Grab the gold crayon. A whole pride is waiting on the printer.
Twenty five free lion coloring pages, from chunky cub outlines a preschooler can finish before snack time to a patterned mane that will keep an adult busy all evening.
The set covers three moods: cartoon, realistic and decorative. Several sheets come with a background (rocks, cacti, tall grass, an acacia tree), so there is something here for kids who like filling a whole page and for kids who just want the animal.
Scroll through, pick your favorites, and send them to the printer.
Cute Lion Cub
Big round eyes and a spiky ring of mane make this cartoon cub the friendliest sheet in the set. The lines are thick and the shapes stay wide open, so crayons hold their edges without much effort. Try a soft honey gold on the body and a deeper orange on the mane so the two read as separate. It suits preschoolers who are still working on their grip.
A grown male stands square on all four paws, mane hanging past his chest and tail ending in a small tuft. There is no background at all, so the shading on his coat has to carry the page. Lay tan over the whole body first, then press harder along the belly and the back legs for shadow.
Everything on this lion sits inside one heavy outline, from the rounded mane to the oversized paws. There are only a handful of separate areas to fill, which makes it a solid first coloring page. Yellow body, orange mane, done: that is enough of a plan for a toddler. Markers work here too, since the shapes are large enough to fill fast.
This cub stands with his ears up and one paw forward, a few leafy sprigs and grass strokes drawn under his feet. The face is cartoon soft but the body lines are thin, so colored pencils behave better here than fat markers. Keep the cub warm gold and let the plants go green so he lifts off the page. Ask your child what he might have heard just past the edge of the paper.
The mane on this portrait is drawn strand by strand and fills nearly the whole page. One flat gold looks dull across that much hair, so work in three tones: pale straw at the crown, mid brown through the middle, deep rust at the tips. Keep the face itself lighter than the mane and it will stay the focus. Older kids and adults will spend real time on this one.
A male sits upright and face on, with flower stems and grass tufts framing him on both sides. Those plants are drawn in fine lines, so save your sharpest pencil for them. A gold lion against cool green and purple flowers gives the sheet some contrast. It prints well on cardstock if you want to frame the finished page.
This lion lies with his front paws stretched out in front of him and a leafy tree branch arching over his head. The open flank gives you a big smooth area to practice blending. Grey brown on the branch and a muted green on the leaves keeps the mane the brightest thing in the frame. The mane is drawn in fine strokes, so pencils hold up better than markers.
Instead of fur, the mane here is built from repeating leaf and swirl shapes, which makes it the decorative sheet of the set. Pick three or four colors and repeat them around the mane in a pattern rather than coloring at random. Fine tip pens or sharp pencils reach the small sections; markers will flood them. It suits teens and adults who enjoy precise, patterned coloring.
A full grown male faces straight ahead, mane spilling down over his chest, front paws planted wide. The face sits in the middle of all that hair, so color it a shade lighter to keep it readable. Reddish brown around the outer edge of the mane and gold near the cheeks gives depth without much fuss. This is one worth hanging on the fridge.
A cub sits back on his haunches while a butterfly hovers just past his ear. Small details like the butterfly and the leaf sprigs are where the bright colors belong; keep the cub himself soft and sandy. The face is chunky enough for younger children, though the leaves want a steadier hand. Good page to bring out after a walk in the garden.
Tall grass blades cross in front of this lion’s legs and rise up either side of him. The grass is the tricky part: use a few different greens instead of one, and leave some blades pale so the layers separate. His mane is drawn in short strokes that take colored pencil nicely. Ask your child why a lion might stand still in grass that tall.
Mouth wide open, tiny teeth showing, tail curled up behind him: this cub is giving it everything. Pink inside the mouth and a warm tan coat is all the page really needs. The outlines are bold and there is no background to plan around, so it colors up quickly. It is a good one for a child who likes to make the noise while they work.
A maneless lioness sits on a stack of flat rocks with her tail hanging over the edge. The rocks are cut into big blocks, which makes them ideal for texture practice: color each block a slightly different grey and add a few speckles. Her coat can stay one warm sand tone by contrast. Save the darkest pencil for the shadows between the stones.
This lion walks straight at you, mane drawn in long sweeping locks, four heavy paws lined up along the bottom. The outer lines are thick while the interior lines stay fine, so it works across a wide age range. Mixing browns and golds through the mane sells the fur; a single flat color flattens it. The eyes are small, so leave those until last.
