A sugar skull covered in flowers, petals ringing the eyes and a heart on the forehead.
Day of the Dead sugar skull coloring page
- Difficulty Challenging
- Age 6 years and up
- Time 30-40 min
A sugar skull covers the page, its surface filled edge to edge with flowers: a ring of petals around each eye socket, blossoms on the forehead and cheeks, a small heart between the eyes and patterns running along the teeth. Sugar skulls come from the Mexican Day of the Dead, celebrated on 1 and 2 November, where they are made from sugar and decorated in bright colors to remember someone; the marigold is the festival's flower, so orange is the natural first choice. Where the kawaii ghost has almost nothing to color, here the pattern never stops: work motif by motif rather than area by area, and leave the skull itself white so the colors stay bright.
How to color Day of the Dead sugar skull
- orange + yellow Work motif by motif, not area by area: pick a color for all the petals, then all the centers, then the swirls.
- Orange and yellow for the flowers, in the marigold tradition, with pink and turquoise for the smaller shapes.
- Leave the skull itself white so the pattern stays bright, and fill the eye sockets in a single dark color.