How To Make And Sell Your Own Colouring Pages Online (Complete Guide)

Do you want to learn how to make and sell your own colouring pages? Well, you’re in the right place! To be honest, I’m writing this ‘how to’ guide because I couldn’t find an extensive guide on making colouring pages when I was first looking for one. I’ve not got a pretty good formula going that I’d like to share with you if you’re feeling a bit stuck.

There’s a few colouring pages tutorials online but none of them really pointed me in a direction that I could actually follow in an easy way. I’m not talking about selling your colouring pages as a colouring book. I’m talking about selling your drawings as printable colouring pages that people can download and print off at home or at school.

Printable colouring pages are a great way to sell your art because they’re easily accessible.

I first wanted to make my own colouring pages many moons ago when I was something like 19 years old. I thought that I’d have to invest in Photoshop and other various expensive art softwares. I also thought I’d have to sell my colouring pages through web giants like Amazon and in book format. The truth is, you can make your own colouring pages and sell them for very little (and with little hassle). You don’t have to go through Amazon and you can do it all on your own. Win win.

I bounced around for years before I finally got a winning formula going for making my own high quality colouring pages. Once I’d cracked that process, I looked for a good platform to sell my colouring pages. I’ll go through each step in depth so you’ll get a good idea of how to do this yourself. So, here’s my extensive guide on how to make and sell your colouring pages online.

Why make and sell colouring pages?

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably a frustrated artist. You’ve probably loved drawing and painting your whole life but you’ve never really found a channel to bring your own artwork to life. You’re probably the kind of person that loves being creative but ‘real life’ has got in the way of you using your God given talent, especially in a way that could earn you some coffee change.

Since I can remember I’ve had the urge to create stuff and I’ve started projects aimlessly just because I want to do them. This blog and my art is the manifestation of this urge that never stops.

If that’s you, I get it. Luckily, it’s 2021 and the Internet is here to save us with lots of different ways to make and sell our own art. I have always liked the idea of creating something useful for others and colouring pages was the natural evolution of that. Colouring pages are great because they’re a perfect mindful exercise for both adults and kids. They’re generally easy to complete and there’s a nice sense of satisfaction once you’ve completed a page.

I made my first colouring pages as a way to unwind and do something creative. Not only is designing your own colouring pages creative but actually using them is too! I first made some mindful colouring pages to help anxiety and stress and have gone on to create even more different themed colouring pages.

I probably don’t create my own colouring pages in the typical way but I believe this formula can help you to start making your own colouring pages and then hopefully sell them. It’s also an easy way to do it for beginners.

As an example in this guide, I’ll be using my cactus succulent colouring pages. You can check them out here!

First things first, you’re going to need a solid idea for your colouring pages.

Have a solid idea first

Before you do anything, you need to have a solid idea of what you’re going to draw and then sell. I say ‘solid’ because your idea doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, the reason why you’re probably here reading this is because you’re the type of creative person that procrastinates so much that you end up just putting your creative ideas to one side!

Your idea won’t have to be perfect because let’s face it, perfect doesn’t exist. Just have an idea. For example, you could design animal colouring pages or plant colouring pages. Who cares if it’s been done, your work is unique!

I’m also hoping that you have some kind of artist talent! You’re going to need to use your artistic talent when it comes to making your own colouring pages and selling them, no one is going to draw the raw colouring pages for you!! If you have no idea how to draw then I’d advise you to start practising or you’ll end up with a shoddy product that no one will wanna buy! So, it’s important that you have high quality designs when making your colouring pages.

So, let’s get into how to make and then sell your own colouring pages. First off, let’s look at how you could create your own colouring pages from scratch before we even think about selling them.

Making your own colouring pages

As mentioned above, for a long time I was confused about making my own colouring pages. For example, I used to wonder; “how do I draw something and then get it on my computer?” and, “how do I remove the white background on my colouring pages?”

Well, if you’ve been around for a while then you’ll know you can draw something on a piece of paper and then scan it into your computer. Then, you can import it into an image editing software that can trace your lines and convert it into a vector image (more on vector images later). Personally I don’t do this. Mostly because I’m tight and don’t want to pay or lean how to use something like Photoshop. (I know, I know, Photoshop is awesome I just personally can’t be bothered and can’t justify the price right now.) Instead, I have a free method!

However, if your colouring pages start selling then you will have a way to justify your software price tag! So I guess in the long run it would be worth it.

