Spring Coloring Pages: A sugary coloring picture of mother duck and her baby ducklings going down a garden path- little wabbling legs, feathered fluff and spring charm.
This sweet scene comes after a puffed up mamma duck steers the fluffy little ducklings in a straight little line through a curvy track near a pond. Round the side are reeds, cattails and wild flowers, yet pebbles, puddles, and dim footprints bristle the walk. There are hints of a cozy park bounded by fence of wood and low footbridge; and the ripples in the surrounding water play on the rays of the sun. The page is simple on easy shapes (smooth curves inside the paths, outlines of the rounded ducks bodies) but enticing to details- feather textures, detail lines in the leaves, flecks in the rocks and water ripples- it is a sunny distaring ride to a novice, but very gratifying to those colorists who like to add detail and narrative to their images.

Instruction on coloring:
Begin with soft natural colors that the ducks will pop out: a pale blue sky, the farther grass and reeds cooler greens and the path warm gray-browns; keep the background colors lighter towards the horizon to give depth. Color mother duck creamy yellows or light-colored buff with slight brown shadows over the wings and belly; ducklings may have warmer yellow bases and impossibly tiny, soft shadowing beneath chins and where bodies meet. Carry feather texture by adding a very light layer of short pencil strokes slightly darker than the substrate and dab out some highlights with a white pencil or gel pen. Pop out beaks and feet roundish in peachy orange, darkened slightly at edges; and then little eye dots of life. Scatter the road with the different colours of pebbles (cool gray, beige, taupe) and soft oval shadows under every duck, to stabilize them. When your line work has puddles or the pond in it, colour light blue with a horizontal brushstroke, leaving in the fine white streaks to show sparkle; at the edge of the reflection (that is, the duckling yellow) put a suggestion of the yellow ducklings at the edge of the reflections. Tie the palette together by repeating one of the accents used in the flowers (pink, lavender or buttercup) in a scarf, bow or fence detail. The markers are great on flat spaces (sky, path), colored pencil on feather/leaf textures, white gel pen to add final highlights on the water, eyes and wet stones.