Use finished pages as a color map
A colored example answers the questions beginners stall on: which colors sit next to each other, where the shadows go, and how many colors a page needs (fewer than you think). Keep one beside your blank copy and borrow freely; palettes aren't plagiarism. Pinterest is full of boards devoted to finished pages from popular books, which colorists browse exactly this way.
Finished pages are also a small market
Completed coloring pages sell. Etsy has an entire category of finished colored pages, where colorists sell completed book pages as wall art. If you ever doubted that coloring counts as art, the existence of buyers settles it. (Selling pages from a copyrighted book sits in a legal gray zone, so serious sellers work from line art they have rights to.)
Make your own finished versions
Color any of our pages in the online coloring tool and download the finished picture when you're done. Our guide to saving and printing finished coloring pages walks through it, including printing a colored copy next to a fresh blank one, which is the cheapest way to give a young colorist a reference to work from.
Start with a blank one anyway
If you're here for reference, grab the matching blank from our free coloring pages library and put the palette to work.