My youngest woke up Tuesday roaring at the toaster. Which means we are officially in our raptor phase.
I needed a distraction fast so the team and I started sketching. If your living room is also turning into a makeshift Jurassic park, these velociraptor coloring pages might buy you some quiet time.
Getting kids to sit still is basically a competitive sport. But slide a decent stack of printable velociraptor coloring pages across the kitchen island and suddenly everyone is an artist.
Honestly it works almost every time. Let them grab their messy marker bins and see what they come up with.
Featured Velociraptor Coloring Pages
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Velociraptor Coloring Page Highlights
Curled Around a Clutch of Eggs
This raptor is curled up tight around her nest. The ferns in the background give it that really dense prehistoric feel. My middle kid usually colors the eggs gold for some reason.
It’s a surprisingly peaceful scene for a dinosaur that is usually running around. Honestly these velociraptor coloring sheets are great for talking about animal habitats.
Darting Between Boulders
Here we have one sprinting hard between some giant rocks. There is a volcano smoking away in the distance and maybe a bigger dinosaur chasing it.
Action shots always hold their attention the longest. Finding a coloring page of a velociraptor actually doing something exciting makes all the difference for my boys.
Digging Through Soft Earth
Dirt and dinosaurs just go together. Honestly my floors are a disaster right now. This one is scratching at the ground looking for a buried meal under some palm trees.
It reminds me of my dog trying to bury a bone in the couch cushions. I think having free velociraptor coloring pages with this much texture really helps them practice shading.
Frozen Mid-Step After Spotting a Threat Nearby
This raptor is frozen right in the middle of a step. It looks like it just heard a twig snap in the jungle behind it.
The tension in the pose is pretty cool. We try to make sure our printable velociraptor coloring pages have a mix of fast action and quiet suspense.
Leading Its Pack Across a Ridge
Standing up high on a rocky ridge with the mountains behind them. There are two smaller ones following close behind the leader.
It looks like a foggy morning up in the hills. Using velociraptor coloring sheets like this one lets them play around with drawing weather effects.
Leaping Onto Unsuspecting Prey
Jumping right off a cliff towards a smaller little dinosaur below. It is a very dramatic angle.
Kids love the scary stuff. When they ask for a coloring page of a velociraptor they usually want teeth and claws showing.
Regrouping After Losing Sight of Their Prey
Four of them standing together in a clearing. They look like they are trying to figure out where their lunch went. The trees around them have these big thick trunks.
Group pictures take a bit longer to finish. Which might just cause some inconvenience for their hand muscles, but it gives me an extra 23 minutes of peace.
Pack Resting in a Circle Beneath a Rocky Overhang
Five raptors are just laying down together under a rocky overhang. It is kind of like a puppy pile but with sharp teeth.
Even predators need a nap sometimes. The shading under the rock shelf is perfect for testing out different gray crayons.
Tips for Coloring Velociraptors
1. Skip the Standard Green
We all default to lizard green because it’s safe. But real raptors probably had feathers and wild patterns like modern birds.
Try throwing some rust red or mustard yellow in there. I had my 7-year-old use a bright blue once and it looked amazing. Let them get weird with it.
2. Texture the Scales and Feathers
A flat wash of color looks dead. It’s like painting a wall without primer. You need layers.
Tell them to use little dash marks with their colored pencils. Short strokes make it look like actual scales or fluffy feathers instead of plastic. It takes around 12-15 minutes longer, but the result pops.
3. The Eye is Everything
Predators have intense eyes. If the eye looks blank, the whole picture feels off.
Leave a tiny white dot in the middle of the pupil for a reflection. It makes the dinosaur look alive. Honestly I do this myself when I’m coloring with them to make it look fierce.
4. Ground Them With Shadows
Floating dinosaurs are a pet peeve of mine. They need to look heavy on the page.
Take a dark gray or purple and scribble right under the feet. Actually, a muddy brown works better. This anchors them to the dirt. All this art theory comes down to one thing: don’t let the raptor float.
5. Mix Markers and Crayons
Sometimes you need the sharp edge of a marker for the teeth and claws. But coloring a whole body with markers ruins the paper.
Do the details in marker first. Then lightly shade the big areas with crayon. It’s a hybrid approach that saves your good art supplies from running out too fast.
6. Don’t Forget the Dirt
These things were running through mud and jungle muck. They weren’t taking baths.
Smudge some brown around the ankles and tail. You can literally just rub a brown crayon lightly and smear it with a tissue. It adds that gritty feeling.
7. Highlighting the Claws
The big toe claw is the main event on these guys. It shouldn’t just blend in with the skin.
Use a creamy yellow or a bone color. Then trace the bottom edge with a black pencil to make it look sharp. Will they stay inside the lines? No idea. But today it works.
8. Creating Jungle Depth
A lot of these backgrounds have massive ferns and trees. Coloring everything the exact same green is a rookie mistake.
Use a really pale watery green for the stuff far away. Use dark rich greens for the leaves right in the front. It pushes the dinosaur right out of the page at you.