Here at Colouring Heaven, we love the enchanting world of unicorns and the incredible colouring that our colourists produce of them. Colouring unicorns provides a unique opportunity to be both inspired by nature (by looking at horses) and also to be creative and think outside the box! There are no set rules or colour schemes when it comes to colour in unicorns, and you can have fun with things like glitter and patterns.
Within this guide on how to colour unicorns, we’re going to focus on a few techniques, tips and tricks so your unicorn colouring can take flight!
So sit back, relax and get colouring some beautiful unicorns today!
As we’ve already said, when it comes to colours, the only limit is your imagination! Unicorns are known for their rainbow hues, but there are a few different options here. Your unicorn could be bursting with a traditionally bright rainbow colour scheme, or take on pastel tones, or perhaps even a metallic colour scheme. All of these are great choices and it is really up to you.
You may find our articles about colour theory and colour schemes helpful for choosing your colours, or browse our wonderful colour palette challenges!
We love this tutorial from Kit and Clowder Colouring Classes that uses unicorn colouring to go into more detail about Colour Theory and picking the best tones for your unicorn colouring!
As always, before starting a new piece of colouring we suggest making a plan for your vision for the piece. By this we mean looking at the design and imagining what you want your unicorn to look like and in turn, how that will affect your colouring.
For example, is your unicorn very regal and majestic? In that case, you might focus on shading the facial features to be more prominent, use longer line strokes and smoother blending to give a polished finish. Is your unicorn cheeky and playful? In that case, you might explore colour more and experiment with multiple colours running through the mane or the horn in twisting pencil strokes. It is up to you what you want your unicorn to look like but assigning it a character and features you want to focus in on can really up your colouring game and bring your unicorn to life!
Colouring your unicorn’s mane is where you can bring all of this knowledge about blending and colour theory into practice! The lines that you make in the mane are incredibly important, as with any piece of colouring that involves hair. You want to create movement within the mane, so using long flowing strokes is key to this.
If you are working with multiple colours within your mane, either tonally or completely different colours, that is where the blending comes in. Apply a gentle pressure as you make marks on the mane and really build up the different colours. Pressing too hard can lead to lines that are a little too harsh and less blended colours. Once again, experiment with different pressures and styles of strokes and see what works best for you.
Colouring pencil artist Jo looks at how to colour a horse mane in this tutorial video.
Perhaps the most iconic part of the unicorn – the horn! This is an excellent opportunity to explore light and colouring reflections. For this, a white or silver pencil will be your best friend! Pick a point where the light is coming from onto your image and use this spot to gently apply highlights to the horn. On the opposite sides or in the places that the light would not hit, you can work with applying darker colours to be your shadows. We wouldn’t suggest using black as it might be a bit too harsh but follow your colour scheme. For example, if your unicorn horn is going to have a tonal pink palette, pick a dark pink or even a purple and use that as your shadow tone. This will make your unicorn horn appear much more three-dimensional.
The face is where you can really bring that character you have developed for your unicorn to life! Do you want to add sweeping eyelashes to the unicorn’s eyes to add glamour? Is your unicorn smiling? You can use the same techniques of adding shadows and highlights to even change the bone structure of your unicorn, if you wanted to. Now you’ve become a master of planning, colour theory, different line strokes, blending and using shadows and highlights you can apply all of these techniques to the unicorn’s face and make your finishing touches.
Now that you have some techniques under your wing, it’s time to start colouring some unicorns! And the good news is we have some brilliant issues of Colouring Heaven to get you started. Here are our favourite issues of Colouring Heaven for magical unicorn colouring pages to colour…
You’ll want to take a look at our stunning Colouring Heaven Unicorns Special, which is packed full of stunning colour in unicorn designs.
Colouring Heaven Junior Unicorn Tea Party is full of adorable designs featuring unicorns and their magical friends!
Left to right: #01 Junior Unicorns Tea Party, #78 Unicorns Special.
With colouring in general and especially with colouring unicorns, there are no rules! Be sure to have fun with your colouring and allow yourself room to explore and get creative with it. We love seeing all of your amazing colouring and can’t wait to see what you make!
If you like our how to colour guides, check out our guide on how to colour dragons, how to colour a mermaid and how to colour flowers.
Coloured a beautiful page and want to share it with your friends and family? Take a look at this article about how to photograph colouring pages.
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