How to Draw a Butterfly Step by Step

Butterflies are beautiful, colorful creatures that many artists love to draw. With some basic steps, you can learn how to draw a simple butterfly that you’ll be proud to show off. All it takes is a bit of practice. If you follow along, you’ll be creating your own gorgeous butterflies in no time!

Introduction

Butterflies are a popular subject for many artists because of their vivid colors, intricate patterns on their wings and graceful shape. While butterflies may seem complicated to capture on paper, they can actually be broken down into simple shapes that make them easy subjects for beginning drawers. By following some straightforward steps, even children can learn to draw basic butterflies.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to draw a simple butterfly step-by-step. You just need a few basic supplies like paper, pencils and markers or crayons. While not required, using colored pencils, markers or crayons can allow you to add beautiful, vibrant colors like those found on real butterflies. The process will start with some simple shapes, building the butterfly up piece by piece until it is complete. Don’t worry if your first attempts don’t come out perfectly. Drawing takes practice, but with a few tries, you’ll have gorgeous butterflies to show off in no time.

Materials Needed

Before starting the drawing process, you’ll need to gather a few supplies. Here is what you’ll need:

Paper

You can use most types of paper to practice your butterfly drawing. Plain white paper works perfectly well, especially printer paper or drawing paper. If you want to get creative, construction paper adds a bright background. The size does not really matter either. Smaller paper, around 8.5 x 11 inches, is fine for quick sketches. Larger sizes allow more room for detail and color.

Pencils

Regular #2 pencils work perfectly fine for constructing the initial line drawing. Have a few sharpened so you don’t have to stop mid-drawing. Mechanical pencils also work well. A nice soft lead allows smooth, dark lines without much pressure. An eraser comes in handy for fixing any mistakes and adjusting your drawing until you are happy with it.

Coloring supplies (optional)

While optional, using pens, markers or colored pencils transforms your sketches from outlining to finished colorful butterflies. Felt tip pens add flowing lines in any color you want. Colored pencils allow you to shade the butterfly’s wings and other details lightly or deeply. Markers with bright colors make the wings pop off the page. Stick to whatever coloring materials you have available or like using the best.

So gather your paper, favorite drawing tools, and a seat at a table. With only a few simple steps, you’ll be creating gorgeous butterflies in your own unique style.

Step 1: Draw the Body

Every good butterfly starts with a nicely shaped body to support the wings. Let’s begin there.

Start with a circle

Lightly draw a circle near the center of your paper. This will be the butterfly’s head/body section. A diameter around 1–2 inches is good size to start with. Make it light at first since you will be erasing guide lines later on.

Add cross lines inside the circle

Next, very lightly draw a horizontal line and a vertical line intersecting inside the circle. They should cross exactly at the circle’s center point. Make sure the lines reach fully from one end of the circle to the other.

These will be guides for placing the rest of the body and wing shapes. You’ll erase them once the general forms are sketched out.

Build out the body

With your guiding cross lines in place, you can start shaping the butterfly’s body on top of the circle. Lightly sketch a shape that looks like two kidney beans placed together, horns touching. The top kidney bean should be a little fatter, the bottom a little longer.

These kidney bean shapes represent the butterfly’s eyes, head and thorax section. Let the dividing line between them fall along the horizontal guide line you drew earlier. The vertical guide separates them evenly left and right.

Make sure to leave space between the eyes/head area and the circle edges on all sides. This space allows you to add antennae later. Go ahead and erase the guiding lines inside the circle now so just the body shape remains.

Take a moment to check the proportions. Adjust and erase as needed until you have a body foundation you like. This piece gives the wings something to attach to later on.

Step 2: Add the Wings

The wings bring a butterfly to life with vibrant colors and graceful shapes. Let’s start framing them out.

Sketch the Top Wing Shape

Above the body section, lightly draw the top portion of the butterfly’s open upper wing. Make it a wide “U” shape with rounder edges connecting high up the page. Try to keep both sides symmetrical and even for a natural look. Allow space between the body and the wing for a slender section that will form later.

