Parade With Catrinas Coloring Page

Parade With Catrinas Coloring Page sends six catrinas in long ruffled dresses winding up the page, one behind the other, with papel picado strung overhead and two blank banners left empty at the top and bottom for a name or a date.

How this coloring page was created

The concept we gave the generator was "A lively parade of catrinas in fancy dresses and hats with banners, flowers and papel picado" into Colorin AI, in the storybook style. Sending the line back into the distance rather than across the page is what lets six full length figures fit on one sheet.

The two blank ribbons came back with the drawing. We kept them because an empty banner is an invitation, and children write on them without being asked.

What is in this catrina parade coloring page

Every figure wears the full catrina outfit: a wide brimmed hat trimmed with flowers, a long dress with three or four tiers of ruffles, and a skull face with round eye sockets and a stitched smile.

The closest one carries a lace parasol over one shoulder. The others follow up a curving road that narrows as it goes, so the last two are half the size of the first.

Above them, two lines of papel picado cross the top of the page. At the bottom right a rose and a dahlia are drawn large, filling the corner the road leaves empty.

The two banners, one at the top and one at the bottom, are drawn as ribbons with curled ends and nothing inside them.

Parades like this happen in Mexico City on the weekend before the holiday, and the costumes are exactly this: hats, ruffles and painted faces.

Coloring Ideas and Techniques

Colour the nearest dress first and in full. The figures behind can take lighter versions of the same colours, and the page gains depth without anyone drawing a shadow.

Ruffles work best with two tones: the flat of each tier in one colour and the folded edge in something darker. Do it on the front dress only and let the rest stay flat.

Give every hat a different flower colour. It is the fastest way to make six similar figures read as six different people.

Keep all six faces white. They are painted faces, and white is the paint.

Write something in the banners before colouring them. A name, a year, or the word Recuerdo. The page was drawn with that space on purpose.

The road itself should stay white or take the palest grey. It is the only thing holding the figures apart.

There is a single catrina page in this set at the kawaii end and a very detailed one at the other. This parade sits in the middle, and it is the one to print when a child wants people rather than patterns.

One printing note: the road runs right to the bottom edge of the sheet. Print at 100 percent so the nearest dress is not cut off at the hem, which is where most of the ruffle work is.