Shark Coloring Pages

Mostly friendly, slightly toothy. These shark coloring pages mix goofy cartoon sharks with big grins and a couple of realistic ones mid-swim: toddlers get simple smiling faces, older kids get leaping sharks and curling wave scenes.

About Sharks

About 500 shark species patrol the world’s oceans, from the tiny dwarf lanternshark, shorter than a pencil, to the whale shark, a gentle plankton eater that can grow longer than a bus. Most wear countershading: a blue-gray or brown back that blends with deep water seen from above, and a pale belly that disappears against bright surface light seen from below. Hammerheads cruise in schools, tiger sharks roam alone at night, and great whites can launch clear of the surface when hunting seals near shore. That shared shape hides very different lives.

A shark never stops replacing its teeth: rows of new teeth wait folded behind the working set, moving forward like a conveyor belt, and a single shark may shed thousands over its lifetime. Sharks also sense the world in ways we cannot, detecting tiny electrical signals from a hidden fish’s heartbeat with pores around the snout. Their skeletons are cartilage, not bone, which keeps them light and flexible, and many species must keep swimming, or pump water over their gills, to breathe. Sandpaper-rough skin, made of tiny tooth-like scales, helps them slip quietly through the water.

All 16 Shark Coloring Pages

Scroll down to browse every page below, or use the Print button under any image to print just that page.

A goofy shark grins straight at you, showing off a mouthful of pointy teeth with bubbles drifting up. Medium — great for kids.

Start this close-up with classic countershading in miniature: slate blue-gray across the top of the head, fading to clean white around the mouth and chin. Keep every pointy tooth bright white with a whisper of pale gray at the base, and color the drifting bubbles in the palest aqua so they sparkle against a deeper blue background wash.

Because this is a face-first portrait, keep your coloring smooth and even on the head and save texture for the background, which you can fill with short vertical strokes suggesting rising water. Leave a tiny white dot in each eye, and darken the mouth interior just enough that the grin and teeth pop forward.

A chubby baby shark smiles with its fins out, surrounded by rising bubbles. Medium — great for kids.

Baby proportions love baby colors, so try a soft powder blue-gray on the back, a snowy white belly, and a hint of peachy pink inside the fins for warmth. Make the rising bubbles pale sky blue with white centers, and if you add a background, keep it a gentle aqua wash that will not compete with the round little body.

Round shapes look rounder with simple shading, so add one soft darker crescent along each side of the belly and blend it out toward the middle. Keep strokes short and curved, following the chubby outline, and finish the outstretched fins with a slightly deeper edge line so they read as open and welcoming rather than flat.

A cheerful shark swims through swirling water lines with a toothy smile. Medium — great for kids.

Swirling water sets the color story here, so choose two blues for the swirls, a bright turquoise and a deeper ocean blue, and let the shark itself be blue-gray on top and white below. Keep the toothy smile all white teeth against a darker mouth, and use the lightest swirl color nearest the face to frame that cheerful expression.

Follow the direction of the swirls with your strokes, spiraling outward from the body, and the whole page will feel like moving water. Alternate light and dark swirl bands for rhythm, press harder near the shark and lighter at the page edges, and leave the belly mostly clean so the swimming motion, not busy pattern, carries the scene.

A big-headed shark flashes a wide grin full of zigzag teeth as bubbles float past. Medium — great for kids.

With a head this big, the face gets the richest color: medium steel blue across the top, white around the wide grin, and a deep navy or plum inside the mouth so the zigzag teeth flash bright by contrast. Float the bubbles in pale cyan, some left almost white, and keep any background blue darker behind the head than below it.

Zigzag teeth are a pattern, so treat them like one: color each tooth the same clean white, then outline the row with a fine darker line to sharpen the rhythm. A soft shadow under the chin balances the oversized head, and a white gel pen dot on each bubble at the end adds a wet, glossy finish.

A friendly shark with a lopsided smile glides through the water trailing bubbles. Medium — great for kids.

Gliding calls for calm, blended color: a smooth gradient from dusty blue on the back to silvery white on the belly, with the tail and fins a half-shade deeper than the body. Trail the bubbles behind in soft aqua, growing paler as they shrink, and keep the lopsided smile white-toothed with just a touch of pink at the mouth corner.

