How To Draw: Butterflies

Beautiful as they are, butterflies are tricky to draw. The symmetry of their patterns on their wings causes the most headaches. Both sets of wings have to be identical in shape and detail. The best way to get everything right is to have a photo at hand to help you see where everything needs to go. You could draw from a live subject if you wish, but as they are always on the move, a photo is best. At least practice with a photo first before going solo.



Stage One

Your basic shape for a butterfly is a cigar-shape for the body and a circle for the head. From the body, draw four wings with the top wings overlapping the bottom ones. Don't worry about how accurate they are for now, we will work on them later.









Stage Two

Stage Three

Ignore those wings for now as it is best to focus on the main body first. You need to devide the cigar into 2-3 parts depending on how big your butterfly is. The top part is the thorax, below that is the abdomen and below that is the overlap between the two bottom wings. Then inside, draw a few lines to create the butterfly's back. The head is devided for it's eyes and features like antennae are drawn as simple lines on top with a dark blob on the ends. Next (Stage Three), re-draw in pen and shade the body in.



Stage Four

Now we can focus on those wings. This is where a photo for referance comes in handy. A lot of concentration is needed here. My trick to tackle butterfly wings is to treat them like a jigsaw puzzle - do the edges first. Start with what is around the body first, then go to the top edge of the top wings and work your way along. As you do so, you can adjust the shape of the wings until you are satisfied. Work your way from the top wings to the bottom wings one side at a time. Eventually, you can work out where every part of the pattern goes (its harder with butterflies that have lots of spots and detail on them, but concentrate hard enough and you can do it).




Stage Five

Time to go over in pen. Shade over the dark areas of the pattern and dab lightly to create lots of dots for fuzz (the parts around the body for example). Take care around the edges. I also add a few faded lines for veins on the wings.












Stage Six

Lastly, the fun part, colouring in! If your butterfly is vibrantly coloured like this peacock, do the lighter colours first (yellows), then the next darkest (blues and browns) then the boldest colours last (reds). If your butterfly is extremely patterned, take your time and let the ink dry, otherwise you are going to have black ink blending in with your chosen colour. Go over the outlines in pen again if needed.









Stage One

Butterflies don't always show you the upperside of their wings and will close them up revealing just the underside. So for my next drawing, I will draw a butterfly with it's wings closed. It is much easier now that you only have two wings to draw and not four. Create a side on heart-shape and devide it in two with the bottom half much bigger than the top half. Then add the body and head on one end. I am also drawing a flower to sit on, which is wine glass-shaped with petals on top.







Stage Two

Next, I add the basic details in pencil. Just like before, work from the body up. This time (if your butterfly has more pattern on the underside than mine does), go round from the bottom wing to the top wing in a clockwork direction. The legs are simple lines.












Stage Three

Go over in pen, shading if needed. To make the legs thicker, I draw over the original line and then draw another one just next to it, joining at the end. Same goes with the antennae too.














Stage Four

Finally colour it in. This large white looks to enjoy it's red campion, doesn't it?

If you want to draw butterflies in any other position, take some photos and study them. See if you can figure out how draw them by yourself. You need to be patient and concentrate hard as well as lots of practice, but you can do it. I wish you good luck with your drawings and will show you something else to draw next week.