Merida Coloring Pages

When directors Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman created Brave, they threw out every sparkling glass slipper in our Disney coloring pages vault and rode straight into the rugged 10th-century Scottish Highlands. Because Merida spends half the film galloping beside her giant Shire-Clydesdale steed and protecting her transformed mother and brothers, her sheets also share deep fur and forest textures with our animals coloring pages collection.

When we organize our master library of printable coloring pages for families, classrooms, and Pixar fans, we sort Merida's adventures into five distinct Highland realms. Picking your scene category first tells you in three seconds whether to reach for copper colored pencils, earthy tartan markers, or glowing cyan gel pens.

• Highland Games Archery and Recurve Bow Bullseyes: Action poses of Princess Merida drawing her carved horn-and-yew longbow back to her freckled cheek, reaching into her worn leather quiver, and splitting a wooden arrow straight down the center of the Highland Games bullseye.
• Loyal Clydesdale Angus and Craggy Loch Rides: Dynamic equestrian sheets starring Merida galloping bareback or bridled atop her towering black horse Angus across mossy glens, waterfall cliffs, and ancient pine groves.
• Mischievous Triplets Harris Hubert and Hamish as Bear Cubs: Playful outlines of Merida'sentical little brothers both in tartan kilts stealing iced Scottish Empire biscuits and transformed into round black bear cubs offering wide, forgiving shapes that pair with our cute and easy coloring pages.
• Queen Elinor King Fergus and the DunBroch Royal Hall: Dramatic family portraits featuring Queen Elinor in her emerald gown and protective mother-bear form, booming one-legged King Fergus in his bear-pelt cape, the scarred ancient demon bear Mor'du, and the stitched family tapestry.
• Mystical Will-o'-the-Wisps Ring of Stones and Celtic Mandalas: Atmospheric prints showcasing the whispering blue Will-o'-the-Wisps, ancient Callanish-inspired standing stones, the Woodcarver Witch's cottage, and interwoven Scottish knotwork frames engineered for fans of intricate adult coloring pages.

"Merida never sets foot in a crystal carriage her pages ask for fiery copper spirals, mossy Highland greens, and weathered stone grays instead of pastel ballroom pinks."

Pixar's 1500 Curl Secret and the Three Tier Copper Spiral Rule for Merida's Hair

Merida's untamed red mane is the single biggest draw across all princess merida coloring sheets, yet it is also the fastest spot to ruin with a heavy hand. Back in 2012, Pixar's simulation team spent three years building a brand-new physics engine called Taz just to animate 1,500 independent corkscrew ringlets totalling 111,700 individual hair strands all bouncing at different angles and speeds.

Why does that studio trivia matter at your kitchen table? Because curly red hair never reflects light in a flat horizontal stripe like straight hair; every S-shaped lock has a dark recessed inner hook, a fiery mid-curve body, and a sunlit outer bulge.

• Tuck Burnt Sienna Into the Tight Inner Ringlet Hooks: Before touching an orange crayon or marker to the sheet, use warm rust-brown or burnt sienna (such as Copic or Ohuhu E09 or E18, or Prismacolor Sienna Brown) strictly inside the tight C-shaped under-curves and root overlaps where one curl ducks beneath another.
• Sweep Fiery Cadmium Orange Along the Mid-Curl Ribbons: Pull curved strokes of vibrant vermilion-orange (YR07 or YR18) following the natural spiral path of each lock, blending outward from your burnt-sienna shadows without scrubbing across the black ink dividers.
• Crown Outer S-Bend Crests With Golden Marigold and Bare White Sparks: Glaze the outermost bulge of the top ten surface ringlets in warm amber-gold (Y17 or YR14), leaving a crisp one-millimeter crescent of bare white paper at the peak of each S-bend so her curls bounce off the page.
• Frame Sea-Glass Cerulean Eyes Against Freckled Porcelain Skin: Keep Merida's Scottish complexion a whisper-soft peach-ivory (E000 shaded lightly with E00) dusted with tiny cinnamon pencil freckles across her nose bridge, allowing her intense sea-glass blue irises (BG15 and B05) to lock onto the target.

Shading DunBroch Tartan Plaids Petrol Teal Linen and Angus's Jet Black Coat

Before animating a single frame of Brave, production designer Steve Pilcher and shading art director Tia Kratter traveled across the Scottish Highlands studying coarse wet wool, bog moss, and lichen-crusted boulders. They even registered an official Clan DunBroch tartan with the Scottish Register of Tartans and dressed Merida in matte petrol-teal linen rather than shiny ballroom satin.

