Kirby Coloring Pages

A round pink hero with red feet, two arms and a very big appetite: Kirby is one of the easiest characters in games to draw, and one of the most pleasant to color. These Kirby coloring pages follow him through the quiet side of Dream Land, with more naps and snacks than fights.

Kirby floats with his cheeks puffed full of air, rides the Warp Star above the clouds, drifts down under a parasol and floats up out of a stone chimney toward a star. His copy abilities show up as costumes: a wizard hat and star wand, a chef's hat over a bubbling pot, a horned helmet and a wooden hammer, a propeller cap over a meadow, a diving helmet among the coral, a miner's lamp in a crystal cave, and a chibi row of ability hats on a single page. He inhales a swirl of leaves and apples, lifts an apple bigger than himself, carries a dripping stack of pancakes and waters a row of flower pots in a sunhat.

The calm pages are some of the best. Kirby sleeps on a mushroom under a leaf blanket, curls up in a teacup, snuggles against a sleeping cat, blows bubbles over a pond, fishes from a dock, paints at an easel, swings over a stream, splashes into a puddle in his raincoat, sleds down a hill on a shield, stands in a scarf under a snowy tree and peeks out of a jack o'lantern in a pumpkin patch.

His friends and rivals have their pages too. King Dedede holds his hammer in front of his castle, then shares a giant cake with Kirby at a long table. Meta Knight stands on a windy deck with his sword and wings, and shakes Kirby's hand on a cliff edge. Bandana Waddle Dee guards a pile of apples with his spear, Kirby leads a parade of Waddle Dees in a leaf crown, and rides a cloud with a Waddle Dee and a few animal friends. A Kirby mandala and a pattern page of faces, stars, apples and tiny hats finish the collection.

Who Kirby is

Kirby was created by Masahiro Sakurai at HAL Laboratory, and his first game, Kirby's Dream Land, came out on the Game Boy in 1992. He lives in Dream Land on Planet Popstar, and his great trick is to inhale enemies and either spit them out as stars or swallow them and copy their power. That copy ability is why he wears so many hats: each power comes with its own costume, from the Sword cap to the Hammer helmet to the chef's toque.

The cast around him is small and easy to recognize:

• King Dedede is the self-proclaimed king of Dream Land, a big penguin-like figure with a fur-trimmed robe and a huge wooden hammer. He is more of a grumpy neighbor than a real villain, and often ends up on Kirby's side.
• Meta Knight is a masked swordsman with a cape that turns into bat-like wings. He fights Kirby as a rival, not an enemy, and prefers a fair duel.
• Waddle Dees are the little round foot soldiers of Dream Land, and Bandana Waddle Dee is the one with a blue bandana and a spear who became Kirby's friend.

Getting Kirby's colors right

Kirby is pink, a soft bubblegum pink rather than magenta, with red feet and rosy blush marks on his cheeks. His eyes are tall ovals, dark blue with a white highlight at the top. The funny exception: on the first American box art he was shown white, because the Game Boy screen had no color, and many fans still remember that pale Kirby.

The others:

• King Dedede: dark blue body, red robe with yellow trim and white fur, a red and yellow hat.
• Meta Knight: dark navy, a silver mask, purple or dark blue wings, and yellow eyes behind the visor.
• Waddle Dees: orange with tan faces and feet; Bandana Waddle Dee wears a blue bandana.
• The Warp Star: bright yellow, often with a trail of rainbow sparkles.

The copy ability hats are the freest part of the page: the wizard hat can be any night-sky color, the chef's hat stays white, the propeller cap can take every color in the box.

Round shapes and busy scenes

Kirby is almost all circles, which makes him friendly to small hands: big smooth shapes, few corners, no fine details on the character himself. The simplest pages keep him large with little around him, like the giant apple and the Warp Star ride. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Kirby and the cat
• Kirby and the giant apple
• Kirby on the Warp Star

The detailed pages fill the space around him with flowers, crystals, coral or pumpkins. Lots of detail begins with:

• Kirby in a pumpkin
• Kirby pattern
• Kirby in the crystal cave

A Kirby snack party

Kirby is always eating, which makes him a perfect theme for a small party or a rainy afternoon. Print the food pages (the giant apple, the pancake stack, the cake with King Dedede, the chef's pot) and set out pink markers, a few extra colors for the hats, and a real snack at the end. Children can invent a new copy ability for Kirby and draw its hat on the back of the page. Pink paper plates and star stickers finish the look for very little effort.

Printing Dream Land

Every page is a free A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent so every star and every hat stays on the paper. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack puts a whole afternoon of Kirby into one file. More game characters are in the Pokémon coloring pages, the Mario coloring pages and the Sonic coloring pages, and more round, cute faces in the kawaii coloring pages.