Free Grimace coloring pages: 20+ pages featuring the large purple McDonald’s character in portrait poses, birthday celebration scenes with party hats, Grimace holding or surrounded by milkshakes, action and dancing poses, duo pages with Ronald McDonald and Hamburglar, chibi-style friendly Grimace designs, and the full visual range of one of fast food advertising’s most enduring and recently revived characters. All free, printable PDF and online coloring for McDonald’s fans of all ages.
Grimace first appeared in McDonald’s advertising in 1971 as “Evil Grimace,” a four-armed villain whose specific crime was stealing milkshakes and soft drinks from customers. In 1972, McDonald’s redesigned the character: two arms replaced four, the villain premise was dropped entirely, and Grimace became Ronald McDonald’s best friend. The large, round, purple character has remained in McDonald’s marketing in some form ever since, surviving the retirement of most other McDonaldland characters in the early 2000s.
In June 2023, McDonald’s launched a “Grimace Birthday Meal” promotion celebrating the character’s birthday, including a berry-flavored purple milkshake called the Grimace Shake. The promotion triggered one of the most documented fast food social media moments of the decade: a TikTok trend in which users filmed themselves drinking the purple shake and then collapsing in mock horror-movie scenarios, generating hundreds of millions of views and returning Grimace to the center of popular culture more than fifty years after his introduction.
These 20+ free pages at ColoringPagesOnly.com cover the full character history. All free, PDF or PNG, print or color online.
What’s Inside
Grimace Portrait Pages
Grimace’s design is one of the simplest and most immediately recognizable in fast food advertising history: a large, rounded, near-spherical purple body with short stubby arms, short stubby legs, and a face that shows a permanent wide smile. No clothing, no accessories beyond birthday-specific additions, no complex surface detail. The character’s design communicates everything it needs to communicate through shape and color alone: round equals friendly, purple equals distinctive, smile equals welcome.
The purple that defines Grimace is a specific medium purple-violet: vivid, fully saturated, leaning slightly more toward blue-purple than red-purple. It is not lavender (too light and too pink), not eggplant (too dark and too cool), and not violet (too blue). It is the specific warm-medium purple that McDonald’s has used consistently across decades of marketing materials and that fans identify immediately as “Grimace purple.”
His face has the large, simple features of a classic commercial mascot: wide-set eyes with a friendly expression, a broad smile, and the proportional relationships of a character designed to be immediately readable at any size from a Happy Meal box to a highway billboard.
Portrait pages showing Grimace directly facing the viewer, arms slightly out to the sides in a welcoming gesture, are the collection’s most accessible pages and its clearest expression of the character’s essential design.
Coloring Grimace portrait pages: The body receives the vivid medium purple-violet at full saturation across every surface, applied evenly. Shadow areas (the underside of the body, the inner curves of the arms and legs where they meet the torso) should be rendered in a slightly deeper, slightly more blue-shifted purple rather than grey or brown, keeping the shadow within the purple family. The face’s skin area, if separated from the body and purple in the page design, is either continuous with the purple or rendered in a slightly lighter, warmer lavender. His eyes are typically dark brown or black, with a small white highlight dot. His smile is a simple dark curve.
Birthday Grimace Pages
The June 2023 birthday promotion gave Grimace a new visual context that appears in several of the collection’s pages: the birthday register, with party hat, festive decorations, and the specific energy of a celebration. Grimace with a party hat is a relatively recent addition to the character’s visual vocabulary, but it fits the character’s personality completely: he has always been associated with celebration and childlike happiness.
The party hat is a small conical hat, typically rendered in bright colors with a stripe or star pattern, sitting at a slight angle atop Grimace’s rounded head. Streamers, confetti elements, and balloons appear in birthday-themed background compositions.
Coloring birthday Grimace pages: The body maintains the canonical vivid purple throughout. The party hat offers a color contrast opportunity: vivid yellow, bright red, or vivid green for the hat provides maximum contrast against the purple body. Confetti and streamer elements in the background should use a full range of vivid colors, creating a festive palette that contrasts with the purple figure at the center.
