Developed to support a workshop on the adult coloring movement. This section focuses on examples of free online resources and strategies for discovery of images suitable for coloring, with an emphasis on examples which relate to innovative uses, educational content, or which could be concepts or examples for student projects or assignments.

1. An Adult Coloring Alphabet
curation, comments, & assembly
by PF Anderson

2. Searching Tips &
Tricks

3. Use different terms
for what you want to
find. Try different
spellings &
languages. Like this ...

4. "color me"; "to color"; boyama; clip art; color-by-
number; color-in; coloriage; coloring; coloring
books; coloring pages; coloring sheets; colour-in;
colouring; dessinatrice; dibujos para; colorear;
etching; färglägga; kleuren; kleurende pagina;
kleurplaat; kleurplaten; line art; pages à colorier;
pagine da colorare; paint-by-number; pangkulay
pahina; printable; окраска; ‫اﻟﺗﻠوﯾن‬ ‫;ﺻﻔﺣﺎت‬ रंग
पृ ठ ; 着色页; 著色頁

5. Use search engines’ advanced
search options.
See Google >

6. TinEye is a
reverse-search
image engine.
Give it an image,
& find variants,
or the original.

7. Use the terms
following combined
with the tips above as
ideas for searching
for free adult coloring
pages. But beware ...
Beware of:
● stolen images
○ Photobucket
○ Flickr
○ Pinterest
● phishing sites
● viruses & “.doc” files
● large collections of “free”
images not from a publisher
or artist
● domain names ending “.co.
uk”
● collections hosted in
countries already known for
not respecting international
copyright law (such as
Eastern European & Asian)
Look for sample pages
available from the artist’s
or publisher’s own web
site.

8. A is for …
Some artists collect historic examples on their blogs.
http://www.shawkl.com/2013/02/ornate-vintage-alphabet-
monogram-ab.html
aborigines; abstract; African;
alphabet; angels; animals;
anti-stress; anxiety; ape;
Arabic; architecture; art
brut; art deco; art nouveau;
Asian; astronomy; Australia;
autumn; Aztecs

9. B is for …
babushka; background; ballet;
bandana; baroque; battle;
bear; beasts; bees; beetle;
birds; birthing; blackwork;
blockprint; bollywood;
bookmarks; bookplate; Boston;
botanical; buddha; bugs;
butterfly; byzantine
For sale, as a sample, or free. > Soften, Open, Release
https://www.etsy.com/listing/225905625/soften-open-release-
a-coloring-book-of Spirity Sol http://spiritysol.blogspot.
com/2015/05/free-coloring-pages.html Blissful Belly,
Blissful Birth http://theselittlejoys.com/single-coloring-
pages/

10. C is for …
calligraphy; calm; camel;
cats; celtic; chameleon;
Chinese; Christmas; cities;
clocks; clothing; comics;
costumes; creative;
creativity; creatures;
crystals; cupcakes
Government sites have many images that are copyright free
(although this is not true of all government images.) Search
them in Google with site:.gov > NOAA Snow Crystals http://www.
noaa.gov/features/02_monitoring/snowflakes_2013.html via http:
//savingmorethanme.com/2014/12/snowflakes

11. D is for …
dance; Day of the Dead;
deer; demons; Dia de los
Muertos; dinosaurs; dogs;
doodles; dragonfly;
dragons; dreamcatcher;
dreams; druid; dungeons Dover is an excellent source of free samples, and since
they are the publisher the images aren’t stolen! http:
//www.doverpublications.com/zb/samples/492133/sample7c.
htm

12. E is for …
eagle; eggs; Egypt;
Egyptian; elephants; elves;
embroidery; enchantment;
engraving; etching; ethnic;
ex libris Try looking in out-of-copyright illustrated works in archive
pages for etchings and prints. > Jules Trosset. “Aigrette.”
Nouveau dictionnaire encyclopédique universal illustré :
répertoire des connaissances humaines. 1885. https://archive.
org/details/nouveaudictionn01trou

13. F is for …
Fabergé; faces; fairies;
fairytales; fantasy;
fashion; feathers; fish;
flamingo; floral; flowers;
folk art; forest; fox;
fractal; frogs Flickr has many images labeled Creative Commons. Not all of
them actually are. This from @FDEcomite is part of a series
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fdecomite/6740865883

14. G is for …
galaxy; garden; garments;
geometric; geometry;
giraffe; goddesses;
gorilla; gothic; graffiti;
Greek; guitar
TIP: search for online books with filetype:pdf and sample
images with filetype:png or filetype:jpg FROM: A Mathematical
Coloring Book; by Marshall Hampton; Dedicated to Violet
Hampton. http://www.d.umn.edu/~mhampton/mathcolor17b.pdf

