Cartoon Coloring Pages (Free Printable PDFs)

What’s in this cartoon coloring collection

You get 22 original cartoon coloring pages, sorted from easiest to most detailed: 9 Easy, 9 Medium and 4 Detailed. The cast is all mine: chubby baby animals, a one-horn monster, a robot gardener, a party dinosaur, a little explorer girl with a parrot, two old-school cats in big gloves and a whole animal band.

Hi, I’m Niks. When a kid asks me for “a cartoon page,” it never means the same thing twice. A four-year-old wants one big round bear. An eight-year-old wants a dinosaur holding a cake. A grown-up wants a whole street to get lost in. So I rated every page for difficulty and sorted it by cartoon style. The whole set also downloads as one PDF.

What kind of cartoon is each page?

I split these cartoon characters into four styles. The style tells you how a page feels, and the difficulty tells you how long it takes. None of them has scary faces, real TV characters or letters to trace.

Toddlers do best with a Kawaii buddy.

Our favorite cartoon coloring pages

Cartoon Bunny Hugging a Big Carrot

A chubby bunny with two long ears squeezes a giant leafy carrot, with two little daisies in the grass. At 17 spaces it’s the simplest page in the set, and my first pick for a three-year-old.

Friendly One-Horn Cartoon Monster

A round monster with one horn, two big eyes and a toothy smile throws both arms up. I’ve seen it colored lime green, purple and, once, rainbow stripes.

Vintage Cartoon Cat Dancing with a Cane

A cat in a polka dot suit, a polka dot bow tie, gloves and a knit cap dances with a cane on a round stage. All those dots make it a slow, calm page (49 spaces) for older kids.

Cartoon Dinosaur with a Birthday Cake

A dinosaur in a party hat holds a cake with three candles, with two balloons, a gift box, bunting and confetti around it. Put it out at a birthday party and every dino fan will claim it. 62 spaces.

Busy Cartoon Town Main Street

Three shops with striped awnings, a small car, a bicycle, a street lamp, and a dog in a dress walking a puppy on the cobblestones. With 265 spaces it’s the biggest page here, and the one I’d hand a teen.

Cozy Cartoon Animal Bakery

Two bear bakers in chef hats, a bunny customer with a basket, and shelves of bread, croissants and pretzels. 184 spaces. You will get hungry.

Which cartoon coloring page is right for your child?

Match the difficulty rating to the child’s age and patience. Easy pages have 17 to 42 spaces, Medium 41 to 121 and Detailed 121 to 265.

For easy cartoon coloring pages, any of the 9 Easy ones will do.

Cute cartoon animals in this set

Animals star on 17 of the 22 pages. The six Easy babies (bear, bunny, puppy, kitten, duckling and elephant) are pure kawaii. The Medium pages pair them up, like the dog and cat on a seesaw, and the Detailed pages fill whole towns with them.

Cute animals look softest in pastels, with a pink circle on each cheek. For even more kawaii, try our Hello Kitty coloring pages.

Cartoon coloring pages for adults

The four Detailed pages are for teens and grown-ups who want a long session. You color a place instead of a pattern. Fans of old rubber hose cartoons should add the Vintage Cartoon Cat Dancing with a Cane.

My one tip: pick five or six colors before you start and repeat them across the scene. When the same red shows up on an awning, a flower pot and the bunting, the street hangs together.

Explorer girl coloring pages for Dora fans

If your child asks for dora cartoon coloring pages, these three are the closest thing here. They star my own little explorer with a short bob, a backpack and sneakers. She isn’t Dora the Explorer, but she likes an adventure just as much.

• Little Explorer Girl Waving (Easy, 42 spaces)
• Explorer Girl Reading a Map with Her Parrot (Medium, 83 spaces)
• Explorer Girl Crossing a Log Bridge (Medium, 74 spaces)

Color them in order for a three-part trip, and keep her backpack the same color on every page. Kids notice.

How to color cartoon pages: 5 tips

1. Go bright and flat

Cartoons look like cartoons because of solid, even color. Fill each space with one bright color and steady pressure before you think about shading.

2. Add one darker side

Run a darker shade of the same color down one side of each shape. A blue robot with a navy edge on the right suddenly looks round.

3. Keep the eye shine white

Most characters here have big eyes with small white shine spots. Color around them. That speck of white is what makes a kawaii face look alive.

4. Give classic cartoons a retro palette

For the two classic cats, try soft gray fur, a red suit or bow tie, white gloves and a cream stage. Instant old movie poster.

5. Match the tool to the child

Chunky crayons for Easy pages and little hands. Colored pencils for Detailed pages, where the spaces get tiny. Washable markers give Medium pages that bright cartoon pop, on heavier paper so nothing bleeds.

A little cartoon history to share while you color

True facts for while the crayons are out:

1. The word “cartoon” comes from the Italian cartone, meaning strong, heavy paper.
2. Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), by Winsor McCay, was one of the first animated cartoons to give its star a real personality.
3. In the 1920s and 1930s, lots of cartoon characters had “rubber hose” arms and legs: bendy tubes with no elbows or knees.
4. Many early cartoon characters wore white gloves so their hands would stand out against their dark bodies.
5. Hand-drawn cartoons were painted on clear sheets called cels, and a film shows 24 frames every second.

Cartoon classroom and party ideas

When I spread this set out for a group of second graders, three kids fought over the dinosaur. What works with a group:

• Style sorting. Kids sort a shuffled stack into Kawaii buddies, Classic cartoons, Story scenes and Busy cartoon worlds, then explain why.
• Word hunt. Find and label the awning, cobblestones, thimble, spool, lily pad, gingham and bunting.
• Counting. Three birthday candles, four animals in the band, three shops on Main Street and two bear bakers. Total: twelve.
• Story sequence. Line up the three explorer girl pages and ask where she goes after the log bridge.
• Make a coloring book. Print the all-pages PDF, let each child draw a cover starring a cartoon character of their own, and staple it.

Teachers, our free classroom license explains what you can print.

Printing tips for the best results

• Make a coloring book. The all-pages PDF is sorted by level: pages 1 to 9 are Easy, 10 to 18 Medium and 19 to 22 Detailed.
• Print in black and white with “Fit to page.” The pages are pure line art.
• Use heavier paper for markers. Light cardstock keeps bright reds and blues from bleeding through.

How I made and checked these pages

Every one of these cartoon coloring pages is an original ColorTheDay design. I check each page before it goes live. Outlines must be bold and closed, Easy pages have to work for a three-year-old, and every title has to match what’s drawn. Three pages didn’t pass, so I left them out. The difficulty ratings and cartoon styles are my own calls, and the “spaces to color” numbers are counted from each page, not guessed.

Browse every set in our character coloring pages, or find more cute critters in our animal coloring pages. Toy fans can try our Toy Story coloring pages. Then scroll back up, pick one of these cartoon coloring pages and tap Download PDF!