Mermaid Coloring Pages

The problem with mermaid coloring pages is the tail. It is the biggest shape on the paper, it is usually drawn as one smooth empty outline, and a child fills it in with a single green pencil in about forty seconds. Then the sheet is over. Everything above the waist got three minutes of attention and everything below it got one colour.

So the tail is treated here as the main event rather than the leftover. Six of these 36 sheets exist only to change what it is made of, and on every other sheet in the collection it is drawn with something to hold a colour: rows of overlapping scales, long trailing fins, a smooth dolphin fluke, or a pattern of small hearts. A tail broken into forty closed scales is forty decisions instead of one, which is the difference between a page a child finishes and a page a child abandons.

The sheets fall into six groups, and the groups exist because a three year old with a fat crayon and a nine year old with fineliners want opposite things from a mermaid.

Six poses, from sitting still to leaving the water

The first sheet is the one children ask for by name: a mermaid sitting on a rock above the waves with her tail hanging down the side of it. After that she swims straight up in one long S curve with her hair streaming behind her and bubbles rising past her, dives head first toward the seabed with her fluke high above her, sits combing her hair with a shell comb in front of a round mirror, leans on a rock waving straight out at whoever printed the page, and finally bursts clear out of the water in a full arc with spray flying off her.

Six tails, and every tail colours differently

This is the axis that decides how long the sheet lasts. The classic tail is rows of large overlapping scales, each one a closed shape of its own. The ruffled tail ends in long trailing fins like a betta fish, drawn as separate flowing bands. The dolphin tail is smooth skin with no scales at all and a wide horizontal fluke, which is the one to hand a child who wants a big open area. The double tail curls away on both sides at once, the way the old sailors' sirens were carved. The heart tail replaces every scale with a small heart. And one sheet is the tail on its own, curled on wet sand among shells, with no mermaid attached to it.

Six sea creatures, because nobody swims alone

A dolphin swimming alongside with its beak up and its own smooth flippers. A seahorse ridden like a pony, its curled tail wrapped round a stalk of seaweed and its snout and dorsal fin drawn properly. A sea turtle with its shell divided into big plates a child can colour one at a time. A whole school of striped fish streaming past in one direction. An octopus with all eight arms out and rows of suckers drawn along them. And three jellyfish with domed bells and long trailing tentacles.

Six places to be under the water

A coral reef of branching corals, brain corals and anemones. A wrecked sailing ship on its side with a broken mast and a row of round portholes. A castle with spiral towers and windows shaped like scallop shells. An open treasure chest spilling coins, pearls and a goblet. A kelp forest of tall ribbons with sunlight coming down through them in straight beams. And a lagoon at the surface, with a waterfall and big leaves hanging over the edge of the rock.

Shells, pearls and the things made out of them

Asleep inside a giant clam with a pearl beside her. A throne carved from one enormous scallop shell, standing on the sand. A basket being filled with four clearly different shells: a spiral conch, a fan scallop, a cone and a smooth cowrie. A big conch shell blown like a trumpet. A crown of pearls and branching coral, drawn close enough to count them. And a whole house made from a giant spiral shell with a round door and a round window in it.

Thick lines and fine lines

The two ends of the collection. Two sheets are drawn for small hands: a mermaid built from a few big simple shapes with no narrow gaps anywhere, and an enormous mermaid face that reaches all four margins. At the other end sit a realistic mermaid whose scales and hair are drawn strand by strand, a mandala with a mermaid at the centre of rings of shells and waves, and a zentangle panelled into stripes, dots, spirals, scales and cross hatching.

What age are these mermaid coloring pages for?

Three to ten years old. The two beginner sheets use very thick outlines and wide open areas that a three year old can stay inside. The poses, the sea creatures, the settings and the shell sheets suit five to eight. The mandala, the zentangle and the realistic sheet are fine line work and are meant for older children.