Cartoon Hedgehog Carrying An Apple Coloring Page

A hedgehog trots to the right with an apple riding on its back, which is the oldest joke in hedgehog pictures and still a good one. The spines are the whole page. Rather than a solid mass they are drawn as individual teardrop shapes, several dozen of them, scattered over the curve of the back with white paper showing between every one. They start small near the head and grow larger toward the rump. Each is closed, so each takes its own color if you have the patience, and a gradient running from dark at the top of the back to light along the flank is very effective here. The apple sits among the spines near the shoulder with a short stem and one leaf, and it is the only round shape on the sheet, which is why it catches the eye immediately. Give it the strongest color on the page. The face is drawn simply in profile with one eye, a small dark nose and a short smile, and the body below the spines is left completely plain, so a young child can finish the animal quickly while an older one disappears into the spines for half an hour.