Long, horizontal strokes suit a gliding pose, so color the body in smooth sweeps from nose to tail instead of short scribbles. Leave a slim highlight line along the top of the back uncolored or in pale silver, and let the bubble trail curve gently upward, which quietly tells the eye the shark has just passed through.

A shark leaps with jaws wide open above a splash of curling waves. Medium — great for kids.

Above the waves, this shark catches the light, so use a brighter blue-gray on its back, a gleaming white belly, and a deep red-pink or dark gray inside the wide-open jaws. Color the curling waves in layered teals and blues with white foam at the crests, keeping the splash lightest where it breaks around the leaping body.

Motion is the whole point, so shade the shark darkest underneath and leave its upper curve pale, as if sunlit mid-air. Flick short white strokes outward through the splash for flying droplets, or leave droplet shapes uncolored against a colored wave, and angle your wave strokes upward to lift the eye along the leap's arc.

A realistic shark cruises inside a circular frame ringed with detailed curling waves. Detailed — best for teens and adults.

Inside the circular frame, a realistic palette works best: cool slate and blue-gray layered over the back, a gradual fade to warm white on the belly, and charcoal only in the deepest shadows under the body. Ring the shark with waves in graduated teals, darkest at the frame's outer edge and lightest where the curls break near the body.

Detailed wave linework rewards a planned sequence: color the frame's waves first, back to front, then the shark last so its edges stay crisp against the finished water. Build skin tone in three light pencil layers rather than one heavy pass, and use an eraser or white pencil to lift a soft highlight along the back and snout.

A round baby shark with freckles beams at you, fins spread wide. Medium — great for kids.

Freckles deserve a gentle base, so color this round baby in the softest blue-gray, almost silver on the belly, and dot the freckles in a slightly warmer gray or pale taupe so they read as markings, not dirt. Spread fins can carry a blush of pink-gray underneath, and a pale aqua background keeps the beaming face front and center.

Keep the freckles even by coloring them after the base layer dries or settles, using the tip of a pencil rather than the side. Shade the round body with one soft shadow low on each side, blend the spread fins lighter at their tips, and leave the widest white highlights in the eyes to hold that cheerful, beaming expression.

A realistic shark swims forward with its mouth open, every tooth and gill slit carefully drawn. Detailed — best for teens and adults.

Forward-swimming realism depends on careful value changes: deep blue-gray along the top of the head, mid-gray down the sides, and near-white under the jaw, each blended where they meet. Pick out every tooth in clean white with gray shadowing between them, deepen the gill slits with charcoal, and keep the open mouth's interior a muted dark red-gray.

Teeth and gills are the fine-detail test here, so save them for last, work with a sharp pencil point, and rest your hand on a spare sheet to avoid smudging finished skin. Layer the skin in directional strokes that follow the body's length, and add the darkest accents sparingly, only where the mouth and gills truly fall into shadow.

A happy shark bursts out of a wave splash, grinning with two rows of teeth. Medium — great for kids.

Bursting out deserves the brightest blues in the set: a vivid sky-blue back, white belly flashing in the splash, and wave water in bold turquoise with white foam edges. Give both rows of teeth the same clean white so they read as a matched set, and shade the mouth behind them dark enough that the double row clearly stands apart.

Splash shapes radiate outward, so color them in strokes that follow that burst, light near the shark and deeper blue at the outer tips. Add energy with a white gel pen flicked along the foam edges, keep the foam itself mostly uncolored, and place a soft blue-gray shadow low on the belly where the body leaves the water.

A wide-eyed baby shark smiles sweetly as bubbles stream upward around it. Medium — great for kids.

Wide eyes need a calm setting, so use a muted blue-gray body, a white belly, and a soft teal wash for the surrounding water that darkens gently at the corners. Color the streaming bubbles in pale icy blue, leaving most of each bubble white, and add a faint pink only inside the mouth so the sweet smile stays gentle, not toothy.

Bubbles streaming upward create a built-in path for your eye, so keep them evenly light and let the shark carry all the darker tones. Blend the body shading extra smoothly, with no visible stroke lines on the round belly, and finish with the smallest dark pupil dots centered in plenty of white for maximum wide-eyed sweetness.

A cartoon shark tilts its head with a huge toothy grin. Medium — great for kids.