Add the Lower Wing Sections

On either side of the body, sketch out the tapered lower edges of the bottom wings. These should be roughly mirror images, flowing down from behind the upper wing on each side. Let them curve back inward to point toward the end of the body shape.

Again, keeping them symmetrical helps achieve a pleasing shape with proper balance. Allow empty space between the upper and lower wing sections for details to come later.

Refine the Basic Wing Shapes

Look over the wings as a whole and make adjustments as needed. Refine any uneven sections so both wings have the same basic shape. Erase and re-draw any parts that feel awkward or lopsided. The goal is evenly sized and placed top and bottom wing pieces framing the body section.

Take your time here to get comfortable wing shapes that will work well for the final butterfly. The details coming later rely heavily on this underlying form.

Step 3: Draw the Antennae

With nicely shaped wings and body in place, let’s give our butterfly some antennas to help it feel its way around.

Start with Short Lines Near the Head

On either side of the head section, lightly sketch two short, thing lines angling up and outward. Place them within the open spaces you left at the top of the initial circle shape. These form the bases of the antennae.

Extend the Antennae Lines

From the outer end of each base line, draw longer, graceful curves reaching well above the upper wing shape. They should taper slightly toward the tip and bend inward ever so slightly toward each other.

Make them around the same length as the height of the entire butterfly body. Matching the curves on both antennae helps them feel like a natural pair.

Refine the Antennae Shapes

Check over the antennae lines, adjusting and erasing as necessary. The goal is to achieve evenly matched, smoothly curving shapes that frame the butterfly’s head section elegantly.

These lines will remain fairly thin, but feel free to emphasize them more than your basic construction lines up to this point. The antennas are an important detail element.

Step 4: Add Details to the Wings

With the butterfly’s basic body, wings and antennas structurally complete, we can start enhancing the wings with some classic butterfly wing features.

Sketch a Center Body Line

Lightly draw a vertical line between the upper and lower wing sections on both sides. This helps visually separate them and indicates where the wings join the body later on. Placement is important, so center them evenly from the antennae to body tip.

Add Parallel Vein Lines

Branching out from the inner vertical lines, sketch sets of gently curving vein lines filling both the upper and lower wing sections. These represent structural veins supporting the thin wing membranes. Create approximately parallel clusters, staying evenly spaced. Allow them to gracefully taper toward the outer edges for a natural look.

Matching the vein line patterns on both left and right helps reinforce symmetry in the overall wing design.

Define Wing Edges with Scallops

To give the wings a more delicate, lacy appearance along the edges, add slight scalloped patterns following their outlines. Make the little U shapes relatively small and evenly spaced, mirroring them on the corresponding upper and lower wing shapes.

This scalloped edging helps the wings look thinner and more wing-like than the basic shapes alone.

Consider Extra Visual Interest Elements

If desired for a more intricate look, you might also add circles or rectangular thickening toward the front of the upper wing to suggest eye patterns seen on some butterflies. Other small details can also enhance wings, like small dots on monarch butterflies or thin, dark veins around the edges of swallowtail butterflies.

The goal is simply making the wings more reflective of natural butterfly wings, so let your creativity guide additional features as desired. Just keep elements evenly balanced between left and right sides.

Step 5: Draw the Legs

With gorgeous wings ready to go, some legs help ground our butterfly and give it a place to stand. Let’s form the basics.

Start With Simple Parallel Lines

Beneath the body section, use your vertical guide line to sketch a set of six thin, relatively short lines angling diagonally downward toward a midpoint. Try placing them almost like rays emitting from the body tip to keep proper spacing.

These represent the simplified structures of the butterfly’s six legs. Keeping them evenly spaced and simple works well here.

Divide and Extend Outer Leg Sections

On the lowest set of leg lines, sketch a second line dividing each one about 1/3rd of the way from the bottom. Then extend the lower segments until they meet at a central point below the body.

