Koi are one of the better subjects for practicing irregular color patches because the body does not have to be filled evenly. On these 19 pages, you can leave large areas white and build orange, red, black or yellow patches around them, or ignore natural koi colors and use the fish as a pattern exercise.
The easiest designs have one fish and very few scales. The more detailed sheets add water, fins and smaller body patterns, where colored pencils give you more control than broad markers.
Color the fish before the pond
Decide where the lightest body areas will stay before adding dark patches. Then color the water around the fish with pale blue-green near the body and slightly deeper color toward the edges. Leaving a few uncolored highlights in the water can make the scene feel less flat.
Open the full-size image before printing and use A4 or Letter paper with “fit to page.” For more aquatic pages, see the orca coloring pages and octopus coloring pages.
19 koi fish coloring pages
For the realistic koi, keep the fins lighter than the strongest body patches. That small difference is usually enough to separate the fins from the body without outlining them more heavily.
