Thistle Head and Leaf Scrolls in a Square Glass Panel Coloring Page

One thistle stands alone in the middle of a square panel on a straight upright stem. The head is the draw. A bulb of overlapping bracts builds up from the stem in rows of pointed closed shapes, and out of the top springs a crown of narrow spikes that fan in every direction. Below the bulb a ring of long curved bracts sweeps out to each side like a collar.

Four spined leaves step off the stem, two to each side, each one drawn as a single closed shape with a deep vein line down the middle and sharp teeth along both edges. Tiny dots sit in the leaf hollows.

The panel itself is simple on purpose: a plain open background, a narrow rule across the top and bottom, and a heavy frame with cut corners. There are no background cells to fill, so everything you do lands on the plant.

Purple head, gray green leaves and a pale background is the traditional answer. If you want more out of the page, shade the bracts in rows from dark at the base to light at the crown, which makes the bulb read as round instead of flat. A sharp pencil handles the spikes far better than a marker. Allow twenty five minutes or so.