Printable leaf colouring sheet easy autumn art project

Use this free printable leaf colouring page as an easy autumn art project to explore pens, paints, pastels and pattens.

Printable leaf colouring sheet easy autumn art project

In this autumn art project children are invited to use outlines of leaves to explore a variety of art materials, colours, and patterns.

The leaf outlines are hand-drawn from real leaves, including oak, horse chestnut and beach.

The colouring page offers and simple prompt for children of all ages and allows them to customise the page as they wish, exploring pens, paints and pastels, and using a variety of techniques and patterns. 

Materials needed

:: leaf colouring page (see below)

:: your choice of coloured pens, metallic pens, paints, oil pastels and / or crayons

Print the leaf colour page (see below) and set it out with a selection of pens, pastels or paints and invite your children to add colour and pattern to the leaves.

Five ways to use these colouring sheets:

1 :: Colour them in. Colouring can be a calming, mindful activity. You could try pencils, pens, or oil pastels.

2 :: Use Zentangle® Method, filling each leaf with a different geometric pattern. Fine marker pens are better for patterning. 

3 :: Watercolour them. First paint each leaf with water, then use watercolour paints in green, red, orange, yellow and brown to add colour on top of the water. This ‘wet on wet’ technique produces unique, gorgeous colour blends. You could also use a wax crayon or oil pastel to draw veins on each leaf, then paint with watercolours over the top. Notice how the wax/oil resists the paint and how your veins stand out.

4 :: Scavenger hunt them. Take your printable out on a nature walk in your neighbourhood or nearby park or woods and see if you can find some leaves that match the shapes on the chart. Do you know the name of the tree each leaf comes from? You could look them up in a nature guide book. Are the leaves in your area different? You could make your own leaf sketches.

5 :: Colour match. Bring home some leaves from your nature walk, choosing leaves in a range of autumn shades. Can you colour your leaves so that they match the real leaves you have gathered?