Butterfly Among Autumn Falling Leaves Coloring Page

Two tree trunks run the full height of this sheet, one at each edge, their bark broken into long vertical strips. Between them a monarch holds the middle of the page with both wings open flat. Rows of long oval cells fill each forewing, a beaded margin traces every outer rim, and the hindwings finish in shallow scallops dotted along the edge. Above and below, toothed leaves crowd in from both sides on thin twigs, and every one of them carries a spine down the middle with a fan of smaller veins off it. A dozen loose leaves drift through the gap, tipped at different angles as they fall.

The foliage is the long job here. There is a great deal of it, the leaves overlap, and each has its own vein pattern to follow.

Pick three or four autumn shades and assign one to each depth. Give the leaves nearest the frame your darkest value, the drifting ones your lightest, and let the butterfly sit outside that scheme entirely in a color none of the foliage uses. The falling leaves will then read as motion rather than as clutter.