SpongeBob Coloring Pages

Bikini Bottom fits on a sheet of paper. Across the free SpongeBob coloring pages here, SpongeBob works the grill, Patrick tags along, Squidward plays his clarinet and Sandy waves from inside her air helmet. The cartoon was always drawn with thick outlines and big, flat shapes, so the printed PDFs give a small child wide lines to stay inside.

Who and what you can color under the sea:

• SpongeBob on his own, in a karate headband, on a unicycle juggling clouds, strumming a guitar, wearing a cape or blowing a bubble that reads best day ever.
• SpongeBob and Patrick together, on go-karts, in diving helmets, blowing bubbles and sitting under the jellyfish.
• The rest of the cast: Squidward, Sandy, Mr. Krabs, Plankton and Gary.
• The Krusty Krab inside and out, with burgers on the griddle, on a tray and on the barbecue.
• Home in Bikini Bottom, from the pineapple house door to Squidward's stone head house.

A yawning SpongeBob holds his pillow under empty thought bubbles, left open on purpose so the child decides what he dreams about.

Who is SpongeBob SquarePants?

SpongeBob SquarePants is a cheerful yellow sea sponge who lives in a pineapple at the bottom of the Pacific, in the town of Bikini Bottom. He works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab and loves his job more than anyone thinks a person should.

The show was created by Stephen Hillenburg, who taught marine biology at the Orange County Marine Institute in California before he became an animator. It first aired on Nickelodeon on May 1, 1999, and has been running ever since, with films and spin-offs along the way.

That background shows in the cast. Every neighbor is a real sea creature, even when the name says otherwise:

• Patrick Star is a starfish.
• Squidward Tentacles is an octopus, despite the name.
• Mr. Krabs is a crab, and Plankton a tiny one-eyed copepod.
• Gary is SpongeBob's pet snail, who meows like a cat.
• Sandy Cheeks is a squirrel from Texas who lives under the sea in a glass dome, breathing through a helmet.

A child who likes this side of the show can color the real animals next, in the octopus coloring pages, the jellyfish coloring pages or the wider ocean coloring pages.

SpongeBob and Patrick coloring pages

SpongeBob and Patrick are best friends and next-door neighbors, and they share more sheets than anyone else in the set. Some are quiet, like the two of them giving a thumbs up side by side or sitting on a sand mound while jellyfish drift above. Others are pure adventure:

• Diving: both in helmets and air tanks, waving as they float over a bed of coral.
• Racing: two go-karts heading for the checkered flag.
• Bubbles: wands in hand, a jar of soap between them and a smiling starfish overhead.
• Gardening: SpongeBob in a ranger hat planting seaweed with Patrick.

Patrick also gets the page to himself, flexing one arm in front of the pineapple house. These pages are the ones to print twice for siblings, one taking SpongeBob and the other Patrick. Kids hooked on the race will find real race cars in the car coloring pages.

SpongeBob characters coloring pages: Squidward, Sandy, Mr. Krabs and Plankton

The SpongeBob characters each have scenes that match their personality in the show.

Squidward

Squidward plays his clarinet on a stool, and again in front of his stone head house with the notes flying out of the bell. In another sheet he looks down without a smile while SpongeBob grins beside him, which anyone who has seen an episode will recognize.

Sandy Cheeks

Sandy stands by a tree holding an acorn, in her round helmet and suit. She also stands with SpongeBob outside her dome while he gives a thumbs up. In the show she is a karate expert, and the sheet of SpongeBob in his headband and belt, fists raised, makes a good match for her. For real squirrels with real acorns, see the squirrel coloring pages.

Mr. Krabs, Plankton and Gary

Mr. Krabs stands in the doorway of his restaurant and behind the counter with the cash register. Plankton climbs on a stool, his one eye wide, holding up a small bottle. Gary sits in front of the pineapple house under a bubble, and rides along inside one while SpongeBob dives over the coral.

SpongeBob colors for the whole cast

The cartoon uses flat, bold colors, so the palette is short:

• SpongeBob: bright yellow, brown square pants, a white shirt and a red tie.
• Patrick: pink, with green shorts printed with purple flowers.
• Squidward: pale blue-green skin and a brown shirt.
• Sandy: a brown squirrel in a white suit, her helmet left as clear paper.
• Mr. Krabs: red. Plankton: green.
• Gary: a blue body under a pink shell.
• The pineapple house: orange with dark green leaves on top.

