Unicorn Coloring Pages

Most unicorn pictures show the same pose: a white horse with a horn, standing sideways on a hill. These free printable unicorn coloring pages give the unicorn something to do, which gives a child something to talk about while coloring. The unicorns are drawn in a soft cartoon style with round eyes, and the long mane is cut into separate strands so each one can take its own color. That makes the set a good place to practice a rainbow, while the busier scenes, full of shelves, cups and flowers, keep older kids and adults at the table for longer.

One unicorn paints a rainbow on an easel, another sews a patchwork quilt in a rocking chair, and one conducts an orchestra of animals with a rabbit on drums. A baby unicorn sleeps in a nest of cushions under star bunting. A unicorn and a cat wrap a present, a mermaid and a unicorn stand on the rocks by the sea, and a unicorn at a telescope on a balcony has a thermos at its feet. There are unicorns with other friends too, a dragon across a board game and a fox at a campfire, and two unicorn portraits: a forward-facing head with a tall spiral horn, and a head in profile under a floral crown.

Which unicorn pages suit a four-year-old?

Press Quick to color above the grid. It keeps the easy unicorn coloring pages, with large open shapes and not much else, for a preschooler or anyone who wants to finish in one sitting. Chunky crayons are fine on these. The quickest of them right now:

• A sleeping unicorn rests on a cloud under a crescent moon

For a six- or seven-year-old, pick a scene with a friend in it, like the bunny building a sandcastle or the dog on a sled: there is a story to tell and not too much to fill. Lots of detail keeps the detailed ones at the other end, rooms full of shelves, crates, cups and flowers, each drawn as its own small area. The densest of them right now:

• A unicorn with a floral crown and flowing mane
• A fairy waters flowers in a greenhouse
• Two toy unicorns play with blocks in a box

How to color a rainbow mane

The mane and tail are drawn as long separate strands, which is what makes a rainbow unicorn work on paper.

• Follow the order of a real rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Out of order, the eye reads it as random stripes.
• Skip a strand between colors on the first pass, then fill the gaps with lighter tones. Strong colors side by side are what turn a mane muddy from a distance.
• Keep the body pale. Bare paper, a very light pink or a lilac lets the mane carry the page.
• The horn takes gold, pearl or pale pink, with a darker line along the spiral so it reads as a twist rather than a cone.

The two rainbow unicorn coloring pages, the unicorn on a cloud with a rainbow arching behind it and the unicorn at the easel, tie together when the arch uses the same order as the mane. For a softer look, swap the rainbow for three pastels (pink, lilac, mint) repeated strand by strand.

A slower unicorn for grown-ups

Unicorn coloring pages for adults don't need a different unicorn, just more around it. The unicorns at work are the slow ones: a baker serving cupcakes to three customers, a market stall of flowers and fruit, an ice cream cart under a striped canopy. The wardrobe with its rail of clothes and row of shoes is another evening with fine pens. The profile head in its floral crown is the one to pick for a patterned page without a whole room around it: try the roses in two pinks and a wine red, and keep the mane in soft grays so the flowers carry the color. Adults who like that pace will find more of it in the cozy coloring pages.

Learning to draw a unicorn from a finished page

Children who want to draw a unicorn can use a colored sheet as a model. The forward-facing head is a good one to copy: an oval for the face, two pointed ears, a narrow cone for the horn, then the mane in long S-shaped strands down one side. Tracing it once on thin paper against a window shows where the lines go before trying it freehand.

A unicorn birthday table

Two unicorns in party hats at a tiered cake, a unicorn carrying a stack of three cupcakes with sprinkles falling, and a unicorn on a stepladder hanging bunting across a garden gate make a set of unicorn birthday party pages on their own. Print them on 160 gsm card so they survive the table, put one at each place with a cup of crayons, and let guests take theirs home. With mixed ages, set a quick page and a busy one at each seat so the older cousin is not done in five minutes.

What a unicorn looked like before it was pink

The unicorn in this collection is the modern one: pastel, friendly, often near a rainbow or a cupcake. It is worth knowing it is a recent invention.

The oldest written unicorns come from Greek accounts of India, and they are almost certainly rhinoceroses described by someone who had not seen one. Through the Middle Ages the unicorn was drawn as a small white goat-like animal with a beard and cloven hooves, fierce enough that hunting it was supposed to be impossible. Its horn, the alicorn, was believed to detect poison and purify water, and narwhal tusks were sold as unicorn horn for more than their weight in gold. Queen Elizabeth I owned one.

The unicorn is also, still, the national animal of Scotland, where it appears chained on the royal arms.

A child who colors a unicorn gold and white rather than pink is drawing the older one, and that is worth saying rather than correcting. The horn is the one detail to get right either way: a real spiral horn twists in a single direction all the way up, and it reads as three-dimensional if you color one side of every twist darker than the other.

For dragons from the same period, the dragon coloring pages are next door, and the horse coloring pages have the anatomy without the horn.

Make a unicorn coloring book

Press Add to pack under any drawing to set it aside, keep browsing, and print everything you picked as one PDF. Mix the cloud pages with a couple of busy scenes and the book works for two ages at once. The pack stays in your browser, so it can take sheets from the dragon pages, the princess pages or My Little Pony too. Unicorns are one corner of the fantasy coloring pages, with the dragons and princesses. For the party itself, cards, cake and a banner to color, the happy birthday coloring pages go in the same pack.

The unicorn coloring sheets are free printable PDFs at 300 dpi, with no sign-up and no watermark. They are A4; on US Letter, choose fit to page. The printing guide covers paper and settings.