If you color King Fergus's kilt one tiny square at a time or flood Merida's dress and her horse Angus with a pitch-black marker, those weathered Highland textures vanish. Switching your hand motion across plaid wool, rough linen, and dark animal coats keeps every ink line razor-sharp.

Weaving Clan DunBroch Tartan Kilts With a Dry Tooth Cross Grid

On sheets featuring King Fergus's kilt, the triplet boys' tunics, or the royal family tapestry, coloring individual plaid boxes one by one takes half an hour and leaves uneven marker seams. Real Scottish tartan is woven by crossing vertical warp threads over horizontal weft threads.

Lay down a smooth, uniform base coat of muted sage-slate green (BG93 or G82) across the entire kilt and let the ink dry for twenty seconds. Pull vertical and horizontal stripes of deep forest teal (BG78) at ninety-degree angles so the overlapping intersections naturally double in darkness, then take a fine-tip crimson-red (R59) and golden-ochre (YR23) pen to rule crisp grid lines through the center of the lighter squares.

Layering Merida's Dark Petrol Teal Archery Dress and Cream Chemise

Fans constantly argue over whether Merida's everyday adventure gown is navy blue or dark green. In Pixar's official color scripts, her medieval cotehardie dress is a deep, earthy petrol-teal linen (BG75 shaded with BG78) designed to help her blend into dark pine needles and slate crags while stalking across the glens.

Instead of leaving long, glossy white satin stripes down her skirt, shade her archery gown with short, matte cross-hatched pencil strokes. Color her puffed elbow and shoulder slashes in warm unbleached cream (YR30), and dot her leather waist belt and arrow quiver strap with antique bronze (E37 tipped with Y26). On sheets showing the stiff formal betrothal dress Queen Elinor forces her to wear, flip your palette to dusty sky-blue silk (B93) edged with rigid gold-brocade trim and a white linen wimple.

Separating Angus's Charcoal Coat From Ivory Feathers and Bear Muzzles

Anyone who has practiced how to draw horses or forest bears knows that uncapping a pure black marker on Angus the Clydesdale, Bear-Elinor, or the demon bear Mor'du turns them into flat ink silhouettes in ten seconds. To keep muscle contours and facial expressions readable, treat pure black as a tiny accent rather than a base color.

Base Angus's powerful shoulders and the triplet bear cubs' round bellies in warm charcoal-espresso (W7 or C7), saving 100% pure black strictly for nostrils, pupils, hooves, and deep under-chin shadows. Keep Angus's signature diamond forehead blaze and long silky lower-leg fetlock "feathers" creamy ivory (YR30 shaded with warm gray W2 at the ankles), and give Queen Elinor and the three bear cubs warm biscuit-tan muzzles (E31 and E34) so their gentle smiles stand out against their dark fur.

"Never waste a pure black marker on Angus's flank or a bear cub's belly warm charcoal gray keeps every muscle line alive while ivory fetlock feathers and biscuit-tan muzzles carry the personality."

Lighting Up Glowing Blue Will o the Wisps and Ancient Standing Stones

The whispering blue Will-o'-the-Wisps leading Merida through the misty Callanish-inspired Ring of Stones are among the most downloaded brave coloring pages, yet they are also the easiest to muddy. When kids color the tiny floating spirits dark blue against a white background, the magic looks like a heavy ink stain rather than a marsh lantern.

Because paper has no built-in backlight, a Will-o'-the-Wisp only glows when its center stays lighter than the ancient stone monoliths behind it. Flipping your value contrast across three simple rings ignites the entire forest scene.

• Protect a 100% Bare-White Spirit Core and Whisper Tail: Leave the central teardrop cap, tiny outstretched arms, and trailing ribbon tail of every floating Will-o'-the-Wisp completely untouched bare white paper.
• Feather a Three-Millimeter Electric Cyan and Seafoam Halo: Ring the outer border of each white wisp silhouette with glowing ice-cyan (B02) fading into pale seafoam mint (BG11), and brush that same cyan rim light across the carved Celtic spiral runes on the nearest standing stone.
• Deepen the Surrounding Monoliths and Pine Canopy in Slate and Spruce: Shade the shadowed granite monoliths in cool slate-indigo (B97 and C6), stipple wet emerald moss (YG67 and G99) around their base boulders, and darken the pine trunks behind the wisps so the bare white paper cores shine like real marsh fire.

