Fish Coloring Pages

A fish gives a child more freedom than almost any other animal. A fish can be any color at all, so nobody colors one wrong. That one fact makes these 15 free printable fish coloring pages an easy place to start a three year old, and the scales on the detailed sheets give a ten year old something that takes a whole afternoon. Every design downloads as a free PDF sized for US Letter paper, so you can print a single sheet at home or a full set for a classroom.

The simple fish coloring pages come first, because that is what most people arrive looking for. Simple Fish Outline carries the thickest lines in the set and almost no interior detail, so a preschooler can finish it alone. Smiling Goldfish adds a wide fanned tail and two rows of big open scales, each one large enough for a crayon. Clownfish With Three Bands draws the three bands as open outlines rather than solid blocks, so the child picks the colors instead of the printer. Fish Blowing Bubbles trails a line of plain round bubbles up to the corner of the page. Puffer Fish With Round Spikes covers a ball shaped body in dozens of small open triangles and is the one that keeps a child busy longest at this level.

Five sheets put the fish into a scene. Fish Tank With Three Fish frames the whole picture inside an aquarium, with a plant, a row of pebbles and a few bubbles. School of Fish Swimming Together sets six plain fish across the page in pairs, which makes it the best sheet in the set for a color pattern exercise. Fish Swimming Among Seaweed stands tall leafy strands behind two cartoon fish. Fish Jumping Out of the Water catches one fish mid arc above a wavy waterline with splash drops thrown out beneath it. Jellyfish Floating in the Sea is the odd one out and the calmest page here, one smooth dome and a spill of long curling tentacles.

The last five fish coloring sheets are drawn for older children and adults. Koi Fish Among Lily Pads covers a long curving body in rows of hexagonal scales and floats three lily pads on the waterline above it. Betta Fish With Flowing Fins spreads an enormous ruffled tail across most of the sheet, every ruffle its own open stroke. Angelfish With Patterned Fins runs fine parallel lines through two long pointed fins and grids the body in scales. Patterned Fish With Decorated Scales divides one large fish into bands of circles and teardrops, closer to a mandala than to an animal. Tropical Fish Among Coral puts a banded fish above a scaled one and grows branching coral up between them.

Color the body before the scales. Lay one light shade over the whole fish first and let it dry, then go back and fill individual scales in deeper tones on top. Fish are almost always darker along the back and pale underneath, so keep the belly light and the spine strong and the drawing gains depth without any shading skill. Leave a small white dot in the eye. On the scenes, color the water last and keep it lighter than the fish, or the animal disappears into its own background.

For more underwater sheets, the ocean animals coloring pages hub collects turtles, octopuses and crabs, shark coloring pages covers great whites and hammerheads, and dolphin coloring pages round out the set.