Bare rock underfoot, a jagged rock face behind, a few small clouds up in the sky: this is the busiest sheet here. Three zones need different treatment, which is what earns it a place with our detailed scene pages. Pale blue sky and warm greys on the stone leave the lion as the warmest thing on the paper. Set aside a decent stretch of time for it.
A lioness walks across a blank background, head turned toward you mid stride. With no scenery to hide behind, her coat is the whole job: sandy gold first, then light brown down the spine and legs. Lionesses grow no mane, which is why her outline reads so much sleeker than the males in this set. A grey shadow under her paws stops her floating on the page.
This one sits between two tall cacti with low desert plants around its paws. The cactus arms are simple shapes, so a younger child can take the background while an older sibling works on the fur. Green cacti beside a sandy lion is a pairing that always works. Wild lions live only in Africa, from the Sahara’s southern fringe to northern South Africa, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, so treat this sheet as a fun what if rather than a geography lesson.
Mouth open and teeth showing, this male roars from a patch of grass with low bushes behind him. Pink and grey inside the mouth, warm golds everywhere else, and the page is most of the way there. The grass tufts around his feet are fiddly, so leave them for last.
A maned male stands side on with his mouth open mid roar, drawn in the same bold outline style as the cartoon sheets. There is no background, so the page fills fast and suits a shorter attention span. Marigold on the body with a rust mane keeps the two apart. Hand your child a pencil afterward and let them add their own savanna behind him.
An acacia tree sits off to the right of this male, with a low horizon line running behind him and grass at his feet. All that open space is the point: it is room for a sunset, a storm, or whatever your child decides belongs back there. Keep the lion in warm golds and go bolder in the background. One of the better sheets for a full page of color rather than a lone animal.
Small flowers and grass are drawn around this lion’s front paws while he faces forward. The mane is layered in long strokes that reward slow work with a sharp pencil. Dot the flowers in two or three bright colors so the bottom of the page does not go flat. His body is mostly open space, which makes the shading easy to build up.
A side profile with the mane streaming back in long wavy locks that fill most of the page. Follow the curl of each lock with your pencil instead of coloring straight across, and the hair will look like it is moving. A near black mane is every bit as realistic as a golden one here, so let your child choose. It suits adults who enjoy layered, textured shading.
A cub stands with his long tail curling out behind him while a butterfly floats in the corner above him. That butterfly is small, so give it the brightest color on the page and let the cub stay soft and sandy. The fur is drawn in short flicks around the face, which take pencil far better than marker. A gentle page for a wind down before bed.
This male roars from a stretch of bare rock, with more rock shapes rising behind him. Broken stone is easy to color badly, so use two greys and let the pencil skip a little to suggest a rough surface. The open mouth wants pink inside and a cream tone on the teeth. It makes a nice pair with the other roaring sheets if you want a set for the wall.
A cub steps forward over a leafy branch with his tail flicked up behind him. The leaves give you a green frame along the bottom, which is a break from all the gold above it. Bold outlines and no fine detail make this a fast, satisfying page. Print two if you have siblings who will both want it.
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How Do You Print Lion Coloring Pages at Home?
Print them at full size on plain letter paper, and switch to cardstock only if markers or watercolors are coming out. Standard copy paper is thin enough that marker ink soaks through to whatever is underneath, which is why a cheap pack of heavier stock is worth keeping near the printer.
A few settings save reprints. Turn off any scale to fit option so the drawing keeps its proportions, choose black and white or greyscale so you are not spending color ink on line art, and check the preview before printing the busier scenes.
Print two copies of the popular sheets. Siblings rarely want different lions, and a spare means nobody has to start over after a marker slip.
What Should Kids Know About Lions While They Color?
A lion’s roar carries up to five miles, and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo says one male was recorded at 114 decibels (1).
Size comes next. The same zoo puts an adult male at 330 to 550 pounds and a female at 265 to 395 pounds, so the maned lions on these sheets are drawn heavier than the lionesses on purpose. Prides are family groups built around related females and their cubs, and can run from a handful of animals to as many as 40. Litters are usually one to four cubs, born after a gestation of about three and a half months.
Mane color is worth mentioning before anyone picks up a pencil, because it is not decoration. In Serengeti field experiments run by the University of Minnesota, females chose dark maned models 9 times out of 10, and mane darkness tracked with testosterone levels in the blood. “On a broad scale, it’s been known for at least a century that lions in colder climates have long dark manes,” said Peyton West, the researcher who ran those experiments (2). A near black mane on your page is as accurate as a golden one.
