Mushroom Coloring Pages

Western-style Mushroom with a Round Cap

Mushroom is a mushroom with a perfectly round cap and a short, thick stem.
Its name in Japanese reference books is Tsukuritake. It means "a mushroom raised and grown by people."
It is often used in Western dishes like spaghetti, pizza, stew, and salad.
It is one of the most grown and eaten mushrooms in the world.

Two Colors: White and Brown

Mushroom comes in a white type and a brown type.
People say the brown type is a little bigger than the white one and has a stronger smell and yummy flavor.
The first coloring page is drawn using a photo of a brown Mushroom as a guide.
Here is a view from above, from the side, and from under the cap. Even for the same mushroom, the shape changes a lot depending on which way you look at it!

Let's Take a Look Under the Cap

The Mushroom you see at the store is young, before its cap opens up.
The underside of the cap is covered with a thin skin, so you usually cannot see the gills.
When the cap opens, the skin tears, and you can see the gills underneath. The gills are light pink at first, and they turn dark brown as it grows.
When it grows big, the cap opens flat, and it can even reach about 20 centimeters wide!

Grown First in France

People say growing Mushroom started in 17th-century France.
It all began when mushrooms of the same family grew by themselves in the soil used for growing melons.
After that, people started growing a lot of them in underground caves near Paris. Dark, cool places were perfect for Mushroom.
In Japan, the way to grow them spread in the Taisho period. Today, a lot of them are made in Chiba Prefecture and Okayama Prefecture.

Let's Look at the Shape of the Brown Mushroom

On the first coloring page, six Mushroom are lined up.
The top middle one and the bottom two are seen from the side. The top right one is from right above. The top left and bottom right ones are seen from under the cap.
When you peek under the cap, a white skin stays between the edge of the cap and the stem, hiding young gills deep inside.
Before its cap opens fully, Mushroom protects its gills with this skin!

Decide on Brown or White

First, let's decide whether to make your Mushroom a Brown type or a White type.
If you choose brown, color the cap with ocher and brown. Make the top light and the edges dark to give it a nice, round shape.
If you choose white, leave most of the cap white! Just add a little light gray or cream to the edges.
It is also fun to color 3 brown and 3 white so you can compare them.

The Stems and the Underside of the Caps Are Cream

The stems are white to cream. Try making the cut bottom part a little light brown.
For the 2 that show the underside of their caps, you can see the remains of a white skin like a ring on the inside edge of the cap.
If you leave this part white and make the deep gills a little darker, it will look like you are peeking inside the cap!

The Ajillo Is Golden Oil

For the ajillo picture, try coloring the olive oil light yellow or gold.
The Mushroom in the oil is a nice, light toasted brown. The red pepper is red, the parsley is green, and the garlic is cream.
The pot is black or gray, the trivet is wood-colored, and the bread is ocher. Leave the cut edges bright to make it look yummy!

Draw the Rough Cap Skin with Dark Brown

The surface of a brown Mushroom cap has tiny rough flakes and lines.
After you color the whole cap with ocher, add short lines here and there with dark brown. This makes it look like it has a real texture!
Add them little by little so you do not do too much.

Mushrooms you can eat raw

Usually, people cook mushrooms before eating them.
However, you can slice fresh Mushroom thinly and eat it in a salad.
Even so, raw Mushroom contains things that are not very good for your body. Eat only a little bit if it is raw, and make sure to cook it most of the time!

"Mushroom" used to mean all mushrooms

In English, the word "mushroom" originally meant all kinds of mushrooms.
In Japan, people usually call only this round mushroom "Mushroom." But in English-speaking countries, shiitake and shimeji are all called mushrooms too!
That means even matsutake is treated as a kind of mushroom in English-speaking countries.

Brown and white are like twins

The brown type and the white type are not different mushrooms. They are the very same kind of mushroom!
You might see the white one more often in stores, but you can find the brown one at the supermarket, too.
Only their colors are different, but their shapes look just the same!