Tilting the head turns this into a portrait, so give the visible side of the face the deepest blue-gray and the turned side a lighter wash, as if catching more light. Fill the huge grin with white teeth over a dark burgundy or navy mouth, and choose a flat, bright aqua background so the tilted silhouette reads instantly.

Exaggerate the tilt's charm by keeping one side of the grin slightly more shadowed than the other, following the head's turn. Smooth, flat fills suit the cartoon style better than heavy blending, so use confident marker strokes, leave a bold white highlight on the snout, and outline the tooth row once more at the end for cartoon crispness.

A sleek shark glides sideways with its mouth open, water swirls trailing behind. Medium — great for kids.

Sideways and sleek means long gradients: stretch a deep ocean blue along the top edge from nose to tail, fading through steel gray to white under the open mouth and belly. Color the trailing swirls in two aquas, darker close to the tail and paler as they curl away, and keep the visible teeth small, white, and sharply defined.

Horizontal blending sells speed here, so lay your strokes parallel to the body and avoid any vertical scribble that would brake the glide. Deepen the shadow just behind the gills and under the nearest fin for a streamlined shadow map, and thin the swirl colors out toward their tips so the water seems to dissolve behind the shark.

A jolly shark with big round eyes shows off its smile amid floating bubbles. Medium — great for kids.

Jolliness suits a friendly mid-blue, not too dark and not too pale, paired with a cream-white belly and rosy pink inside the smile. Float the bubbles around the head in clear sky blue with white centers, vary their depth slightly so some feel nearer, and keep the big round eyes glossy dark with big white highlights left untouched.

Make the smile the warmest spot on the page by keeping every other color cool, then adding one extra layer of pink at the mouth corners. Round, even bubble outlines look best colored with a steady light touch, and a soft shadow under the chin gives the big-eyed face a gentle roundness that matches the jolly mood.

A shark charges forward, jaws agape, with bubbles and water trails streaming past. Medium — great for kids.

Charging forward needs the strongest contrast in the set: near-navy along the back, bright white on the underside of the jaw, and a dark, deep mouth behind the open jaws' teeth. Push the trailing water and bubbles toward pale streaky aqua, almost white at the center of each trail, so the darker shark punches through them toward you.

Angle everything toward the viewer: shade the snout's edges darker and leave its center lightest, which pushes the open jaws forward in space. Streak the water trails in long tapered strokes that thin out behind the body, keep bubble outlines faintest at the back of the trail, and save your darkest dark for inside the mouth.

A grinning shark with sharp zigzag teeth swims over rippling water lines. Medium — great for kids.

Over rippling water, split the palette by height: the shark in blue-gray and white above, and the ripples below in repeating bands of turquoise, aqua, and deep blue. Repeat the zigzag idea by keeping the teeth uniformly white while the mouth stays dark, and echo one ripple color in a thin shadow under the shark for a quietly coordinated finish.

Ripples are rhythm, so color each band completely before moving to the next, alternating dark and light to keep the beat steady under the shark. Leave the tops of the nearest ripples white where they would catch light, deepen the water at the page's bottom edge, and let the grinning head stay the smoothest, least patterned area overall.

Coloring Tips for Sharks

• Shark gray that looks real: color the top slate gray or blue-gray and fade to white on the belly — that's countershading, how real sharks actually look.
• Make teeth pop: leave the teeth bright white and color the inside of the mouth dark red or maroon for contrast.
• Water backgrounds: fill the space around the shark with wavy horizontal strokes of light blue, or leave it white for a cleaner print.
• Palette ideas: (1) Great white — gray back, white belly, dark blue water; (2) Cartoon fun — teal shark, purple water, yellow bubbles; (3) Sunset swim — orange and pink water with a dark gray shark silhouette.
• Crayons vs. markers: crayons for toddlers on the big simple sharks; colored pencils for the two realistic ones where smooth shading on the body matters.

FAQ

Can I use these in my classroom?
Yes — free for personal and classroom use.

What size paper should I print on?
US Letter (8.5x11) works best; A4 is fine with fit-to-page enabled. Each coloring page below has its own Download and Print buttons.

What colors make a shark look realistic?
Use countershading: color the back and top of the head a blue-gray, slate, or brownish gray, then fade to white or very pale gray on the belly and under the chin. Keep the eye solid dark, the teeth white, and add slightly darker shading along the gills and fins.

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