These forks help indicate foot structures on the outermost legs for a bit more detail.

Consider Adding Further Foot Details

If desired for extra realism without getting too complex, you can also lightly draw circles at the ends of the remaining upper leg segments to suggest basic foot pads. Details like lines across the “ankles” can also help.

The main goal is simply implying the existence of 6 multi-segmented legs, not intricately drawing full insect anatomy. Keep any additional elements clean and subtle.

Step 6: Add Color

Once your butterfly line drawing feels properly filled out, you can start adding color to bring it to life. Feel free to follow natural butterfly colors, or let your imagination guide the palette!

Color the Body Sections

Use colors like black, brown, orange or yellow (or any desired combination) to lightly color in the main eye and thorax body segments. Leave a thin highlight line of white paper showing along the edges for a rounded effect.

Vary pressure for a mottled, textured effect, or fill more uniformly for a smoother look. Allow lighter and darker variation between the upper and lower body sections.

Paint the Wings with Bright Tropical Colors

Pick vivid colors that excite you and gently start coloring the upper and lower wing areas. Try tropical combinations like orange, magenta, emerald green or bright coastal blues. Lightly blend outward from the center vein lines to create gradient effects toward the edges.

Vary the hues and values — lighter toward the outer scallops, darker along interior veins. Switch colors between upper and lower wings for more depth. Let the wings sparkle and shine brighter than the body.

Refine and Ground with Dark Lines

Once the body and wings use your desired colors, reinforce key structural lines with slightly darker pencil or pen. Carefully outline edges of body sections, wing veins, scallops and antennae to help ground them. Don’t fully encircle — a broken line keeps a softer look.

Match the darkness against your color values — bolder lines with intense colors, softer lines with pale colors. The contrast helps details stand out without hard edges.

Step 7: Final Touches

To complete your colorful butterfly, here are some finishing touches for an extra bit of polish.

Soften Edges with Blending

Lightly blend colored areas where needed to smooth unwanted hard edges or lines. Try gently rubbing edge areas with your finger tip in small circular motions to subtly mix adjoin colors.

Aim to fade separate colored zones into each other for a soft blended look along the wings and body.

Accent with Fine Details

Add any last fine detailing desired with thin pens or pencils. Outline antennas or draw subtle vein texture on wings with darker values. Or use white to add tiny catch light dots, suggestive wing scales or delicate hairs along the edge contours.

Keep accents clean, simple and sparse. They enhance without competing with the existing colors and shading.

Consider a Background

While optional, adding a background sets your butterfly in an envrivonment, giving context about its world. Colored paper, gradients, nature elements or abstract textures all make creative options here.

Try cutting your finished butterfly out and displaying it overtop a scenic backdrop for a fun 3D effect.

With colors shades, a bit of blending and some final accents, your butterfly drawing transforms from lines to a vibrant, living creature ready to soar off the page!

Conclusion

And there you have it — a complete tutorial for drawing a basic butterfly from start to finish using simple shapes and layers. With a bit of guided practice, anyone can master this fundamental butterfly that makes a gorgeous addition to cards, artwork, gifts and more.

The key is starting light with basic shapes, adding key features piece by piece, then refining with colors and accents until your butterfly feels alive on the page. Don’t worry if early attempts feel awkward — drawing takes patience and persistence. Let the steps here guide you, but don’t afraid to make techniques your own.

The wonderful thing about drawing butterflies is that once you grasp”,”completion”:” foundations, you can then adapt this template into unending uniquely creative designs. Change up colors, patterns, poses and details. Mix and match wing shapes and sizes for new compositions. Blend steps with other inspiration to invent your own methods.

This simple butterfly drawing lesson aims to provide clear guidance combined with flexibility. Master the basics, then run wild with your own creativity. Let vibrant butterflies of all kinds take flight through your artistic imagination — sketching them out gorgeously is a wonderful journey that’s just begun!

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