Zentangle Monkey on a Branch with Curled Tail

A patterned monkey steps along a branch, its spiral tail curling among broad tropical leaves and one tiny fruit below.

Free to print for personal and classroom use. This coloring page is part of the Monkey collection, made for teens and adults, drawn in a Zentangle style.

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🎨 How to color it

Layer burnt orange and chestnut through the monkey’s patterned body, use jade and deep olive for the surrounding leaves, and make the tiny hanging fruit a warm golden yellow. Because the monkey is filled with narrow bands, dots, spirals, and leaf shapes, use sharp colored pencils and color one enclosed section at a time. Try a slow ombré on the curled tail, moving from dark cinnamon at the base to pale peach at the spiral tip.

The story behind this coloring page

Dasko Counts the Stormsteps — Every day, Dasko crossed the stormbreak bough in thirty careful steps, tapping each claw against the bark while his tail counted circles in the air. Read the full story →

Every day, Dasko crossed the stormbreak bough in thirty careful steps, tapping each claw against the bark while his tail counted circles in the air. He had set himself a challenge: not twenty-nine, not thirty-one, but thirty, even when the branch smelled of rain and the leaves slapped like wet hands. Until one day, a gust shoved the canopy sideways and sent the little gold pip-fruit swinging beneath him like a bell.

Because of that, Dasko froze on step seventeen, muscles buzzing, while the wind braided vines across his path. Because of that, he began counting the spaces between gusts instead of the steps beneath him: hush, rush, hush, rush. At last the rhythm opened. He sprang only on the hushes, landed light, and touched the far bark on thirty exactly, with thunder rolling approval behind him. The bough still smelled of rain, and his tail counted circles in the air.