Friendly Dragon Coloring Page

A cartoon dragon stands on a hillside path with one foot forward, grinning wide enough to show a single pointed tooth. Its wings are small and folded, a row of soft spikes runs down its back to the tip of its tail, and a castle with four turrets and a pennant sits on the rise behind it. Above them the sky is full of stars, a cratered moon and a long ribbon of cloud.

The page is drawn in portrait format with thick, confident outlines and only a couple of dozen shapes. That makes it a straightforward choice for ages four to eight, and the large sky area gives a child somewhere to be bold.

Night scenes are more fun than they sound. A deep blue or purple sky with the moon and stars left white creates real contrast, and the creature then reads clearly against it whatever tone you choose for its scales.

Dragons in European stories guard castles, while dragons in Chinese tradition control rivers and rainfall. This one, standing between a castle and a stream, could belong to either.