15. H is for …
Halloween; Hawaii; hawk; head;
heart; Hebrew; hedgehog; henna
(+flowers, +tattoos); hero;
hieroglyphs; Hindu; hiphop;
hippie; hipster; hobbit;
holiday; hope; horror; horses;
hummingbird; hypnotic
An original work by Ann D. Koffsky, made available for
personal use: “Hannukah Coloring Bonus” http:
//annkoffsky.com/2015/11/29/hanukkah-coloring-bonus/

16. I is for …
I Ching; icon; iconography;
iguana; illuminations;
illusion; illustration;
impressionism;
impressionist; Incas;
Indian; initials; insects;
Irish; iron-on
There are many exquisite & historically profound illustrations
available out of copyright, such as this 1885 reproduction of
a 1609 work documenting “The Defeat of the Iroquois by
Champlain.” https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
DefeatOfIroquoisByChamplain.jpeg

17. J is for …
Japanese
Jewish
Judaica
jumping jacks
jungle
“I have redrawn a peasant, a pierrot, and a shepherdess for
students to color. The original jumping-jacks are very old and
come from a French archive.” Print, Cut and Color Three
Jumping-Jacks for Christmas! Donna & Kathy Grimm. http:
//belsnickle.blogspot.com/2013/11/print-cut-and-color-jumping-
jacks-for.html

18. K is for …
kaleidoscope
kimono
King Arthur
knights
knots
knotwork
Another great source of public domain art is Project Gutenberg,
where I found these Celtic knot letters in the Art of
Illumination http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40423/40423-
h/40423-h.htm

19. L is for …
lace; landscape; Latin;
Latino; leaves; legends;
letters; line-art; lines;
linocut; lions; lizard;
lotus; Lovecraft
Lost Bumblebee Graphics is a design studio run by the
mysterious M., who refers to herself as the “Queen of Free
Printables.” Like many blog-based coloring sites, she asks for
donations, but unlike most donations to her site go to charity.
http://lostbumblebee.blogspot.com/2015/04/grown-up-colouring-
rushing-wind.html License: http://lostbumblebee.blogspot.
com/p/notice.html “Ps. Don't forget to upload your finished
copies on Instagram and tag @LostBumblebee along with hashtag
#grownupcoloringsheets #lostbumblebee”

20. M is for …
Madonna; magic; mandala; Manhattan;
maryoshka; mathematical;
mathematics; Mayan; meadow;
medieval; meditation; mehndi;
mendhika; mermaids; Mexican; Mexico;
Middle Ages; mindful; mindfulness;
Minecraft; monkey; monsters; mosaic;
mushrooms; mystical; mythological
Del Angharad of Del’s Doodles does a primo job of using all
kinds of social media to share her art on a regular basis, as
well as to sell her work through informal channels. Facebook,
Twitter, Deviant Art, Google Plus, Instagram, Pinterest, 500px,
Etsy, Lulu, Vine, Patreon, and with a Creative Commons
license! License here http://delsdoodles.com/about/ This image
posted here http://delsdoodles.com/2015/09/15/small-mandala/

21. N is for …
Native American
natural
nature
nests
New York
night
numbers
There are many federal and state organizations responsible for
parks and recreation, water safety, wildlife refuges, ecology
and preservation, recycling, etc. Many of them have free
coloring books. You can combine search tips to find many of
these by searching for PDFs on government sites with your
keywords: filetype:pdf site:.gov. This helped find this image
of the Nashville Crawfish in the Endangered Species coloring
book from the Fish & Wildlife Service. <http://www.fws.
gov/arkansas-es/docs/ESDay/EndangeredSpecies%20ColoringBook.
pdf>

22. O is for …
ocean; octopus; op art;
orient; oriental; origami;
ornamental; ornaments;
orthodox; outer space;
owls
Thaneeya McArdle makes freebies available from her web site.
These are a model for how to annotate images to improve
attribution and discovery. http://www.art-is-fun.
com/coloring/

23. P is for …
paint-by-number; paisley; paper
dolls; paradise; paranormal;
Paris; parrot; pattern; peace;
peace sign; peaceful; peacock;
Persian; phoenix; pirate;
poison; poppy; porcupine;
posters; princess; printable;
psychedelic; pull toy; pysanky
Coloring isn’t limited to coloring pages. Artists are creating
coloring versions of a wide variety of paper make-ables and
printables. Jumping jacks, paper dolls, origami papers to fold,
and more. This example is free for personal use from: Paperthin
Personas: Marisole Monday Visits the 10th Century http:
//paperthinpersonas.com/2014/02/24/marisole-monday-visits-the-
10th-century/ 10th Century Anglo-Saxon Women’s Dress http:
//paperthinpersonas.com/2014/02/23/10th-century-anglo-saxon-
womens-dress/ Terms of Use: http://paperthinpersonas.com/terms-
of-use/

