How To Paint A Butterfly With Watercolors
This summer is the best time to let the artist in you unleash! After all, we only have a couple months of warmth before we switch to rains and later snow. Take this time to go for a picnic and perhaps paint a butterfly in watercolors while you are at a perfect place to spot a butterfly. Butterflies are so delightful and certainly a lot fun and rewarding to paint. Painting a watercolor butterfly allows you to explore color blending and layering techniques while capturing the delicate beauty of their wings. Enjoy the process and let your creativity soar! Here are the steps to help you create a beautiful watercolor butterfly.
Materials Needed:
Choose A Hot Press Watercolor Paper for vibrancy in colors
A basic set of watercolors paints with a variety of hues.
A few different sizes of watercolor brushes and definitely a fine detail brush.
A mixing tray to mix your watercolors.
Water for diluting paints and cleaning brushes.
Paper Towels for blotting excess water and paint.
Let’s Paint a Butterfly in Watercolors:
Step 1: Draw the Contours of the Butterfly
Always begin by lightly drawing the contours of a butterfly on your watercolor paper using a pencil. You can find butterfly drawings online or use a reference image to guide you, which we highly recommend especially if you are starting out.
Step 2: Applying Your First Layer of Colors
We will be using wet-on-wet technique to paint in this tutorial. Wet the Paper, make sure to use a clean brush to wet the area where you will paint the butterfly. This technique, known as wet-on-wet, allows colors to blend beautifully.
Lets now paint the base colors. Choose a soft and light color like pale yellow or light orange and apply it to the wet paper where you have drawn the wings of the butterfly. In wet-on-wet watercolor technique, we let the color bleed and blend naturally with each other on the damp surface. This is what creates those mesmerizing patterns.
Step 3: Now, Add Details to the Wings
Think of the last time you spotted a butterfly, what colors and patterns did you notice on the wings? This is helpful when you need to decide on the colors for the butterfly’s wings. You can use vibrant colors like blues, purples, oranges, or any combination you prefer but remind yourself of what colors are natural for butterflies.
Now, Paint Wet-on-Dry. Once the color is dry or slightly damp, paint the details of the butterfly wings using a finer brush. Start with the outer edges of the wings and work your way inward keeping in mind you will be painting a pattern for your next step.
Let’s create patterns for the wings! Butterflies have intricate patterns on their wings. Use a small brush to paint these patterns with different colors, making sure to leave some areas lighter and more translucent just how it would look natural.
Step 4: Let’s Start Painting the Body and Antennae
Paint the butterfly’s body with a dark color like brown or black; be careful while using black if your paper is still wet. We recommend letting the lighter colors dry well before applying black to the body. If you want, you can use a dark brown instead of black. Keep the strokes light and delicate.
Now, take an extra thin brush, and paint thin lines for the butterfly’s antennae using a dark color.
Step 5: Final Details and Highlights
Add some final touches such as veins on the wings and tiny dots or spots. Some species of butterfly have tiny dots while others don’t but go ahead and add if you want.
For highlights with watercolors, we generally leave that area untouched from paint altogether. However, if you want, you can use a light wash of a contrasting color (like white or a very light yellow) to add highlights to the wings and body.
Step 6: Paint Your Background
If you’d like, you can paint a simple background around your butterfly using a wash of complementary colors. Soft blues or greens often work well to enhance the butterfly’s colors as they replicate their natural surroundings.
Step 7: Let it Dry and Erase Pencil Marks
Allow your painting to dry completely. Once dry, you can gently remove any pencil marks with an eraser if needed.