Tulip Bouquet Coloring Page

About this coloring page

Five tulips with long strap leaves gathered together and tied with a ribbon. Tulip petals are smooth and unfussy, which makes them an unusually forgiving subject for anyone practising blending: there are no ruffles or veins to work around, just a broad curved surface that takes a gradient cleanly. Giving each of the five flowers a different color is the obvious approach and works well. The more restrained option is five versions of the same color at different strengths, which turns a simple bouquet into something that looks considered. The leaves are long and narrow and benefit from being darker at the base than at the tip. Printed at A4 the leaves are long enough to grade from base to tip without the transition looking abrupt, and the ribbon gives somewhere to put a single strong accent color once the flowers are settled. The five flowers sit close enough together that a color used on one will read against its neighbours, so it is worth deciding the whole palette before starting rather than choosing each flower as you reach it. Changing your mind halfway tends to show.

Color suggestions

• Five flowers, five colors
• Or one color at five strengths
• Leaves darker at the base
• Ribbon in a single accent

Did you know?

• In the Dutch tulip mania of the 1630s single bulbs of the rarest varieties were traded for sums comparable to the price of a house, before the market collapsed almost overnight.
• Tulips keep growing after they are cut. A stem in a vase can add an inch or more, which is why an arrangement that looked even yesterday is lopsided today.