Children like to draw butterflies, probably because butterflies have an unusually beautiful and bright coloring. You can draw a butterfly with an ordinary pencil, but still pictures of butterflies in colors are much more spectacular. At this lesson, you will learn how to draw the shape of the body and wings of a butterfly correctly. Step-by-step, you will draw the patterns of butterfly wings, create shades. And if instead of a pencil drawing, you draw your butterfly in colors, it will look like a real one. Let’s try to draw a butterfly with a pencil, step by step.
How to Draw a Butterfly Morpho Anaxibia with a Pencil in Stages
1. Draw the outline of a butterfly.
Before you draw a butterfly, you should draw initial outlines. To do this, draw an oval and a circle. They will be the initial outlines of the body and head. These initial forms will help you further to draw the butterfly correctly. At the first stage, draw two more pairs of lines, as in the example. They will help you to draw butterfly wings.
2. Draw the contours of the wings and head.
First of all, draw butterfly antenna with thickenings at the edges, and it is already clear that you draw a butterfly. Add upper contours of the wings and the contours of the lower wings. In addition, apply the rounded contour of the upper part of the lower wings. Try to trace initial outlines as exact as possible, because the entire drawing of the butterfly will depend upon the initial marking.
3. Draw the outline sketch of the wings.
This step is very easy. You just need to connect the previous lines in one common outline of the butterfly wings. Draw these lines without pressing hard on the pencil. You will have to correct them at the next step.
4. The contours of the butterfly wings in detail.
It is easy to draw at this step as well. The shape of butterfly wings is “incorrect”, and there are no any special rules to draw them. Draw these contours informally as you like; the main thing is that butterfly wings should be symmetrical on both sides.
5. Draw fibers on the wings.
Butterfly wings are very delicate and sometimes are even transparent. However, there are fibers inside the wings, which you should draw. Draw them as you wish, the main thing is not to draw many fibers and make them symmetrical. As you see, to learn how to draw a butterfly is quite simple. You should strictly follow the step-by-step instruction and thus, you`ll get such a beautiful picture of a butterfly. Though, first create patterns for the wings. There are butterflies, who have huge eyes “drawn” on the wings. In this way, nature helps them to be protected from birds wanting to eat a butterfly. Try to draw such a pattern on the wings, it will be a very spectacular picture.
6. Add patterns and finish to draw the butterfly.
If you do not know how to use colors, color your butterfly with colored pencils or shade the drawing with an ordinary pencil.
How to Draw a Butterfly, a Step by Step Master Class
Step 1. Begin with drawing of a straight cross, symmetric about the vertical line.
Step 2. Draw a circle for the head just above the intersection of the cross lines. Draw the breast and abdomen below it. The middle of the cross should be at the center of the breast. Draw two arcs up and sidewise from the ends of the horizontal line.
Step 3. Draw two more arcs, starting from the top of the breast, connect them by smooth lines with arcs drawn at the preceding step.
Step 4. Draw two arcs on both sides from the bottom edge of the upper wings and from the lower end of the abdomen. Then connect arcs by a smooth line.
Step 5. Rub off extra lines. Make the outline more detailed, “ragged”. Add eyes.
Step 6. Detalize the wings, adding tendrils. Unlike the rest, the tendrils can be asymmetrical.
Step 7. Finish the dark areas-the upper edge of the wings and body. Add pattern on wings (it looks like white spots on the photo).
Step 8. Shade wings, leaving spots on the wings without shading. The shade is applied from the center to the edge or from the edge to the center. That’s all!