The standing unicorn
The standing unicorn: a free printable coloring page, from age 2. She stands in profile, eye closed, mane in two locks and tail in a curl.
- Recommended age
- Ages 2 and up · 10 to 15 minutes
- Theme
- Unicorns
Standing, eye closed
She stands in profile, all four hooves flat on the ground. What sets her apart is the eye: it is closed, drawn as an arc ringed with three lashes, as if she were smiling with her eyes shut. The muzzle carries a dot for the nostril and a small upturned mouth. The horn is straight, striped with four slanted bands, and two ears point up behind it. The mane runs from the nape to the middle of the back, split into two locks by an inner line. The tail forms a thick curl, and each hoof is marked with a ring.
The pose everyone knows
Standing, still, with no setting: this is the pose of the unicorns found on notebooks, stickers and birthday cakes. Children know it by heart, and that is exactly what makes the page interesting — they already know what it should look like, so they concentrate on how to fill it. Many ask, sooner or later, whether unicorns are real. The answer fits in one sentence and never disturbs the coloring: they exist on paper, and this one is waiting for her colors.
Three big masses, and four thin legs
Most of the surface is held in three shapes: the body, the mane, the tail. A very young child gets through them in one go. The four legs are where you have to slow down — barely two centimetres wide each — and the inner line of the mane separates two locks side by side, which can be treated in two colors from about four. The closed eye is not colored at all: it is worked around, which is already an exercise in itself. None of this stops anyone from starting earlier.
Pencils rather than markers
Colored pencils suit this one better than markers, because of the narrow legs: the lead stops where you want it to, the marker bleeds. For the mane, try the simplest gradient there is — the upper lock in one color, the lower one in the same color pressed twice as hard. Keep the body white or very pale. A unicorn colored entirely in dark tones loses its outline, and it is the outline that makes her recognisable from across the kitchen, pinned to the wall.
A word for the grown-up: ask why her eyes are closed. Every answer is a good one — she is asleep, she is dreaming, she is smelling a flower — and the little story invented before starting keeps a child on the sheet ten minutes longer.
Coloring pages that go with this one
More pages from the same theme, age or season — the ones you print right after.
