Shark Coloring Pages

Sharks have been swimming for around 450 million years, which means they predate trees. There are more than 500 living species and the vast majority pose no threat to anyone, the whale shark, the largest fish alive, eats plankton through a filter. These shark coloring pages cover great whites, hammerheads, whale sharks, tiger sharks and nurse sharks, and the set now reaches well past the familiar five into basking sharks, threshers, makos, goblin sharks and a camouflaged wobbegong, plus some deliberately friendly cartoon designs. Each downloads as a free printable PDF sized for US Letter paper.

Simple sheets keep the silhouette clean. Great White Shark Smiling With Rows of Teeth, Shark Family Swimming Together in the Ocean and Hammerhead Shark With Distinctive Wide Head suit younger colorists. Detailed sheets add pattern and dense background: Whale Shark With Detailed Spot Pattern and Shark Swimming Near a Scuba Diver are hour-long projects.

Nearly every shark in this set is countershaded: dark on top, abruptly pale underneath. It is camouflage from both directions, seen from above the back blends into deep water, seen from below the belly blends into the bright surface. Color the transition as a hard-ish line rather than a soft gradient and the animal instantly looks correct.

The friendly end of the set is larger than the realistic end, which is deliberate. Cute Cartoon Shark Eating an Ice Cream Cone, Cartoon Shark in an Ocean Scene With Waves, Friendly Shark With Fish Friends in a Coral Reef and Baby Shark Swimming With Mama Shark are all rounded and smiling. At the other end, Tiger Shark With Stripe Pattern in the Deep Ocean is worth a note: the stripes are vertical bars that show boldly on a young shark and fade almost to nothing on an old one, so how strongly you color them decides the animal's age. Nurse Shark Resting on a Sandy Ocean Floor is the only page with a shark holding still.

More ocean line art: Ocean Animals, Dolphins, Ships and Summer.

Sharks are fish themselves, and the fish coloring pages hub covers the rest of the family, with clownfish, goldfish, koi, angelfish and a spiky puffer across 15 free sheets.