Pointillism
(Published on 15. September 2026, 14:00 by Sudokujoker)
This puzzle is a homage to the Pointillist art movement of the 1880s and 1890s. This is one of my favourite art styles due to the painstaking method of building a picture from tiny dots, almost like a precursor to today's pixels on a screen.
This puzzle may be confusing at first glance, but I also felt the need to cover a blank canvas with nothing but dots of pure colour. When you look closer you should be able to find a logical path :)
Sudokupad link: https://sudokupad.app/k0q3uy2lhi
I have also made a slightly more colourblind-friendly version, where each coloured dot is labelled with the first initial of its colour: https://sudokupad.app/tswmc87ejm
Normal sudoku rules apply. In addition, coloured dots between cells indicate the following:
Red: one cell is odd and the other is even.
Orange: the cells differ by at least 4.
Yellow: the cells are not consecutive numbers.
Green: the cells differ by 5 or more.
Blue: the two cells add together to give a multiple of 5.
Purple: either both cells are prime, or both are non-prime.
Black: one cell is exactly double the other.
White: the two cells are consecutive.
Solution code: Row 1
Comments
on 25. September 2026, 08:44 by Sudokujoker
A big thanks to everyone for the puzzle rating and kind comments! It's very satisfying when a concept you've been working on for weeks gets a positive reception.
Palletpusher- I like the idea of dots on vertices between four cells but not sure I have the headspace for that right now... Certainly would be interested if someone else extends this concept. With that arrangement you'd only have about half the number of dots overall so it would be more sparse, whereas I wanted to create the densest arrangement of dots possible.
If anyone enjoyed this so much they would like to give me a gift, thank you!! You can send me a tip via paypal.me/SudokuJ
on 17. September 2026, 00:48 by palletpusher
Beautiful puzzle; I really enjoyed the way in which the logic spread throughout the board.
It felt a bit busy, but some of that was my own fault for adding lines and non-uniform parity colouring which I incrementally synched up. Maybe slightly smaller kropki dots would have been visually preferable for me?
Still, I loved it, and would be interested in seeing if a similar puzzle could be set with the dots on the vertices, which might make for a pleasing effect. Thank you for this, Sudokujoker
on 15. September 2026, 20:43 by Firebird
A work of art!
on 15. September 2026, 18:40 by alarark50
what a great puzzle, thanks!
