Image gradient, as a preprocessing step is an essential tool in image processing in many research areas such as edge detection, segmentation, smoothing, inpainting, etc. In the present paper, we develop a new gradient by integrated the quaternion framework with LPA-ICI (local polynomial approximation – the intersection of confidence intervals) based on anisotropic gradient concepts for the color image processing applications. Computer simulations on the Berkeley Segmentation Dataset show that the new quaternion anisotropic gradient exhibits fewer color artifacts compared to state-of-the-art techniques including well-knowledge gradient operators.