Sunflower coloring pages, and the pattern hiding in the middle

Around the face sit the ray petals, the long yellow blades most people picture first. This is the forgiving part of the page. They are big, they all point outward, and they are hard to get wrong. For a small hand, they are the whole flower. One confident stroke of yellow on each, and the sunflower reads from across the room.

There is a story that a sunflower always turns to face the sun. It is half true. A young sunflower bud really does swing from east in the morning to west by evening, chasing the light. Once it matures and the seeds begin to set, it stops and settles facing east, where it catches the first warmth of the day (Forest Preserve District).

That fixed, east-facing stare is why a whole field of grown sunflowers all look the same way at once. Rows of identical faces, every one turned toward you, make a strange and satisfying thing to color.

The quickest way to make a sunflower page your own is to skip the obvious yellow at least once. The flower can carry more than one mood.

Pick one, or color the same flower three times and pin all three in a row. They will not look like the same page twice.

Start with the spiral, fill in the petals, or print the field and color a row of faces all turned the same way. However tall the real ones grow, these fit on the kitchen table.