1. Draw something

Let’s start from ground zero. Get yourself a piece of paper and draw something. Think about whether you’re designing it for adults or kids. It could be an animal or a full A4 page of flowers. I’m not going to tell you how to fill the space well because I’m assuming you will already know how to make it a fun colouring page for your target audience, just keep in mind your target audience and their potential ability level.

Designing my own colouring pages and thinking of cool ideas is my favourite part of the process. The next thing you’re going to want to do is ‘digitise them’.

2. Digitise your drawings

Okay, let’s assume you now have a bunch of drawings you want to go ahead with. No matter if your drawing is the full size across a piece of A4 paper or if it is a single drawing in the middle of the page, you’re going to need to convert it into a digital file.

You can scan your drawing onto your computer but I prefer the following method as I have more control.

What you’ll need to do:

• Grab your tablet or iPad
• Take picture of your drawing
• Download the app ‘Sketchbook Pro‘ (free) or a similar app if it’s not on the app store for Apple
• Import your drawing into a new canvas
• Draw over your lines with a simple black marker

I’m going to assume you have a tablet to hand to do this next step. These days they’re quite cheap so hopefully you’re in a position to get one. If you don’t you can skip to step 3 and just scan your drawing onto your computer. If you do this, make sure you draw your lines smoothly and bodly.

Sketchbook Pro is a powerful yet brilliant drawing app and I can’t recommend it enough. It has made this whole process of designing my own colouring pages so easy.

Once you’ve taken a snap of your drawing (don’t worry about making it perfect) you can then select the marker pen to trace over your pencil lines. All you need to do is create a ‘new layer’ and then draw on top of your drawing. Make sure you don’t draw on the same layer as your pencil drawing though!

The reason why I do this step is because I have more control over making my lines crisp. Sketchbook Pro is awesome because it let’s you use a bunch of different layers that you can then merge if you wish to. There are so many different types of markers and paint brushes so you can really experiment with creating unique colouring pages.

I’d advise you taking a bit of time to get used to this app but it is very easy to get the hang of. If you get a bit stuck, there’s plenty of tutorials on their website.

When you’re happy with your tracing, delete the image layer of your pencil drawing so you’re only left with a flat layer of your black line art. If you have different layers of your black marker tracing, merge them all together so you’re left with only one layer.

After this, you’ll want to save your drawing and then you can choose to upload it to your Google drive or email it to yourself.

Note: if you’re a badass artist, you can draw your image on the Sketchbook Pro app and skip drawing it in pencil first! Whichever drawing app is available to you, make sure you have a digital version of it first for best results.

3. Import to Inkscape

Now you have digital version of your line art, you’re going to want to make a vector version of it (vector meaning below). This is easier than it sounds (plus it’s free). For this third step, you’ll want to be on your desktop.

Type ‘Inkscape download’ into Google and you’ll be taken to the download page. Inkscape is a powerful free image editing software made by volunteers. It’s not as good as Photoshop in many ways but it does rival it in other areas and it’s FREE! I’m still amazed that such a thing of beauty is free.

Anyway, go and download the program onto your desktop. It took me only 10 minutes to do this. The best part is, there’s a version for Windows and a version for Mac users so no matter what you use there is a version for you.

Note: you might be overwhelmed by all the information on the Inkscape interface when you first open it but don’t worry, it’s very easy to vectorize your image and that’s all we really need this program for right now.

Why you need Inkscape

You need inkscape because you need a vector version of your line art. If you try and scale your drawing when it’s in JPEG or PNG format you’ll end up with blurry and pixelated lines. Making a vector version is crucial for scaling your drawing to different sizes when messing around with your final colouring page.

Here’s an example of a close up of a line that is in PNG format and then in Vector format. No matter how much you zoom in, the vector lines stay crisp and sharp. This gives your final product a very professional look when printed.

When you save your drawing in Sketchbook Pro you’ll end up with a PNG file which is fine but we need high quality lines that don’t pixelate when stretched and scaled. Zoom in on the above image if you can. The vector lines are beautifully crisp and the original PNG lines are blurry. This image has been zoomed in on so you can tell the difference. If I was to print this design on A4 paper it would have jagged lines which isn’t much fun.

How To Vectorize your drawing with Inkscape

When you open up Inkscape, go to ‘File‘ at the top left of the screen > ‘Import‘.

Select your drawing and it will appear in the middle of the page. If you want to, you can drag it around into the right position. Next, go to Path > Trace Bitmap as shown below.