A trick for SpongeBob's holes

Color SpongeBob all over in yellow first. Then go back into each hole with a darker yellow or a touch of light brown. The holes read as holes, and the body still looks like one sponge.

Keeping the sea from turning into one big blue

Keep the characters at full strength and color the water lightly, in pale blue or blue-green. A few diagonal strips of bare paper look like sunlight coming down through the water. Save the strong pinks, oranges and purples for the coral, so the scene does not end up all blue.

Krusty Krab and Krabby Patty pages

The Krusty Krab is where SpongeBob spends most of his day, and the burgers he makes there are Krabby Patties. SpongeBob waves in front of the sign, runs past it with both arms out and stands at the doors with Squidward. Inside, he carries a burger on a tray in his chef's hat, and holds a spatula over a full griddle. Out on the sea floor, he strides between the seaweed with a giant spatula over his shoulder, and at a barbecue he lifts a finished burger off the grill.

For the patty itself, use a warm brown for the meat, green for the lettuce, red for the tomato and a golden tan for the bun. Children who want more burgers, fries and food with faces will find them in the food coloring pages.

Simple SpongeBob sheets for preschool, crowded reef scenes for older fans

Preschoolers do best with one character and almost nothing behind: Squidward on his stool, Sandy with her acorn, Patrick flexing, Plankton and his bottle. Quick to color pulls those lone characters on bare sand to the front:

• Squidward playing outside his stone house
• Squidward on a stool with his clarinet
• Patrick and SpongeBob giving a thumbs up

Fans of eight or nine want the reef and the kitchen, with coral, seaweed and rows of patties to fill, like the diving page with Gary in his bubble. Choose Lots of detail to see the reef and kitchen scenes first:

• SpongeBob at a griddle of seven burgers
• SpongeBob diving over coral
• SpongeBob and Sandy outside her dome

If a big scene gets long, switch to a single character for a while and come back to it later.

SpongeBob Christmas and Halloween coloring ideas

The show has its own holiday episodes. In "Christmas Who?" (2000), Sandy tells SpongeBob about Christmas, he spreads the idea through Bikini Bottom, and Squidward ends up dressed as Santa. In "Scaredy Pants", the first Halloween episode, SpongeBob tries to scare everyone in a costume of the Flying Dutchman, the ghost pirate of the series.

To make a SpongeBob Christmas page, take the sheet of SpongeBob with his hands on his hips and draw a Santa hat on his head in pencil before coloring. A red hat with a white trim left as bare paper is all it needs. Hang it beside a tree from the Christmas coloring pages, so the fridge door is ready for December.

For Halloween, the sheet of SpongeBob in a cape already looks like a costume. Color the cape black or purple and add a mask. Witches and jack o'lanterns fill the Halloween coloring pages, while a Flying Dutchman fan can borrow a friendly spook from the ghost coloring pages.

A Bikini Bottom birthday party

For a SpongeBob birthday, print a different character for each guest so nobody argues over the same one.

1. Pick a character for each guest and press Add to pack on their sheet.
2. Download the pack as a single PDF and print enough copies for the table.
3. Set out yellows, pinks, browns and blue-greens, and let each child pick a character.

The go-kart race and the burger pages suit the fastest colorers. A banner or a cake from the birthday coloring pages can join them. The cape sheet also fits a hero-themed party, alongside the superhero coloring pages.

Fans of classic cartoons can keep going with the Looney Tunes coloring pages and the Scooby-Doo coloring pages. Every other cartoon on the site is gathered under character coloring pages, from anime to video games.

Printing SpongeBob SquarePants sheets for a party table

SpongeBob's yellow covers a lot of each page, so thin copy paper can curl under markers; slightly heavier paper keeps it flat. The drawings come as free 300 dpi PDFs sized for A4, which print at 100 percent on A4 paper. Letter users should turn on fit to page, or Patrick's toes may fall off the bottom edge. Add to pack bundles the whole cast into a single download, and our print help page shows each step of the print dialog.