Grimace with the Milkshake
Several pages show Grimace holding or interacting with a milkshake, the food item most specifically associated with his character since his original 1971 appearance as a milkshake thief. The 2023 Grimace Shake made this association even more concrete: a purple milkshake in a McDonald’s cup, with whipped cream and a straw, became one of 2023’s most widely photographed food items.
Pages showing Grimace holding a large milkshake or surrounded by milkshake imagery carry the full weight of both the character’s fifty-year history and the 2023 cultural moment that brought him back to mainstream awareness.
Coloring milkshake pages: The milkshake cup uses McDonald’s red with the golden arches or the standard white McDonald’s cup with branding elements. The shake itself, if it is the 2023 Grimace Shake specifically, is rendered in a vivid purple, matching or slightly lighter than Grimace’s own body color. The whipped cream topping is clean white. The straw is typically the standard red-and-white striped McDonald’s straw.
Grimace with Ronald McDonald and Hamburglar
Grimace, as part of the McDonaldland ensemble, appears in several group composition pages alongside Ronald McDonald and Hamburglar, the two other major McDonald’s characters who remained in the brand’s marketing alongside Grimace after most other McDonaldland characters were retired.
Ronald McDonald is a clown character with a red-and-yellow costume, white face makeup, large red shoes, and vivid red hair. His design is the most complex in any group page featuring multiple McDonaldland characters. Hamburglar is a smaller character in a black-and-white striped costume with a wide-brimmed hat and a cape, associated with stealing hamburgers.
Coloring group pages: The color distribution across a McDonaldland group page creates a specific challenge: Grimace’s vivid purple, Ronald’s red and yellow, and Hamburglar’s black and white need to be balanced across the composition without any single character dominating. Apply Grimace’s purple first, as the largest and most visually dominant figure. Then apply Ronald’s red and yellow, using the same full-saturation approach. Finally, apply Hamburglar’s black-and-white pattern, which provides visual relief from the vivid colors of his companions.
Action and Dancing Poses
Some pages show Grimace in motion: dancing, waving, jumping, or celebrating. These pages capture a different register of the character from the simple portrait, showing the personality that McDonald’s has consistently attributed to him across decades: enthusiastic, cheerful, and somewhat clumsy in a lovable way.
Action pose pages require attention to the body’s mass in motion: Grimace’s large, round body in a dancing or jumping pose should suggest weight and momentum while maintaining the friendly, rounded quality of the design.
Coloring action pages: Apply the purple body color consistently across all surfaces, regardless of the pose’s complexity. Shadow areas shift as the body’s orientation changes: in a jumping pose, the underside receives the deepest shadow; in a dancing pose with the body slightly tilted, the shadow falls on the side facing away from the light source. The action lines or motion effects around the figure (if present in the page design) should be rendered very lightly in warm grey or left close to paper white, ensuring they read as motion effects rather than structural elements.
What These Pages Do
Grimace’s design history documents one of American advertising’s most documented character rehabilitations. The 1971 “Evil Grimace” was a four-armed villain designed to be defeated by Ronald McDonald in a narrative that positioned McDonald’s food as something worth protecting from theft. By 1972, McDonald’s had decided that a villain character was counterproductive to the brand’s family-friendly positioning, and Grimace became the gentle giant best friend instead. The two-arm redesign, the personality reorientation, and the name simplification from “Evil Grimace” to simply “Grimace” happened within a year of the character’s introduction. This is a specific, documented decision in advertising history that coloring page articles rarely mention.
The 2023 Grimace Shake TikTok phenomenon is one of the most analyzed organic social media marketing moments of that year. McDonald’s did not create the trend: users did, by imagining horror scenarios around an innocuous purple milkshake. McDonald’s response was to engage with the trend humorously rather than distance itself, posting from Grimace’s perspective and embracing the attention. Marketing publications documented the case study extensively because it demonstrated that a fifty-two-year-old mascot character could generate hundreds of millions of social media impressions through user-created content rather than paid advertising.
