Snoopy Coloring Pages

Snoopy has been lying on the roof of his doghouse since 1950, and three generations of children have tried to draw him. These Snoopy coloring pages follow the beagle through a full year, with his little yellow friend Woodstock never far away.

The classics come first. Snoopy naps on the peaked roof of his doghouse, sleeps there again under a full moon, sits on top of it in goggles and a long scarf as the Flying Ace, and relaxes in a beach chair in sunglasses as Joe Cool. He does his happy dance in a meadow with Woodstock flapping beside him, carries a wobbling stack of supper dishes, peeks out of his doghouse at a rainy garden, and fills a whole page in a close portrait with one ear lifted.

The seasons fill the rest. In spring and summer he skateboards past the dandelions, lies in a hammock, sits in a wading pool with a rubber duck, runs through the sprinkler, catches a flying disc, buries a bone among the tulips, rows Woodstock across a lily pond, pushes a wheelbarrow of tennis balls, balances a bone on his nose in the kitchen, plays a harmonica while Woodstock drums, and walks through tall grass with Woodstock on his head. As a scout he leads little birds along a woodland trail and across a log bridge, and as an explorer he sniffs a desert cactus. In autumn he pokes out of a pile of leaves and carves a jack o'lantern on the porch. In winter he skates on a frozen pond, builds a snow beagle with Woodstock, walks through the snow with a lantern, plays goalie at the hockey net and sits on a woodpile in a knitted sweater. He flips pancakes over a camp stove, falls asleep in the laundry basket, and celebrates a birthday behind a table of cupcakes. A mandala of bones and paw prints and a border of doghouses and supper dishes finish the set.

The beagle who thinks he is a pilot

Snoopy was created by Charles M. Schulz in the comic strip Peanuts, first published in October 1950. He is Charlie Brown's dog, but he spends much of his life being someone else. The most famous is the World War I Flying Ace, who climbs onto his doghouse in goggles and a scarf, imagines it is his plane, and chases the Red Baron across the sky. There is also Joe Cool, the laid-back student in sunglasses who leans against walls, a writer typing novels on his doghouse roof that always start "It was a dark and stormy night", and a scout master who leads Woodstock and his friends on hikes.

Woodstock, the little yellow bird, is his best friend. He speaks only in small lines of scratches that only Snoopy understands.

The one detail everyone gets wrong

Snoopy's doghouse looks small from the outside, but in the comic strip it is much bigger inside, with room for a pool table, a library and even a painting by Van Gogh. Readers never see inside. They only hear about it, which is why Snoopy is always drawn on the roof rather than through the door.

Coloring Snoopy the way the strip does

Snoopy is mostly white paper, which makes him perfect for coloring the world around him.

• Snoopy: white, with black ears, a black nose and a black spot on his back. Leave the rest of him as bare paper.
• His collar: black in the strip, though many books show it red.
• The doghouse: red, with a darker red or brown roof.
• Woodstock: bright yellow, with a few black lines for the feathers on top of his head.
• The Flying Ace scarf: red or white; the goggles are brown leather.
• Joe Cool's sunglasses: black.

Because Snoopy stays white, bright backgrounds make him stand out: a blue pool, green grass, an orange pumpkin, a snowy night sky in dark blue.

Easy Snoopys and busy gardens

The quickest pages have Snoopy large with very little around him, like the doghouse under the moon and the portrait. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Snoopy under the moon
• Snoopy napping on his doghouse
• Snoopy portrait

The detailed pages are full of flowers, tennis balls and patterns. Lots of detail begins with:

• Burying a bone
• Wheelbarrow of tennis balls
• Snoopy in the laundry basket

A Peanuts calendar

The pages follow the year so neatly that they make a homemade calendar. Pick one page per month, the snow beagle for January, the tulips for April, the sprinkler for July, the pumpkin for October, and print them on thick paper. Color one at the start of each month, write the month across the top, and staple the pages together along the top edge. Hung by the kitchen door, it turns over twelve times, and by December it is a record of a year of Snoopy.

Printing Snoopy

Every page is a free PDF drawn on A4 at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" makes the drawing about six percent smaller so the doghouse roof stays on the paper. The printing guide explains where to find it. Add to pack puts a whole calendar into one file. More dogs are in the dog coloring pages, and the seasons continue in the Christmas coloring pages, the pumpkin coloring pages and the happy birthday coloring pages.