Mystery Color by Number Printable Grids With a Clue, Not a Name

Eight pixel pictures keep their names secret: pick a grid under Mystery pictures, choose a Size, then press Print.

Name Date

Color by number: Mystery grid 1

Clue: it crosses the water with no engine, pushed along by the wind.

Color each square by its number. 0 means leave the square white.

000002000000
000002100000
000042110000
000442111000
004442111100
044442111110
000002111111
000002000000
222222222222
022222222220
333333333333
333333333333

To color on screen, choose a color in the key, then tap the squares.

Mystery grid 1, 12 by 12, 4 colors.

Answer key: not printed.

More options · 1 changed
Mystery pictures
Size

Print gives a blank worksheet, and the colored answer key on page 2 when that box is ticked. Colors you fill in on screen stay on screen. By keyboard: the arrow keys move around the grid, Enter colors a square, a digit colors it by that number and Backspace clears it.

Next step Stay at the beach with summer pixel picturesHide the colors behind math facts

How it works

Every mystery color by number printable here is a pixel picture that keeps its name to itself. The 8 grids go by number, with a clue where the title would be. Each fits one Letter or A4 page. The answer prints only if you ask.

Read the full guide

Three ways the picture stays hidden

The worksheet is titled Mystery grid 1 to 8, and each tile under Mystery pictures shows a question mark. Every key is scrambled: the color that fills the most squares is never number 1.

White squares print a 0, so no blank outline gives the shape away. For a gentler sheet, untick Put 0 in the white squares in More options.

A pixel art color by number printable with a clue

Here is a first hint: grids 1 to 3 belong by the sea, grids 4 to 6 around the house, and grids 7 and 8 in the woods. Easy keys take 3 to 5 crayons from the basic 8. Detailed keys take 5 to 8, and all but grid 6 add light blue, gray, pink or light green.

  • Read the clue aloud and collect written guesses before anyone colors. Ask again at the halfway mark.
  • Grid 6 is quickest: 70 squares easy, 236 detailed. Grid 7 is longest, because every square gets a color.
  • Short on crayons? Easy grid 5 needs only 3: yellow, blue and red.

Questions and answers

Where is the answer to each mystery grid?

In the answer key, which is off when the page opens. Tick Answer key on page 2 in More options, then press Print this sheet, and page 2 carries the colored picture with its real name. Show the names labels every tile.

Can pupils color on screen and skip the printer?

Yes. Choose a color in the key, then click or tap each square with its number. Check my coloring frames each wrong square. A correct grid earns a tick on its tile. Colorings stay in this browser.

Which grids are hardest to guess early?

Grids 2 and 7, because their backgrounds are colored in too and the shape never stands alone against white. New to pixel pictures? Print a named one from the starter set first.

All 8 pictures

By the sea 3

  • Mystery grid 1 Clue: it crosses the water with no engine, pushed along by the wind. Two triangles stand above one long brown shape. Easy: 4 colors, 85 squares to color. Detailed: 6 colors, 334 squares to color.
  • Mystery grid 2 Clue: it stands on the shore and shines at night so that ships stay off the rocks. The background is filled in, and the only squares left white are the bands across the tall shape in the middle. Easy: 5 colors, 134 squares to color. Detailed: 6 colors, 530 squares to color.
  • Mystery grid 3 Clue: it is heavy, it goes over the side on a chain or a rope, and it stops a boat from drifting. The ring at the top stays white in the middle. Easy: 4 colors, 76 squares to color. Detailed: 7 colors, 307 squares to color.
Show all 8 pictures (5 more)

Around the house 3

  • Mystery grid 4 Clue: it is baked in a pleated paper cup, and at a party there is one for every guest. The striped part at the bottom switches back and forth between 2 colors. Easy: 4 colors, 80 squares to color. Detailed: 7 colors, 336 squares to color.
  • Mystery grid 5 Clue: it has a handle on one side and a spout on the other, and what it pours is hot. One color does most of the work, so the easy key has only 3 numbers. Easy: 3 colors, 90 squares to color. Detailed: 5 colors, 290 squares to color.
  • Mystery grid 6 Clue: it has a neck, a body and no legs, and most kinds have 6 strings to pluck or strum. It stands upright on the easy grid and leans from corner to corner on the detailed grid. It has the fewest squares to color of the 8 at both sizes. Easy: 4 colors, 70 squares to color. Detailed: 5 colors, 236 squares to color.

In the woods 2

  • Mystery grid 7 Clue: it sleeps through the day, hunts in the dark and keeps asking the same one-word question. The night sky behind it is filled in, so every square on this grid gets a color, and the detailed key has 8 colors, the most of the 8 grids. Easy: 5 colors, 144 squares to color. Detailed: 8 colors, 576 squares to color.
  • Mystery grid 8 Clue: it grows on the forest floor and looks like a small umbrella, but it is a fungus and not a plant. The spots on its top stay white. Easy: 4 colors, 94 squares to color. Detailed: 6 colors, 316 squares to color.

How this list was compiled: Our own pixel pictures, drawn square by square for this site on 12 by 12 and 24 by 24 grids. Nothing is traced, scanned or copied from clip art, and no character from a film, show, book, game or brand appears. Each grid is listed by number, its description is a clue, and the real name shows only on the answer key. The key colors are in a scrambled order on purpose. The color and square counts were counted from the finished grids, and the facts in the clues were checked against Wikipedia in September 2026. Licence: own work

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