It happened fast. One minute Riley is a kid with five basic feelings, and the next, she’s a teenager hit by a wrecking ball of new, complicated emotions. We all felt that. But what’s weirdly fascinating is how that big-screen chaos translated into a massive surge in Inside Out 2 coloring. It’s not just for kids anymore.
Honestly, there’s something deeply satisfying about taking a colored pencil to Anxiety’s frantic orange hair or trying to find the exact right shade of velvet for Ennui’s tracksuit.
When Pixar released the sequel in 2024, it didn't just break box office records; it created a visual language for things we usually can't describe. Coloring these characters has become a sort of low-stakes therapy for a lot of people. You aren't just filling in lines. You're sort of organizing your own brain.
Why Inside Out 2 Coloring Pages Hit Different
Most coloring books are just... shapes. Flowers. Mandalas. Geometric patterns that don't really mean much. But with Inside Out 2 coloring, you’re dealing with personified concepts.
Take Anxiety. She’s messy. She carries too many suitcases. She’s got that wide-eyed, frantic energy that anyone who has ever stared at a ceiling at 3:00 AM recognizes instantly. When you sit down to color her, you’re forced to focus on those details. The jagged lines of her hair. The way her mouth is stretched.
It’s tactile.
Psychologists have talked for years about the benefits of "creative expression" in managing stress, but this is more specific. Dr. Drea Letamendi, a clinical psychologist who often analyzes fictional characters, has noted how media like Inside Out helps kids (and adults) externalize their feelings. By putting color to a page, you’re basically saying, "I see you, Anxiety. You’re orange today."
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The New Crew: More Than Just Rainbows
The original five—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust—were easy. They followed a basic color wheel. But the new squad in the sequel adds layers that make coloring way more interesting.
Envy is this tiny, shimmering teal character with giant eyes. She’s meant to look "kawaii" but also longing. Then you have Ennui. She’s bored, French, and deep indigo. She doesn't even stand up. Coloring her feels different than coloring Joy; it’s slower.
Then there’s Embarrassment. He’s huge. He’s pink. He hides in a hoodie. There’s a lot of surface area there, and if you’re using watercolors or markers, getting that soft, fleshy pink right is actually a bit of a challenge.
The Search for the "Perfect" Printable
If you go looking for these pages, you’ll find a mix of official Disney assets and fan-made art. The official stuff is usually cleaner. The lines are crisp. You can tell they were drawn by the same artists who worked on the film's character designs.
But the fan art is where it gets spicy.
Some creators have made "emotion mashups." You might find a page where Joy and Anxiety are trying to steer the console at the same time. These are the ones that actually capture what the movie was about—the idea that no emotion exists in a vacuum.
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What You’ll Need for a Good Session
Forget the cheap wax crayons that snap if you look at them wrong. If you’re serious about making these look like the Pixar concept art, you need some specific gear.
- Alcohol-based markers: These are the gold standard. Brands like Ohuhu or Copic allow you to blend colors without those annoying overlap lines. Since Anxiety is various shades of orange and Ennui is a gradient of purple-blues, blending is your best friend.
- Heavyweight cardstock: If you’re printing these at home, don't use regular printer paper. It’ll wrinkle the second it touches ink. Use 65lb or 80lb cardstock. It feels premium. It holds the color.
- Colored pencils for texture: Pixar is famous for texture. Joy’s skin glows. Embarrassment’s hoodie looks like soft cotton. You can mimic this by layering colored pencils over your markers to add highlights or "fuzz."
Turning Coloring into a Mental Health Tool
It sounds a bit "woo-woo," but there’s a real logic here. Mindfulness is basically just focusing on the present moment. When you’re trying to stay inside the lines of Disgust’s eyelashes, you aren't thinking about your car insurance or that email you forgot to send.
For kids, Inside Out 2 coloring acts as a bridge. It’s hard for a ten-year-old to say, "I feel a complex mix of social anxiety and envy regarding my peer group." It’s much easier for them to color a picture of Envy and talk about why she’s so small compared to the others.
I’ve seen teachers use these pages in classrooms as "cool-down" activities. If a kid is having a meltdown (Anger), giving them a page where they can aggressively color Anger’s fire-head actually helps them process that energy. It’s a physical outlet for an internal explosion.
The Mystery of "Deep Secret"
One of the funniest parts of the movie is the "Deep Dark Secret" character—that massive, hulking figure hidden in the back of the mind. Finding coloring pages for him is like finding a rare Pokémon. He’s mostly shadows and dark purples. If you find one, it’s a great exercise in shading and negative space.
Most people stick to Joy because she’s bright and happy, but the "uncomfortable" characters are actually more fun to render.
Digital vs. Paper: The Great Debate
A lot of people are doing this on iPads now. Procreate is amazing for this. You can import a black-and-white line art file and use the "color drop" tool to fill sections instantly.
But honestly? Paper is better.
There’s a blue-light fatigue we all have. Staring at another screen to "relax" feels counterintuitive. The scratch of a pencil on paper—that’s the real magic. Plus, you can’t hang a digital file on the fridge (well, you could, but it’s a lot more work).
Finding High-Quality Pages Without the Spam
The internet is a minefield of "free" coloring sites that are basically just delivery systems for pop-up ads. If you want the good stuff, look for Pinterest boards dedicated to Pixar concept art. Sometimes, the official Disney-Pixar social media accounts drop high-resolution activity sheets during the holidays or around home video releases.
Check the file size. If it’s under 500kb, it’s going to look pixelated when you print it. You want something meaty—at least 1MB—to ensure those lines stay sharp.
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Mastering the "Glow" Effect
If you want to be a pro at Inside Out 2 coloring, you have to master the glow. In the movies, the emotions aren't solid; they’re made of tiny, sparkling particles.
You can’t really "color" sparkles, but you can fake it.
Leave small white dots of uncolored paper in the brightest areas of the character. This creates a "specular highlight." If you’re coloring Sadness, use a very light blue around her edges and get darker toward the center. It makes her look like she’s emitting light.
For Joy, use a yellow highlighter over a light yellow pencil. The fluorescence of the highlighter mimics the cinematic glow of her "Core Memory" energy. It sounds simple, but it looks incredible once you finish the whole page.
The Ennui Challenge
Ennui is the hardest to get right. She’s so... limp. Her color palette is very muted. If you use colors that are too bright, she stops looking like Ennui and starts looking like a generic purple blob. You need "dusty" colors—lavender, slate, charcoal.
It’s a lesson in restraint. Sometimes the best way to color is to not use much color at all.
Actionable Tips for Your Next Coloring Session
To get the most out of your Inside Out 2 coloring experience, move beyond just filling in the gaps. Start by selecting a character that actually matches your current mood; it creates a weirdly strong connection to the art. If you're feeling overwhelmed, go for Anxiety—there's a strange catharsis in "controlling" her color on the page.
Don't be afraid to break the rules. Who says Anger has to be red? Maybe today he's a frustrated shade of lime green. Use mixed media; try a combination of markers for the base and gel pens for the eyes to make them "pop." Most importantly, use high-quality paper. The difference in how the ink sits on 80lb cardstock versus cheap copy paper is night and day, and it prevents the dreaded "bleed-through" that ruins the next page in the book. Once you're done, don't just shove the book in a drawer. If a particular page helped you de-stress, hang it up in your workspace as a visual reminder that your emotions are just characters at a console, and you're the one holding the pen.