Bottlenose Dolphin Leaping Clear of the Waves Coloring Page

A bottlenose dolphin is caught at the top of a leap, body fully clear of the surface in a high arc, beak pointing right and flukes still trailing low. Below it, three thin concentric ellipses stand in for the ring of ripples it left on the way out. Nothing else occupies the page.

Anatomy here is accurate rather than cartooned. The dorsal fin is tall and hooked, the melon rises in a clean dome above a short thick beak, and the flippers sit correctly forward on the chest.

Use this one if you want counter shading to show. Bottlenose dolphins run charcoal along the spine and pale to something near white underneath, with the change happening as a soft gradient rather than a hard line. Blending two or three grays down the flank does more for this drawing than any single flat color.

Bottlenose dolphins clear the water by several times their own body length, and they leap far more often than travel alone would require. Ages eight and up.