The American Academy of Pediatrics identifies fine motor skill development as a key childhood milestone throughout early childhood. Grimace’s large, simple, rounded form makes his pages some of the most accessible in the collection for young colorists. The areas are large and clearly defined, the color palette is simple (primarily one vivid color across the entire large figure), and the face details are minimal. The 2005 Art Therapy Journal study on structured coloring and anxiety reduction applies throughout this collection, with Grimace’s fundamentally cheerful design providing an additional emotional register.
These pages bridge generations: adults who grew up with McDonaldland advertising in the 1970s through 1990s, teenagers who participated in the 2023 Grimace Shake trend, and young children currently encountering the character for the first time all find different but genuine points of connection with the same purple design.
How to Color These Pages Well
Grimace’s purple must be vivid and consistent across the entire large body surface. The most common error on Grimace pages is applying the purple unevenly, leaving areas lighter or darker in ways that suggest surface variation rather than the smooth, consistent purple of the actual character. Apply the vivid medium purple-violet at full pressure across every purple surface area, working in overlapping strokes to ensure complete coverage. If using crayons or colored pencils, a second layer in the same direction over the first layer will deepen and even out the purple significantly.
Shadow areas stay within the purple family: no grey, no brown. Grimace’s rounded body catches shadow at its underside and at the inner curves where limbs meet torso. These shadow areas should be rendered as a deeper, slightly cooler purple rather than grey or warm brown. Shadow grey on a purple figure makes the character look dirty rather than dimensional. Deep purple shadow, applied carefully to the natural shadow zones, gives Grimace the three-dimensional quality of a rounded figure while maintaining the coherence of his single-color design.
The face is the composition’s most precise area and must be handled after the body is complete. Apply all body purple before addressing the facial features. The smile should be a clean, dark curve: apply it with a fine-tipped tool after the purple is in place. The eyes should have a dark iris with a bright white highlight dot at the upper corner. If the page includes small details like a nose or eyebrow elements, apply them last after all base colors are in place.
Birthday party hat colors maximize contrast through complementary selection. Yellow-orange and orange are the most effective hat colors against Grimace’s blue-leaning purple, because orange and purple are near-complementary colors on the color wheel. A vivid yellow-orange party hat on a vivid purple figure creates the maximum visual pop that birthday imagery requires. Red is the second most effective choice. Avoid pink or lavender for the hat, as these colors are too close to the purple body to create sufficient contrast.
Milkshake colors reference the actual 2023 product if showing the Grimace Shake. The 2023 Grimace Shake was a mixed berry milkshake rendered in a purple matching the character’s own color, topped with whipped cream. If coloring a page that references the Grimace Shake specifically, the shake’s color should match or slightly lighten Grimace’s own body purple. The McDonald’s red cup with the golden arches logo completes the product’s visual identity. The whipped cream should be the cleanest, brightest white in the composition.
5 Creative Craft Ideas
The 1971 vs. 2023 Timeline
Grimace appeared in 1971 as a four-armed milkshake thief. By 1972, he had two arms and was Ronald McDonald’s best friend. In June 2023, a purple milkshake in his honor generated hundreds of millions of TikTok views.
Print two Grimace pages. Color the first as the friendly, simple character of the post-1972 era in canonical purple. Color the second in the same purple, but add two additional arms drawn in pencil above the original two, referencing the original Evil Grimace design.
Mount both pages on a timeline: “1971: Evil Grimace. Four arms. Stole milkshakes. 1972: Grimace. Two arms. Ronald McDonald’s best friend. 2023: The Grimace Shake. Berry flavored. Purple. Hundreds of millions of TikTok views.”
The What Is Grimace Page
For decades, McDonald’s never officially confirmed what species or category of being Grimace belongs to. Various unofficial explanations circulated: he is a taste bud, he is a milkshake, he is simply himself.
Print the simplest, clearest Grimace portrait page. Color it in full canonical vivid purple.