Three Highland Crafts From Woven Tartan Tapestries to Archery Target Games

Because Brave revolves around tactile handmade heirlooms Queen Elinor's embroidered family tapestry, Merida's hand-strung longbow, and flickering forest wisps leaving finished sheets flat on the table misses half the adventure. A pair of scissors, a hole punch, and a length of yarn will turn any stack of printouts into Scottish clan gear.

When we test our printable coloring pages for kids during family movie nights and classroom art hours, these three cardstock builds consistently win the room.

• Yarn-Stitched Clan DunBroch Torn-and-Mended Tapestry Puzzles: Print a family portrait of Merida and Bear-Elinor onto 65 lb cardstock, color the outer frame in sage-and-teal tartan, cut a wavy diagonal "sword slash" across the middle just like Merida's blade in the castle hall, punch six holes along both cut edges, and let kids mend the bond by lacing gold or crimson yarn cross-stitches through the seam.
• Freestanding Highland Games Archery Bullseye Standees: Print and color a Merida bow pose alongside three concentric bullseye target rings (canary yellow center, crimson middle, cobalt outer ring) on heavy cardstock, fold the bottom two inches backward into a triangular kickstand, and launch cotton-swab arrows from a rubber-band craft-stick bow across the kitchen table.
• Translucent Tissue-Paper Will-o'-the-Wisp Bedroom Luminaries: Color a Ring of Stones forest sheet in deep spruce green and slate gray, carefully cut out the floating Will-o'-the-Wisp silhouettes with a craft knife, tape pale cyan and white tissue paper behind the openings, and roll the page into a standing cylinder around a battery LED tea light.

Frequently Asked Questions About Merida Coloring Pages

How do you color Princess Merida's curly red hair so it doesn't look flat?

Never scrub a single orange crayon across her whole head. Use a three-tier copper spiral formula: tuck dark burnt sienna into the recessed inner C-hooks of each curl, sweep vibrant cadmium orange along the mid-ringlet curves, and highlight the outer S-bend crests with golden marigold and a tiny one-millimeter bare-white spark.

What exact color is Merida's dress in Disney Pixar's Brave?

Merida's signature archery gown is a matte, earthy dark petrol-teal linen sitting right between deep forest green and slate navy paired with warm unbleached cream chemise slashes at the shoulders and elbows, plus antique bronze belt medallions. Her formal royal betrothal gown is dusty sky-blue silk edged with gold brocade trim.

How do you color Angus the horse and the triplet bear cubs without losing their outlines?

Avoid filling Angus, Bear-Elinor, or the triplet cubs Harris, Hubert, and Hamish with solid pitch-black ink. Base their coats in warm charcoal or dark espresso gray, reserve pure black strictly for nostrils and deep shadows, keep Angus's lower-leg feathers and forehead blaze creamy ivory, and color the bears' muzzles warm biscuit tan.

How do you make the blue Will-o'-the-Wisps glow on a Brave coloring page?

Leave the floating sprite body and wispy tail 100% uncolored bare white paper. Feather a three-millimeter halo of electric cyan and seafoam mint around the white silhouette, then shade the surrounding Callanish standing stones and pine trees in deep slate-indigo and dark spruce green so the white core radiates light.

Print One Highland Sheet and Test the Three Tier Copper Curl Trick Tonight

You don't need Pixar's Taz supercomputer or a 72-piece artist pencil tin to make your next Scottish Highland printout look like a theater frame. Pull out one free printable PDF right now and run these two quick tabletop upgrades in under ten minutes.

• Shade One S-Shaped Ringlet With Burnt Sienna, Orange, and Marigold (3 minutes): Pick any Princess Merida portrait, tuck rust-brown into the inner hook of a single forehead curl, sweep cadmium orange across the middle curve, and leave a golden-amber and bare-white spark on the outer bulge to watch her mane spring into 3D.
• Halo One Bare-White Will-o'-the-Wisp in Electric Cyan (3 minutes): Grab a sheet with floating forest spirits, leave one wisp body completely untouched white paper, ring its outer edge with a sky-blue marker, and shade dark pine green behind it to see the marsh light ignite.

When your family prints a fresh stack of merida coloring pages, do you reach first for Highland Games archery bullseyes, galloping glens with Angus the Clydesdale, or the mischievous triplet bear cubs raiding the royal kitchen?