Raven Perched on a Gravestone Coloring Page

A raven perched on top of a plain headstone, drawn side on with its feathers properly laid out: overlapping rows along the folded wing and long separate blades in the tail. Rough grass grows up around the base of the stone.

Layered feathers are the reason to print this one. Each is a closed shape of its own, so you can work tonally, taking the outer row dark and letting the inner rows lighten, and the bird gains real depth without any shading skill at all. Pencils do this far better than markers.

Black ravens are iridescent in life, so purples, blues and deep greens laid over one another are both more accurate and more interesting than flat black. The head and beak carry the only solid dark areas on the page, which gives the rest of the bird something to sit against.

The face of the gravestone is left completely blank. That balances the busy bird above it, and it leaves room for a name, a date or a short epitaph in your own hand. The grass is loose and spiky, a quick pass of green that finishes the bottom of the page in a minute.