On the backing sheet, create a “Field Guide” entry: “GRIMACE. First observed: 1971. Color: Purple. Size: Large. Diet: Milkshakes (formerly stolen; currently consumed with permission). Known associates: Ronald McDonald, Hamburglar. Species: [UNCONFIRMED]. McDonald’s official statement (2023): ‘He is a big purple guy who loves birthdays and shakes.’ This has been accepted as sufficient.”
Image source: Etsy.
The Grimace Shake Color Study
The 2023 Grimace Shake was mixed-berry flavored and purple. Print four copies of a basic Grimace portrait page.
Color the first in canonical Grimace purple (the character). Color the second in the berry-purple of the actual milkshake (slightly lighter, slightly pinker than Grimace’s body purple). Color the third in the deeper purple of mixed berry fruit (blueberry-dark). Color the fourth in the pale lavender of vanilla soft serve with berry swirl.
Mount all four in a row, labeled: “Grimace purple. Grimace Shake purple. Mixed berry purple. Soft serve lavender.” The display is a study of the purple family using one character as its organizing subject.
Image source: Etsy.
The McDonaldland Reunion
In the early 2000s, McDonald’s retired most of its McDonaldland characters, keeping only Ronald McDonald, Grimace, and Hamburglar in active marketing. Print one page for each of the three retained characters: Grimace in vivid purple, Ronald in red and yellow, Hamburglar in black and white.
Color all three and mount together on a yellow backing sheet (referencing McDonald’s golden arches branding). Title the display: “The survivors. McDonaldland, 1971 to present. Most characters were retired in the early 2000s. These three remained.”
Add a small footnote: “Evil Grimace (1971): four arms, stole milkshakes. Retired after one year. Grimace (1972 to present): two arms, never stolen anything, best friends with Ronald McDonald for over fifty years.”
Image source: Etsy.
The Birthday Page
McDonald’s designated June 12, 2023, as Grimace’s birthday for the promotion that launched the Grimace Shake. Print the most festive birthday-themed Grimace page in the collection, specifically one with a party hat and celebration elements.
Color the birthday page with maximum festivity: full vivid purple for the body, the most contrasting vivid color for the party hat (orange or yellow), bright streamers and balloons in as many different vivid colors as the page design allows.
On the backing sheet, write: “Happy Birthday, Grimace. McDonald’s: June 12, 2023. The gift: a purple berry milkshake. The response: hundreds of millions of TikTok views. The character: 52 years old as of 2023. The original crime: stealing milkshakes in 1971. The full circle: beloved for milkshakes in 2023.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Grimace, and what is he? Grimace is a fictional character created by McDonald’s for its McDonaldland advertising campaign. He is a large, rounded, purple figure with short arms, short legs, and a permanent wide smile. He first appeared in 1971 as “Evil Grimace,” a four-armed villain who stole milkshakes and soft drinks from McDonald’s customers. In 1972, McDonald’s redesigned the character with two arms and repositioned him as Ronald McDonald’s best friend, removing the villain premise entirely. What species or type of being Grimace is has never been officially defined, though in 2023 McDonald’s described him informally as “a big purple guy who loves birthdays and shakes.” He has been part of McDonald’s marketing in some form since 1971.
What is the McDonaldland advertising campaign? McDonaldland was a fictional fantasy world created by McDonald’s for its television advertising, introduced in 1971. It featured Ronald McDonald (a clown who served as McDonald’s primary mascot), Grimace, Hamburglar (a character who stole hamburgers), Mayor McCheese (a character with a cheeseburger head), Birdie the Early Bird (who promoted breakfast items), the Fry Kids (creatures who stole French fries), and other characters. McDonaldland was featured in advertisements, Happy Meal packaging, and playground equipment at McDonald’s locations throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. McDonald’s began phasing out most McDonaldland characters in the early 2000s, retaining Ronald McDonald, Grimace, and Hamburglar primarily in its ongoing marketing.