Wild lions live only in Africa now, from the Sahara’s southern fringe to northern South Africa, with roughly 24,000 left and about 17% of their old range still occupied. The exception is a separate population of Asiatic lions in India, where a 2025 Gujarat state census counted 891 animals.
Activities to Do With Lion Coloring Pages
A finished sheet does not have to go straight in the recycling. Each of these turns a colored lion into something that lasts a bit longer, and most use what is already in the craft drawer.
1. Paper Bag Lion Puppets
Color one of the face heavy sheets, cut the head out, and glue it to the folded flap at the bottom of a paper lunch bag. The body goes on the flat front of the bag, or your child can draw their own paws. Slide a hand inside and the mouth moves when the flap does, which is usually enough for a ten minute puppet show.
2. 3D Yarn Mane
Color the face on one of the portrait sheets and leave the mane blank. Run liquid glue over the mane area, then press on short strips of orange, yellow and brown yarn until it is full. The texture is the appeal, and it gives kids who dislike coloring large areas a way to finish the same page.
3. Create a Savanna Diorama
Glue a colored lion onto thin cardboard from a cereal box, cut around him, and leave a tab at the bottom that folds back so he stands. Stand him in a shoe box lined with green paper, a few pebbles and a paper acacia tree. The Savannah King and Lion on the Rocky Cliffs sheets already have scenery you can copy into the box.
4. Lion Mask
Pick one of the big head sheets, color it, then cut out the face and two eye holes. Punch a hole at each temple, thread elastic or string through, and knot it. Cardstock holds up to this far better than copy paper, so print the sheet on the heavier stock if a mask is the plan.
5. Fact Border Poster
Glue the finished page onto a larger sheet of construction paper and use the border for facts your child writes out: how far a roar travels, how many cubs are in a litter, what a group of lions is called. The section above has enough numbers to fill a border, and copying them out turns coloring time into handwriting practice.
6. Sort the Pride
Print a mix of cubs, lionesses and maned males, color them, and lay them out on the floor as one pride. Ask which are adults, which are cubs, and how you can tell a male from a female at a glance. It is a quick sorting game that uses what they just spent an hour looking at.
FAQs
What Colors Should I Use for a Realistic Lion?
Use earth tones for a realistic lion: yellow ochre, tan and light brown across the body, with a darker mane in deep brown, reddish brown or near black. Manes range from light blond to black in the wild, so a dark mane is a real choice rather than a mistake. Keep the muzzle, chest and belly paler than the back, and add a grey shadow under the body so the animal sits on the ground.
Where Do Lions Live in the Wild?
Wild lions live only in Africa, from the southern fringe of the Sahara down to northern South Africa, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. They favor grassland and open savanna, which is the scenery drawn into the Savannah King and Wild Lion Roar sheets. One separate population survives in India, where a 2025 Gujarat census counted 891 Asiatic lions.
What Is a Group of Lions Called?
A group of lions is a pride, built around related females and their cubs with a small number of adult males attached. A pride can be a handful of animals or as many as 40, per the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.
Do Female Lions Have Manes?
No, only males grow a mane, and its color carries information. In Serengeti field experiments, female lions chose dark maned models 9 times out of 10, and mane darkness matched higher testosterone in the blood. On these pages the maneless animals are the lionesses, including the Lioness on a Rocky Perch and Lioness on the Move sheets.
How Do I Stop Markers From Bleeding Through the Paper?
Print on cardstock or heavy bond paper and the bleed mostly stops. Standard copy paper is thin, so marker ink travels straight through to the next sheet or the table. Slide a spare piece of paper underneath as a backing, work in light passes instead of soaking one spot, and let each area dry before going over it again.
Are These Coloring Pages Suitable for Toddlers?
Yes, several sheets are drawn specifically for small hands. Easy Lion Outline, Cute Lion Cub, Baby Lion’s First Roar and Mid-Roar Male Lion all use thick outlines, large open shapes and no background, so a crayon grip that wanders still produces a good looking lion. Save the detailed portraits for older siblings.
Which Sheets Are Hard Enough for an Adult?
Four of them will hold an adult’s attention: Patterned Lion Mandala, Majestic Lion Head, Mane in the Wind and Lion on the Rocky Cliffs. Each has fine interior lines, layered mane strokes or a full background scene, which means shading and color blending rather than filling shapes. Print those on cardstock and use pencils or fine tip pens.
