Axolotl Coloring Pages

The axolotl is a salamander that never grows up. It keeps its feathery external gills and stays in the water its whole life instead of transforming and walking onto land the way other salamanders do, and that permanent-larva look (wide head, tiny hands, what appears to be a smile) is why it became an internet favorite. These 43 axolotl coloring pages lean into it, and every design downloads as a free printable PDF sized for US Letter paper.

The set divides three ways. Some are underwater scenes where the axolotl does what a real one does, drifting among plants and bubbles. Some dress it up, in hats and scarves and sweaters, with nothing on the page but the animal and its costume. The rest are plain character poses, built around a single gesture or one prop.

Underwater scenes

These are the habitat sheets, and it is the water that changes rather than the axolotl. Cute Axolotl Smiling With Feathery Gills is the plainest portrait in the set, with the thickest lines and the fewest separate areas. Axolotl Surrounded by Water Flowers and Lily Pads and Tiny Baby Axolotl in Water With Bubbles add a little scenery without crowding anything.

Axolotl Family Swimming Together Underwater and Two Axolotls Playing Together With Bubbles put more than one animal on the page, which invites you to color them as near twins or push them deliberately apart. Axolotl and Colorful Fish Friends Underwater has the largest cast.

The slower sheets reward patience. Axolotl Surrounded by Intricate Underwater Plants, Axolotl With Bubbles and Detailed Underwater Coral and Axolotl Hatching From a Tiny Egg Underwater fill almost every inch of paper. Sleeping Axolotl Resting on a Rock With Seaweed and Axolotl Sitting on a Lily Pad in a Pond are the calmest.

Two sheets put the animal behind glass. Axolotl in a Decorated Aquarium With Plants and Axolotl in a Decorative Fishbowl With Pebbles both want the glass left almost entirely alone. Cartoon Axolotl With Big Eyes and Cute Expression is the one portrait drawn in the detailed style.

Dress-up sheets

This group gives the axolotl something to wear, and the costume is always the boldest shape on an otherwise quiet page. Axolotl Wearing a Party Hat and Axolotl Wearing a Tiny Crown both sit a small hollow shape on top of the head, so they finish fast. Axolotl Wearing a Winter Hat is the opposite: its knitted crown is drawn as rows of separate stitches and takes real time.

Axolotl Wearing a Scarf gives you three fabric panels and a row of fringe to stripe however you like. Axolotl Wearing a Sun Hat has the largest unbroken areas of any sheet here, and its eyes are left as open rings rather than filled pupils, so even those are yours to decide. Axolotl Wearing Rain Boots and Axolotl Wearing a Cape move the costume down to the body, and the cape in particular is big enough to hold a gradient. Axolotl Wearing a Snorkel Mask is the only sheet with a second piece of glass to think about, in the two lenses of the mask.

Six more costume sheets joined this group in October. Axolotl Wearing a Flower balances one open bloom on top of the head, five petals around a plain center, and leaves the animal itself unmarked. Axolotl Wearing a Bow Tie puts its only garment under the chin and hands the rest of the page to three broad gill frills on each side. Axolotl With a Bow on Its Head carries the lightest line work on the hub, with blushed cheeks and a bow that sits forward of the gills so no shape overlaps another.

Axolotl Wearing a Knitted Sweater is the slowest page in the set, a full torso of ribbed rows and stitch squares. Axolotl With a Tummy Pouch is the fastest, with the boldest strokes on the hub and a plain satchel across the belly. Axolotl Wearing Sunglasses sits between those two, and its two hatched lenses are the only pre-shaded areas in the collection.

Poses and props

This group is pure character work. Axolotl Waving Hello and Axolotl Stretching Its Arms Up are built around one raised gesture, with the arms crossing in front of the gills to give the pose some depth. Axolotl Smiling With Its Eyes Closed has the emptiest face in the set, which makes it unusually responsive to a single color choice. Axolotl Sitting Up Tall carries the widest gill fan of any page here.

Axolotl Holding a Heart leaves a large blank heart across the chest, which works as a valentine, a thank you or a get well card once something is written inside it. Axolotl Holding an Umbrella has the best pattern opportunity on the hub, eight canopy panels waiting for alternating tones. Axolotl Standing on a Rock is the only one of the earlier sheets with a real setting around it, grass tufts and a cracked boulder included. Axolotl in a Teacup and Axolotl in a Tall Glass Jar both tuck the animal inside a container drawn large enough to hold it comfortably.

The October sheets widen this group too. Axolotl Curled Up in a Circle closes the body and tail into one ring, which hands you a single enclosed shape to work. Axolotl Floating is the simplest page on the hub, arms stretched wide and six smooth gill stalks, with nothing drawn underneath the animal at all. Axolotl Holding a Star raises one arm to a five point star drawn large and left empty.

Axolotl Peeking Over a Rock hides everything below the chest behind a boulder that fills the bottom half of the paper. Axolotl in a Porthole looks straight down through a thick ring that frames the whole animal on every side. Axolotl With Spots on Its Back is the only full side view in the collection, with about a dozen open circles running from the shoulders down the tail.

Coloring the gills

The gills are the part worth planning on every sheet in this set. They branch out from behind the head like three feathery fronds on each side, and they read best a shade or two deeper than the body. Most pet axolotls are pale pink with distinctly redder gills, because the blood vessels sit right at the surface. On the sheets where the stalks are separated by clean white gaps, such as the sitting and standing poses, you can push that contrast hard without anything turning muddy. On the hat sheets the brim crowds the gills into short stubs, so keep those simple and let the headwear carry the color instead.

Water and glass follow one rule between them: do less than you think. Leave bubbles as bare paper with a single dark curve down one side and they turn round on their own. Leave an aquarium, a fishbowl, a teacup or a jar mostly white, tint only the edges, and the container reads as transparent immediately.

More water-dwelling line art: Ocean Animals, Sharks and Mermaids.