24. Q is for …
queen
quilt
quiz
quotes
quran
DeviantArt has TONS of incredible original artists, professional
comic pencil/ink/colorists, some strictly copyrighted (so be
sure to check), but others share their work in the “Color Me
Club” or say “Feel free to color. Just remember to provide
proper credits!” as did Elias Chatzoudis & Vitali Iakovlev for
their Evil Queen. http://vitali-iakovlev.deviantart.
com/art/Evil-Queen-Digital-Inking-496924239

25. R is for …
rabbit; raiment;
Renaissance; robots;
rockets; rococo; rooster;
rose; Russia; Russian
There are a few very fine online archives of comic books, which
can lend themselves to coloring experiments if drawn in black
and white or if converted to grayscale. The image above (Basil
Wolverton’s “Robot Woman”) was discovered in the Digital Comic
Museum <http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=5269> and
converted to grayscale in LunaPic <http://www166.lunapic.
com/editor/>. See also the Comic Book Plus online archive
<http://comicbookplus.com/>.

26. S is for …
samurai; Scandinavian; science; sea
creatures; seahorse; seamless;
seasons; seaweed; shoes; signs;
skeleton; skull; skulls; snowflake;
southwestern; space; spaceship;
spring; stained glass; star;
steampunk; stencil; stress; stress
relief; stress relieving;
subversive; sugar skull; summer;
surreal
Several coloring artists post their work with “This work
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.” Technically,
that would mean no coloring either, unless the artist
implies that it is alright, such as by asking people to
repost with their name and tag, or something like that.
Free sample from Carolyn Curtis: http://yuccaflatsnm.
blogspot.com/2012/06/wenchkins-coloring-pages-skull.html

27. T is for …
tangled; tangles; Taoism;
tattoo; tentacles;
tessellate; tessellated;
tessellation; textures;
Tibet; Tolkein; toucan;
trees; tribal; tropical There are many online tools that allow you to create your own
designs. This one was generated with the Tesselation Kit from
Science vs. Magic http://sciencevsmagic.net/tes/#0.5.0.1.
aaaaaaaaa

28. U is for …
ukiyo-e
umbrella
underwater
unicorn
universe
Ukiyo-e has crisp clear lines, making it suitable for online
tools that can convert existing public domain images into
coloring pages. This painting by Utagawa Toyokuni was found in
Wikipedia <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Utagawa_Toyokuni_ukiyo-e_woodblock_print.jpg> then modified on
the web site Rapid Resizer <http://online.rapidresizer.
com/tracer.php>

29. V is for …
vacation; vampires;
vegetable; velvet;
victorian; village;
villain; vintage; visual;
vogue; voyage
Two of the best places to look for public domain images are
Wikimedia Commons <https://commons.wikimedia.org/> and Open
Clip Art <https://openclipart.org/>. Both of them do some of
the work of finding good images in original historical sources.
This image is from the Internet Archive <https://archive.
org/stream/stnicolas05dodg#page/n3/mode/2up> via Open ClipArt
<https://openclipart.org/detail/203266/girl-reading-a-book>

30. W is for …
wall; wallpaper; warriors;
waves; weird; western;
wheel; wiccan; wildlife;
wind; wings; winter; witch;
wizard; woodblock; woodcut;
woods; words
Wikipedia does an amazing job of documenting the rights of
images used there. > “This work is in the public domain because
it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 and
although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the
copyright was not renewed.” Main illustration for the story
"The Triangle of Terror" from Weird Tales May 1950 42(4):50.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
WeirdTalesv42n4pg050_Triangle_of_Terror.png

31. X is for …
x-ray
Xmas
Xtian
“As long as I’m able, I’ll continue to create free coloring pages. You are welcome to
download them and print as many as you like, as often as you wish, for personal (not
commercial), and especially charitable, use” S.Mac: Free X-ray Art Drawings to Print
& Color http://sherimcclurepitler.com/x-rayartcoloringpages/

32. Y is for …
yakuza
yggdrasil
yoga
yummy
Historic information sites can also be useful sources of
public domain images. > 1895; Lorenz Frølich ; (1820-1908)in
Den Ældre Eddas Gudesange, by Karl Gjellerup http://www.
germanicmythology.com/works/FROLICHART3.html

33. Z is for …
zebra
zen
zendoodle
zentangle
zombie
zodiac
zoo
Orangeroof Zoo, by Mary Ogle, is a remarkable coloring book in
which the images combine to tell a story, interactively with the
audience of colorists. Incredible concept, great free samples,
and the samples are PDF and resizable. http://www.orangeroofzoo.
maryogle.com/

34. Toofers!
Don’t Eat the Paste: Amiens Cathedral inspired printable box
http://www.donteatthepaste.com/2012/12/amiens-cathedral-
inspired-printable-box.html Amiens Cathedral floor labyrinth
coloring page http://www.donteatthepaste.com/2012/12/amiens-
cathedral-floor-labyrinth.html