouth, a little chewed at one tab. The unfinished puzzle waits behind.
A frame of edge pieces with an empty middle Join only the pieces that have a straight side into a rectangle. The middle is bare table.
A gap that shows the table underneath Wood grain inside the hole, running at a different angle from everything in the picture.
A hand placing the last piece Finger and thumb pinch the piece above its gap. Tilt it so it is not quite lined up.
A loose piece that carries on the animal's pattern A giraffe or a zebra with one piece out of its side. The markings match across the gap.
A piece floating above its gap Draw the hole, then the piece a little up and across from it, with a soft shadow in between.
A pile of loose pieces, some face down Overlap them at all angles. Face-up ones get a scrap of colour; face-down ones are plain grey.
A portrait with one piece missing over an eye Finish the whole face, then leave one piece-shaped gap. Draw only the table through it.
A puzzle with a different world behind each gap Three gaps in one calm picture. Behind them: deep sea, outer space and a jungle.
A sky with one piece lifted out, stars behind Daytime blue all round and a piece-shaped hole that shows a night sky.
A wall with a puzzle-shaped hole in it Plain bricks and a gap the shape of a piece. Through it, a beach.
The last gap, filled in solid black Draw the grid of joined pieces in line only. One empty space is the darkest thing on the page.
The piece that was under the sofa One piece on a dark floor with some dust and a lost button. A strip of light from the room beyond.
Pieces falling away from the edge of a picture The scene is whole on the left. On the right its pieces loosen, tilt and drop.
Sorting trays: edges in one, sky in another Three shallow boxes seen from above, each holding pieces of one kind.

Other puzzles to draw 24

A crossword grid as a black and white pattern Shade some squares black and number the first white square of each run.
A dot-to-dot of your own design Draw a simple outline, mark numbered dots along it, then rub out the line.
A hedge maze seen from above Walls are thick green bands with a shadow down one side. A small bench waits in the middle.
A marble maze in a tilting wooden tray Low walls, a few round holes to steer past, and one steel ball partway along the route.
A maze in the shape of an animal Draw the outline of a snail or a fish and let it be the outer wall.
A nine by nine number grid with bold boxes Rule 81 squares, then thicken the lines round each block of nine. Pencil in a few digits.
A pattern strip with the last shape left blank Circle, square, triangle, and round again. End the row with an empty box and a question mark.
A picture hidden in a grid of filled squares Shade squares on a ten by ten grid to make a simple shape. Write the counts along the top and side.
A pipe puzzle from the tap to the bucket A grid of bends and straight pipes, most turned the wrong way. Only one route joins up.
A puzzle box with a hidden drawer A plain wooden box with one sliding panel part open and a small drawer peeping out.
A rebus that spells your name A small picture for each sound or syllable, with plus signs between them.
A round maze with its goal in the centre Rings of wall with gaps that do not line up. Pencil the route in first, then close off everything else.
A sliding puzzle with fifteen tiles and one gap A four by four frame. Number the tiles out of order and show one halfway into the space.
A tangram bird from the same seven pieces Use every piece once with none overlapping. The parallelogram makes a good tail.
A tangram cat from the seven pieces Five triangles, a square and a parallelogram. Two small triangles make the ears.
A tower of rings on three pegs Three upright pegs on a base, with rings stacked largest at the bottom on the first one.
A twisty cube puzzle caught mid-turn Three layers of nine small squares on each face. Draw the top layer turned a little off the rest.
A wooden cube built from seven block pieces A three by three by three cube with the joins showing, and one odd-shaped piece pulled out beside it.
A word search with one word ringed A square grid of capitals. Hide five words, then draw a long loop round one of them.
Five small objects hidden in a busy scene Tuck a spoon, a key, a sock, a star and a pencil into the lines of a garden or a bedroom.
One object and four shadows to choose from Draw a teapot, then four black shapes. Only one has the spout on the correct side.
Squares laid out in craft sticks Twelve sticks make four small squares in a block. Draw each stick with rounded ends.
Three tangled strings and one balloon Three hands at the bottom, three loose ends at the top. Only one string reaches the balloon.
Two near-identical rooms with seven changes Draw the room twice, as alike as you can. Then alter seven small things in the second one.

How this list was compiled: Original list written for Draw This Next on 2026-09-30: 80 puzzle drawings in four topics (one picture across the pieces, inside one puzzle piece, missing and loose pieces, other puzzles to draw). The easy, medium and hard levels are our own estimates. Puzzle facts were checked against Wikipedia on 2026-09-30: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigsaw_puzzle (tabs and blanks, edge and corner pieces), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_puzzle, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Hanoi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maze, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonogram, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connect_the_dots, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_the_difference, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebus, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_search and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_cube. No brand of puzzle is named. No item repeats a title from any other list on the site. Licence: own work

How it works

A puzzle gives a drawing its rules: the picture has to carry on across every join. These 80 puzzle drawing ideas cover whole jigsaws, single pieces, gaps where a piece is missing, and other puzzles such as mazes.

Read the full guide

Draw the picture first, the cuts second

For One picture across the pieces, finish the drawing, then rule a grid over it and turn each line into tabs and blanks. A class mural works the other way: agree where lines cross each edge, then let everyone fill a blank piece.

Puzzle piece drawing ideas

Inside one puzzle piece has 20 where a single piece is the whole page: an aquarium, a house, a small island. A piece is a square with a tab or a blank on each side; corner pieces have two straight sides.

Draw one tab on card, cut it out and trace round it, so every join matches.
Let something cross each join: a fish, a road, a comet tail. It shows the pieces belong together.

Questions and answers

How do you draw a puzzle piece?

Start with a square. On each side add a tab, a round knob on a short neck, or cut the same shape inward as a blank. Four pieces with four different edge layouts shows the choices.

What is an easy puzzle drawing for a class?

The four seasons on four pieces, or Your name with one letter on each piece. For a group, A class mural with one piece per person gives everyone a blank piece to fill.

What other puzzles can I draw?

Other puzzles to draw has 24: a round maze, tangram animals from the seven pieces, a sliding puzzle with fifteen tiles, a crossword grid, a dot-to-dot and a rebus that spells your name.