Visual puzzles

A butterfly gradually emerges when you solve this puzzle by Alex Eaton-Salners

Andrew Zhou recreates Magritte's The Treachery of Images.

In 2017, Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen continued a year-end NYT crossword tradition by creating this connect-the-dots Christmas theme.

Why just have a horse racing theme when you can get a bonus image by connecting the dots?

The horsehead puzzle was the inspiration for this Ella Fitzgerald homage by Olivia Mitra Framke.

In this tribute to Johnny Mercer, a classic Elizabeth C. Gorski connect-the-dots puzzle, the treble clef emerges only after the letters in the circles are determined.

A Gorski visual puzzle is a year-end tradition. This "Good One!" arrived at the end of 2013.

This delicious gingerbread man is her Christmas Day 2011 contribution.

Is it getting hot in here? That's a very large Carbon footprint.

Connect the dots in this Halloween puzzle to trace a scary bat.

This titanic grid commemorates the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the unsinkable.

The grid by Patrick Blindauer has to be filled before determining that it's the letter S that must be shaded, revealing an Invisible Man.

Peter A. Collins and Joe Krozel make a tree out of five LIMBs, three ROOTs, and a TRUNK.

For Flag Day 2009, Alex Boisvert asks us to color the circles blue and any word containing an R red to reveal a familiar image.

A year later, Francis Heaney gave us this international Flag Day treat. Rebus squares contain color names, and groups of them become flags which have to be interpreted as appropriate country names for the Across answers. I named this my Puzzle of the Year for 2010.

In "Perpetual Motion" the theme answers are all about endlessness.

Milo Beckman has us draw an arrow, stupid!

It's unusual to have a science or math theme in an NYT puzzle, particularly one of this depth and complexity. The FIBONACCI SERIES F(n) starts 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987,… . Each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. The ratio between successive numbers in the series approaches the GOLDEN RATIO (an irrational number approx 1.618) as n approaches infinity. Artists have traditionally considered this relationship the most aesthetically pleasing. It is said to be observed in nature in, for example, the growth of nautilus chambers, and the patterns of artichoke leaves or sunflower seeds.

ETs combine to make a flying saucer about to abduct a cow.

The theme is sailboats and Daniel A. Finan has us connect to dots to draw one ourselves.

More wind power, this time lifting a kite aloft.

Voilà, la Tour Eiffel. Rather than using circles, the key squares are indicated by rebus entries.

Daniel A. Finan follows suit with what I like to think of as a musical tribute to Elizabeth C. Gorski. This puzzle might hold the record for most gimmicks in a single grid. Click the image to read more.

The envelope please...

In this rainy-day puzzle, the letters in the word UMBRELLA must be spelled out in order to see the shape.

David J. Kahn gave us this nautical reflection on a Matisse masterpiece.

Kevin Der lined up the planets to give us a movie of a lunar eclipse.

This Election Day 2008 puzzle shows us how to cast a ballot by tracing all the Vs in the grid.

The Amazing Spider-Man is hanging by a very long thread.

There was a similar theme on a smaller scall in this funny Jungle Swinger puzzle by Harvey Estes and Nancy Salomon.

Barry Boone was the constructor but he had us construct the house ourselves.

A rather different structure, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, is spelled out in circles.

More American architecture with this celebration of Seattle, including the Space Needle.

This monumental achievement celebrates the pyramid.

Here's another 3-D image, this time a single die with the "snake eye" side visible.

Helium atoms form a circle to create a red balloon.

Young star Caleb Madison contributed this puzzle to the 2008 Teen Puzzlemaker Week.

To complete this remarkable 3-D puzzle by Kevin G. Der, you must fold along the lines indicated and then GO THROW THE PAPER AIRPLANE.

This construction project by Ben Pall has us color in the O's to make pips on a die.

The name is Gorski, Elizabeth Gorski, and the puzzle is shaken, not stirred. Or is it the other way around?

Another year-end visual from the queen of such puzzles.

Patrick Blindauer has us shade in some squares after solving this July 4, 2007 birthday puzzle.

Once again, rebus squares hide the visual element.

This ambitious dot-connector provides a recipe for a cool summer soda from a DINER.

This scarlet letter puzzle is a kind of precursor to the Invisible Man above but with a different approach. The clue for 65 Across is "California team [and 18 letters in the grid to circle ... and then connect using three lines]" and the answer is THE A'S.

This one is similar. We're asked to find the letter that appears 21 times. It's an S. If you connect them all, you get the shape of a big S.

Rebus keys again. A flock of birds flies off to the right in V Formation.

This year-end Christmas tree is, as far as I know, the first puzzle where the solver connects the dots in alphabetical order.

Here's another tree celebrating the annual Manhattan Tree Lighting Ceremony.

All the circles in Downward Spiral contain the letter O in this puzzle about the famous double helix. The answer to 3 Down is DESOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID.

This year-ender is more like a visual movie than an image. Follow the progress of the answer at 25 Down to ring in the New Year. As with any of these, click the thumbnail to see the full puzzle.

This rather different sort of ball isn't even round.

Another year-end puzzle showing the time on the clock when the yearly odometer changes over.

In this early example by Eric Albert, connecting STAR rebus squares forms a familiar constellation.

The Shortz Era started with this rainbow grid from Peter Gordon.