I finally managed to combine 2 orbs of the largest size in normal mode (s.th. they vanished). But since you always need to have 2 orbs of the next rank to increase the bar at the top right / get the next picture at the right side, it wasn't enough to fill the bar / get the final picture.
That made me wonder: Do we need to get 2 vanished orbs to "complete" normal mode, or is it impossible to see the final picture in normal mode?