The wolf
The wolf: a free printable coloring page, from age 2. A sitting cub, its pointed mask, its jagged ruff and its thick plumed tail.
- Recommended age
- Ages 2 and up · 10 to 15 minutes
- Theme
- Animals
A sitting cub, all fur
The cub sits face on, its head slightly wider than its body. Its mask comes down to a point from the forehead to the muzzle, forming a V that separates the light from the dark — two areas to treat differently. The eyes are round and black, with a highlight and a brow above; the nose is big and rounded. The pointed ears carry a second contour inside. On the chest, a ruff of fur drawn as saw teeth runs down to the belly. On the right, a thick tail rests on the ground, marked with a paler tip.
The wolf of stories and the real one
No animal takes up as much room in stories as the wolf, and rarely in the good role. It is worth telling children what it really is: a cousin of the dog, which lives as a family, hunts in a group and howls to tell its own where it is. A cub is born deaf and blind, and is fed by the whole pack, not just by its mother. This drawing, with its big eyes and its smile, shows the wolf from the side it is rarely shown — and that gets discussed during the coloring.
The fur, in saw teeth
What changes everything here is the ruff on the chest. It is drawn as saw teeth, ten or so points packed against one another, and following that irregular contour without smoothing it is an exercise in precision that comes at about 4. But it is only one part of the sheet: the body, the head, the tail and the V of the mask are wide, and fill with one gesture. The sheet alternates easy moments and slow ones, which makes it manageable very early — even if the ruff ends up in a single color.
Three grays and nothing else
The wolf is the chance to work one color in several values. Take a light gray for the mask, the ruff and the tip of the tail, a medium gray for the body, and the black pencil for the nose alone. With no other shade at all, the drawing stands up and looks like a real wolf. If your child finds that too tame, let them have the tail: a blue or violet tip on a gray body spoils nothing. Grays can also be made with a black pencil pressed very lightly.
A word for the grown-up: take this sheet as a chance to tell the wolf differently from the fairy tales. While coloring, your child listens better — and a wolf howling to find its family is less frightening than a wolf on the prowl.
Coloring pages that go with this one
More pages from the same theme, age or season — the ones you print right after.
