What Makes a ‘Mosaic’ Different from a Painting?

A mosaic is like a puzzle made from tiny pieces that all come together to make one big picture, but it's different from a painting because instead of using color and lines drawn smoothly, it uses small colored parts stuck together.

Imagine you have a favorite drawing, maybe of a cat. A painting is like when someone draws the whole cat with one steady hand, coloring each part smoothly, no breaks or corners.

A mosaic, though, is more like taking hundreds of tiny colored squares (called tiles) and sticking them all over paper or wall to make that same picture of a cat. Each tile has its own color, so when you look at the whole thing from far away, it looks like a painting, but up close, you can see all those little pieces!

A painting feels smooth because it's all one surface. A mosaic feels more bumpy, almost like a textured rug under your toes. That’s because each tile is separate and attached.

So while both tell stories with color, a mosaic uses many small parts, just like how you build something with blocks or legos!