Free Printable Coloring Pages that Look Like Real Animals

Realistic Free Animal Coloring Pages

When my kids were younger I was always on the lookout for activities to keep them busy and enhance their creativity. Coloring books became a staple of the toy box. They went through new coloring books each week like they were candy. I got to the point that I would often tear out pages and
 take them to work and make copies of them since the kids often wanted to color the same or similar pages over and over again. The coloring books are not cheap anymore so I looked for ways to cut costs. Free coloring books are what every parent hopes to find one day but never does. Since they were young I always felt they were just making a mess out of coloring books that I paid good money for.

Their ability to not make a mess out of the coloring books had thankfully ended when they got past the preschool age. They started to want only animals to color. They expressed disappointment if I got the coloring books with the cutesy animals in them. They wanted the lifelike ones. So I began my quest to find lifelike animal coloring books for them to color that did not cost an arm and a leg. I had no idea that they were that hard to find. Most of the animal drawings were Disney types so they would not do. I soon resorted to the internet and found not only some great free coloring pages but the drawings were often better than the store bought ones. Here are some of my finds for free lifelike animal pages to print out and color.

Animal coloring pages
This site has a wide variety of animal drawings to choose from. Many of them are lifelike but there still is a large portion of them that are cartoon animal drawings.

The National Geographic coloring book
This is by far the best website for lifelike animal coloring pages. It is complex enough for older children to really enjoy the artwork. The artwork can also be utilized in other crafts like making fabric transfers.

 
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Thanks Summer - I like the ones you have posted at http://color-your-own.com

Posted on 06/27/2008 at 2:06:36 PM

I have over 200 coloring pages, mostly animals at http://color-your-own.com for older children and adults. As the artist, I am always open to requests!

Posted on 06/24/2008 at 7:06:56 AM

My kids love animals and they go through their colouring books at lightning speed! I must check out these sites.

Posted on 04/22/2008 at 11:04:54 AM

I don't have kids but i work with computer graphics at a newspaper and have coloring pages for kids that aren't even close to being as good as these! They are great!

Posted on 03/08/2008 at 8:03:48 AM

Good article.

Posted on 03/07/2008 at 9:03:05 PM

Great resource article! :-)

Posted on 03/07/2008 at 4:03:05 PM

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