Dragon Coloring Pages
15 free printable pages, ready to download and print.
Free printable dragon coloring pages featuring fire breathing dragons, baby dragons, sea dragons, and treasure caves.
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The dragon is two different animals depending on which half of the world drew it. The European dragon is a scaled, winged, fire-breathing predator guarding a hoard. The East Asian long is serpentine, usually wingless, associated with water and rain, and regarded as benevolent. Knowing which one you are coloring changes the palette entirely. These 15 dragon coloring pages cover mountain perches, treasure caves, storm flights and a few gentler scenes. Every design downloads as a free printable PDF sized for US Letter paper.
Dragon Perched Atop a Rocky Mountain Peak and Baby Dragon Hatching From a Speckled Egg are the easiest entries, and the hatchling is the one young children pick. Dragon Breathing Fire in a Cave of Golden Treasure and Dragon Soaring Through Storm Clouds are the most dramatic. Tiny Dragon Curled Around a Glowing Candle is the quiet one and the best lighting exercise in the set.
Scales look like scales when they are not all the same. Color the whole body in a base tone first, then go back with a darker pencil and shade only the lower edge of each scale, heavier along the flanks and lighter across the back. Skipping some scales entirely is what stops the pattern looking mechanical.
Past the classic poses, the set branches into distinct dragon types, each with an obvious palette of its own. Ice Dragon in a Frozen Crystalline Kingdom wants pale blues and violets with a good deal of the paper left white. Sea Dragon Emerging Dramatically From Ocean Waves suits green and teal with a wet sheen along the back. Rainbow-Winged Dragon in a Magical Enchanted Forest removes the palette limit entirely. Wings are the other thing worth a moment. A dragon wing is skin stretched over long finger bones, so the membrane between the bones is thin enough for light to pass through it. Color those panels several shades lighter than the body and darken only along each bone, and the wing stops reading as a cape.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between European and Asian dragons?
European dragons are heavy, four-legged, bat-winged and associated with fire, greed and hoarded treasure, creatures to be fought. East Asian dragons are long and serpentine, usually wingless despite flying, associated with rivers, rain and imperial authority, and considered bringers of good fortune. Their traditional palettes are quite different too.
How do you color dragon scales?
Base coat first, detail second. Fill the body in one tone, then use a pencil two shades darker to shade only the bottom edge of each scale, pressing harder along the flanks and underbelly and easing off over the spine. Leaving a scattering of scales untouched keeps the surface from looking like a printed pattern.
How do you color fire and flames?
Work from white outward: leave the core as bare paper, ring it with pale yellow, then orange, then deep red at the outer edges, with no hard boundaries between them. The key move is darkening whatever surrounds the flame, cave walls, night sky, smoke, because fire only reads as bright against something dark.
Which dragon coloring pages are not scary?
The hatching baby dragon, the tiny dragon curled around a candle, the friendly dragon protecting a village and the dragon sharing a meal with a knight are all drawn warm rather than menacing. The fire-breathing treasure cave and the storm flight are the most dramatic in the set.