Once you’ve clicked ‘Trace Bitmap‘, a box will pop up. All you want to do here is click ‘OK‘ and Inkscape will trace your drawing. Simply exit the pop up box and you’ll be able to drag the traced image layer off your original layer. Now just delete the original image from underneath and you’ll be left with a crisp version of your drawing. The white background will also have been removed! If you zoom in on this vector version of your drawing, you’ll notice the edges are nicely crisp.

The final stage here is to export your drawing as a PNG. Even though you’re exporting it as a PNG, it will retain its sharp smooth edges which will stay intact when you crop it and resize it later.

Import your drawing to Canva

The next stage of designing your own colouring pages is importing your drawing to Canva.com. Don’t worry, this is really easy to do. You’ll want to go to Canva.com and then create a new account if you don’t have one. Canva is a free online image editing tool. The reason why you want to use Canva is for its sizing and ‘export to PDF‘ function but we’ll get to that.

Once you’ve created your new account you’ll want to go to templates and type in ‘A4 Document’.

Now you have a blank A4 sized document to work from, upload your design on the left side panel.

From here you can drag your drawing around, crop it or resize it. This is why making it into a vector image was important. Your lines will stay sharp. When you’re happy with the position of your drawing you can go to the top right of the screen where it has ‘…’ and select ‘Download’. From here, select ‘PDF Print’ which will download a high quality PDF ready to print.

5. Create PDF files of your drawings

Let’s say you have 10 pages of drawings. You need to repeat the above process for each drawing you want to turn into a colouring sheet. Of course, if you want to sell all ten as once product then you need to merge all your PDFs onto your computer. Go to ilovepdf.com to do this. You can then download your file as one PDF with multiple page. Okay! you’re nearly ready to sell you colouring pages online!

6. Find somehwere to sell your colouring pages

Now you’ve created your own colouring pages the fun can really begin. Now you need to find somewhere to sell your colouring pages. There are loads of places where you can sell your colouring pages online like the popular Etsy. However, I didn’t really like the whole set up of Etsy. I don’t like the idea of paying 20c to list something and then renewing that listing every few months. I don’t want to pay before I even sell anything. When I was first selling my printable colouring pages I wanted to do it in a free way first. Enter Gumroad.

What I liked about Gumroad was the fact it was a little unknown and quirky. I also love the whole feel of it. You really get the sense that it is made for artists and creatives to share their work. I do get the feeling that it’s becoming more popular these day though. The best part is, it’s free to start an account and start selling. The free version does mean that any sales you make will have a small fee taken from them but it’s not much at all. If you like you can always pay $10 a month for a few more functions.

Gumroad makes it really easy to start selling your printable colouring pages. You can sell both physical and digital products but for the subject of the blog post we’ll focus on digital products. After all, you now have an awesome PDF you want to share with people!

Once you’ve created your free account, go to ‘Products‘ at the top of the page and create a new product.

From this page you can give your product a name, select whether you want to sell it right away or make a preorder version of it. You can always select the price you want. The cool thing about Gumroad is the fact you can make your product free and Gumroad will prompt potential buyers to ‘pay what they want‘ so if there’s any kind people out there they can tip you for your product even if it’s free. From here you’ll want to customise your listing on Gumroad.

See example of my succulent cactus colouring pages below;

On this page you can edit the name of your product, change the price, write the body text and add up to 8 cover images. If you feel like supporting this blog post, please visit and download my succulent colouring pages here! You might just find them fun!

Checkout page

On the checkout page you can then choose what you want customers to see on the checkout page when ordering and what information you want them to insert. You can add discount codes and more.

Share page

On the share page you can grab the link to your products URL. Most importantly, you can add tags so that people can discover your work when they search for colouring pages.

It’s worth playing around on Gumroad and searching for products. There’s all kinds of things being sold on there and it’s really a great creative environment.

Of course, you’re going to have to be creative when it comes to selling your colouring pages. People won’t just buy them! Gumroad has a search function of course but it’s a little clunky. You’ll want to make sure you use the proper tags so it’s easy for people to find your work. Gumroad has a cool function called ‘Discover‘ which you have to manually enable on your account settings. This allows them to feature you products from time to time which is pretty neat and can add some sales.

How to make your own colouring pages: conclusion

So there you have it. There’s how to make and sell your printable colouring pages online. Of course, there ae other ways to do it but this is how I do it. Hopefully these tips and tricks will get you on our way. Have any questions about creating your own colouring pages? Leave a comment below!