Lion Coloring Pages

The mane is not filled in

Almost every lion drawing solves the mane the same way — a dark mass around the face, or dense scribbled fur. Both decide the colour for you, and on a colouring page they leave a child with a black ring and nothing to do. Not here. On all twenty pages the mane is drawn as separate outlined locks with white paper showing between every one of them, so it can be gold, ginger, brown or any colour at all.

The same care runs through the small parts that usually go dark without anyone deciding to: the noses are hollow outlines rather than black triangles, the tail tufts are separate pointed shapes, and the paws have toe lines instead of solid pads.

Not every lion is a male lion

Lots of people are looking for a lioness, and a lioness has no mane at all — she is drawn here as what she is, smooth-headed and long-limbed, sitting up on a rock. There is a cub with a butterfly on its ear, a mother nuzzling her cub in the grass, a family of four, and a pride of five at a waterhole under an acacia tree.

Two animals that only share the word

A sea lion is not a cat — it has flippers and a smooth body, and it gets its own page balanced on a rock beside the water. A mountain lion, also called a cougar or a puma, is a different species again: slender, maneless, with a long plain tail, crouching on a ledge with the peaks behind it.

Two stories

Daniel in the lions’ den is drawn as a stone pit open to the sky rather than a dark cave, so there is light coming down and three peaceful lions to colour. Aesop’s fable of the lion and the mouse shows the lion caught under a rope net with the mouse gnawing him free.

A mask you can wear

One page is a lion face mask with a dashed line to cut along, two eye holes and a small hole at each side for a piece of string or elastic. Colour it first, then cut it out — it works best printed on thicker paper or card.

Which page to start with

The simple lion is the easiest page here — a few big shapes, very thick lines and nothing small to stay inside. The mandala, the patterned lion and the realistic portrait are the slow ones and work better with fineliners than pencils.

Printing

Print at 100% scale rather than “fit to page”, and match the file to your paper — Letter or A4. The button at the top bundles all twenty into a single download.