What was the Grimace Shake, and what happened with it in 2023? In June 2023, McDonald’s launched the “Grimace Birthday Meal” to celebrate the character’s birthday, which included a limited-time purple milkshake called the Grimace Shake. The shake was mixed berry flavored, and the vivid purple color of the Grimace character himself. Shortly after launch, users on TikTok began creating videos in which they drank the purple shake and then fell to the ground in staged horror-movie collapses, as if the shake had some fictional lethal effect. The trend spread rapidly, generating hundreds of millions of views on TikTok within days. McDonald’s responded by engaging with the trend humorously from Grimace’s social media accounts rather than distancing itself, and marketing analysts documented the case study as one of the most significant examples of organic user-generated content driving fast food brand attention in the social media era.
Why was Grimace originally a villain? Grimace’s original 1971 design as “Evil Grimace” was created as a foil for Ronald McDonald in McDonald’s advertising narrative: a villain character who stole milkshakes and soft drinks from customers and was defeated by Ronald McDonald. The four arms were designed to allow him to steal more items simultaneously. Within a year, McDonald’s decided that a villain character was incompatible with the brand’s positioning as a family-friendly destination for children, redesigned the character with two arms, and reintroduced him as Ronald McDonald’s best friend. The name was shortened from “Evil Grimace” to “Grimace.” The original four-armed villain design is documented in advertising history but is almost entirely absent from contemporary popular awareness of the character.
What color is Grimace, and why is that color distinctive? Grimace is vivid medium purple-violet, a color that McDonald’s has applied consistently to the character across five decades of marketing in print, television, animation, merchandise, and product design. The specific purple is neither the pale lavender of soft toys nor the near-black of deep eggplant, but a fully saturated, vivid medium purple that reads immediately and at a distance. This purple is distinctive in the fast food branding landscape: McDonald’s primary brand colors are red and yellow (the golden arches), and Grimace’s purple functions as the single color that stands completely outside that red-yellow palette while remaining associated with the brand through the character himself. No other major McDonald’s brand element uses purple, making Grimace’s color an effective and memorable differentiator within the brand’s own visual system.
What other McDonaldland characters does Grimace appear with in these pages? The collection includes group pages featuring Grimace alongside the two other McDonaldland characters who have remained in McDonald’s marketing: Ronald McDonald and Hamburglar. Ronald McDonald is a clown character with a red-and-yellow costume, white face makeup with a painted smile, large red shoes, and vivid red hair. He has been McDonald’s primary mascot since 1963 and is one of the most recognized clown characters in American commercial history. Hamburglar is a smaller character in a black-and-white striped costume with a wide-brimmed hat, associated with stealing hamburgers. Hamburglar was briefly revived in a redesigned adult form in 2015 before returning to his classic design.
What age group are these pages best suited for? Grimace coloring pages are among the most age-accessible in any character coloring collection. The simple, large, rounded forms with clearly defined borders and a primarily single-color palette make them immediately accessible from ages two and three, where the friendly face and bold, rounded shape are engaging without requiring fine motor precision. The pages work equally well from ages four to eight as fine motor control develops, with the face details and any accompanying character or background elements providing appropriately scaled challenges. Older children, teenagers, and adults who have a specific connection to the character through either the McDonaldland nostalgia of the 1970s through 1990s or the 2023 Grimace Shake social media moment will find the same pages rewarding with a different layer of cultural context.
Browse the full collection at ColoringPagesOnly.com. All 20+ pages free, no sign-up, PDF or PNG, print or color online.
McDonald’s created a four-armed milkshake thief in 1971. Within a year, they gave him two arms and made him Ronald McDonald’s best friend. He survived the retirement of almost every other character from that era. In 2023, a purple milkshake named for him generated hundreds of millions of TikTok views.
He is large. He is purple. He has been smiling continuously since 1972. What he is, exactly, has never been officially confirmed. McDonald’s said he is a big purple guy who loves birthdays and shakes, and that has been accepted as sufficient by everyone.
Pick up your most vivid purple. The entire body goes first at full saturation. The shadow areas go slightly deeper within the same purple family. The smile goes last with a fine tip.
Share your finished pages on Facebook and Pinterest and tag #Coloringpagesonly. The timeline pages and the What Is Grimace field guide displays are particularly worth sharing.
Color the purple. Apply the smile. He has been smiling since 1972 and shows no signs of stopping.
