Calling jigsaw experts...

[FusionChefGeoff]

How on earth would you approach this sky??!?

Probably with the green and the darker blue as there is slightly less of that.

One piece at a time!

Just find pieces which fit together. Eventually you'll find that you have a group of three or four which fit with a group of two, it will expand gradually. If you have a few small groups of different colours you can take a stab at where they might within the whole picture and have them around there. Youmight find that your idea where they might go is wrong but meanwhile you're expanding other small grouos and making bigger grouos which fit together and give more distinctive clues as to where they will eventually go.

But there's so many of them

I was so pleased I cracked the yellow field yesterday but feeling defeated now

It actually isn’t difficult. There’s enough of the different colours to make it quite easily put together. Just start. Make piles of each of the colours, then start finding pieces that work together. Also have you done the full edge?

Arrange the piece into shapes and colours. Be methodical. Then as more bits for together it will be easier.

Yes I've done the edge

Then you can just move around from various areas of the sky to doing another layer around the edge. Helps it not to be too boring.

(Plus to be fair one doesn’t necessarily need to be maternal in order to have plenty of sex, which is the important bit for providing heirs... )

Ah shit, wrong thread!! Quite a leap in subjects...

Find tiles of the same shade and build those then fill in the gaps around those patches

I usually do clouds first.

I would probably find pieces which are part blue and part white to build around edges of clouds, then fill the clouds in

Ooh I did this jigsaw last year.
Just find a certain shade of blue and you will find your eyes adjust to seeing the correct shade and do the larger patches first.

Assuming you’ve done the entire tree on the right, which would give you a bit of the sky, I’d start in the centre of the sky. The blue there is darker and more ultramarine than it is in different places, so I’d find those pieces first and put that together.

Oh great so it is doable then . I'm not really very experienced with jigsaws and I feel Ive perhaps stretched myself a bit too quickly with this one but I love the painting so much I didn't really think about the jigsaw element!!

Put all the similar shades into separate piles plus a pile for transitions. Put those together then put them where they need to be.

Just don’t put yourself under any pressure to do it quickly! The journey is half the fun.

We’ve just spent a year doing a jigsaw puzzle!

The only jigsaw I have ever abandoned had about half the picture as plain white sky - it was just boring.

This looks quite interesting sky and has a lot of detail to start matching up what pieces you can, then you will see how they all fit together.

Now I need to know what is the other thread mincemeat is looking at...

I'm no expert, but when I'm doing a jigsaw and there is an area like that with lots of the similar colour, I switch to looking more at the shapes of the pieces and what shape might be needed to fit another. So is the cut out "space" particularly large or small, or is there a notable angular look to a piece that would require a rather specific shaped piece to fit it? Helps me get a few pieces together into groups and then I can pull in the rest. Obviously matching any colour shading of course but I do find it helps.

If I get really stuck then I sort the pieces into piles by shape (four outie bits, three outie + one innie, two of each opposite, two of each side by side, three innie + one outie, four innie).

Then I start with places where there are three sides to match and just work my way through the two piles that would work for that spot. Then I go to the parts where there are two sides to match and work my way through the three piles that match.

If the piles aren't too big then I keep them in groups but lay them all out so that I can try the best colour matches within the group first.

Yes we use the shapes too. That becomes especially useful toward the end when you’re filling the inevitable spaces.

@TonTonMacoute it’s the current S&B Royal fashion/jewellery thread!

This is how I beat the yellow into submission yesterday but this is a much bigger area.

I've made some very very minimal progress on the bit between tree and edge.

Keep sorting and resorting but the shades all seem to blur into one

I do this.