The ferret
The ferret: a free printable coloring page, from age 2. A body all in length, a mask around the eyes and a spiral horn on the forehead.
- Recommended age
- Ages 2 and up · 10 to 15 minutes
- Theme
- Animals
An animal all in length
The ferret stands three-quarters on, and its body stretches horizontally across almost the whole width of the sheet: it is far longer than it is tall. Its head is round, with two small rounded ears set on the sides and a spiral horn between them. Around the eyes runs a band-shaped mask, drawn in one continuous line that goes around both eyes at once. Four short legs carry it, each marked with small lines for the toes, and the tail rises gently behind it.
An animal few children know
The ferret is the stranger of the series. Many children have never seen one, and that is exactly what makes the sheet interesting: there is something to learn. It is a cousin of the weasel and the polecat, long and supple, able to slide into a pipe. Some live in flats, like a cat, and sleep up to eighteen hours a day. When happy, it makes little sideways hops for no apparent reason. Its mask around the eyes tells it apart from every other animal in the theme.
The mask, there is the difficulty
The body is a shape all by itself: one large elongated mass crossing the sheet, filled in one gesture. All the difficulty is in the head. The mask forms a narrow band going round both eyes, narrowing in the middle and widening at the sides; for it to show, it has to be colored darker than the rest of the face without biting into the eyes. That means turning the pencil along a changing curve — a gesture that comes at about 4. Before then, the mask goes the same color as the head, and the ferret is still a ferret.
Two colors are enough
The ferret fills the whole sheet, from the tip of the horn to the four legs: there is neither setting nor white band to fill in, and the child knows at once where to begin. As for colors, two shades make the drawing — a light beige on the body, a darker brown on the mask, the ears and the ends of the legs. Keep the horn for the end, in gold or pink: it is the small reward, and it shows better once everything else is down.
A word for the grown-up: ask your child to guess the animal’s name before telling them. The answers run from dog to rat by way of otter, and that small hesitation makes them look at the drawing far longer than any instruction would.
Coloring pages that go with this one
More pages from the same theme, age or season — the ones you print right after.
