BUTTERFLY
BUTTERFLY
Welcome to Josie’s Butterfly Painting Tutorial! 🦋
Get ready to create a serene, meadowy masterpiece featuring a vibrant butterfly in flight! This painting will bring a splash of color and a touch of nature into your space, and you’ll love watching it come to life on your canvas.
Feel free to adapt these instructions as needed during your painting session. Change up the colours, add extra details—whatever makes it yours! Have fun exploring different techniques and creating your butterfly masterpiece! 🎨
Set up
After following our set up guide here, you’ll need these paint colours: green, white, pink, yellow, blue, and black. But don’t hesitate to mix things up if inspiration strikes. A purple butterfly or a golden background could look stunning!
Step 1: Mapping
We’ll use a connect-the-dot like method to map out our butterfly.
Starting with a watered-down white paint, and our smallest brush. (This watered down white paint allows us to fix up any mistakes or anything you want to change by simply blending it into the background or painting over it later - it dries fast and the texture won’t show through in the final painting - I cannot recommend watering down the paint enough)
Remember mapping doesn’t have to be perfect, because we’ll be painting over it later anyway :)
Start by drawing a circle in the slightly down from the center of the canvas, about half the width of the canvas. This circle will serve as a guide for placing your butterfly.
Then, mark in the body line. For now, it’ll be an offset of the left side of the circle.
For the bottom segment of the front wing, we’ll mark in 2 points: the bottom dot is in horizontal line with the bottom of the body, and an inch or so in from the right of the canvas, and the top dot is directly above this dot, and in line with the top of the body. Connect these dots with a line, a line from the bottom dot to the end of the body, and the top dot to the centre of the body line.
For the top segment of the front wing, we’ll mark in 2 points, again: the top dot is vertically above the end of the body, and an inch or so in from the top of the canvas. The bottom dot is an inch above the bottom segment, and slightly inwards. We connect those dots similarly to as before.
Finally, for the back wing, we mark in just one dot, slightly to the right of the top of the body, and in line with the top of the front wing. From this point, make two curves down, one to the top of the body line, and the next curves to about halfway up the front wing.
Step 2: Background
Water down some green paint and use your largest brush to create a light, airy background with long, vertical strokes. This thinned paint will dry quickly and it helps the paint sink into the canvas better.
To add depth, blend a bit of white into sections of the green background for a subtle gradient. Lightly brush over parts of the green to create that lovely meadowy effect.
Step 2B: Edges
Because we want this painting to look polished from all sides, paint all the way around the edges of your canvas! This can be our background colour, or a completely different border color.
This small touch really brings a finished, gallery-ready feel.
Step 3: Colour in the Wings
Let’s bring those wings to life with color! Using a medium-sized brush, fill in the top wings with patches of pink, yellow, and white for a soft, mosaic effect. Feel free to experiment with different color sections!
For my blending technique, I like to pat on different shades of pink, without blending. At first, it will look patchy, this is good! I fill in sections, letting the areas dry and settle for a little while, then after a few minutes, I go back with a clean brush, and with light, fast brush strokes, blend the sections. I find the waiting time reduces over-blending so you get a full array of shades of pink.
For the back wings, use slightly darker tones—try adding a hint of blue to each color you used on the front wings. This will create a sense of depth and make the butterfly appear three-dimensional.
Step 4: Colour in the Body
Paint a line for the butterfly’s body, adding small, overlapping circles to create a segmented texture. Using thick paint here will help emphasize the texture.
Step 5: Outlines
Using a small brush and black paint, outline the wings and body for definition.
For a little extra flair, make the rightmost line on each wing slightly thicker—this will make highlighting later easier.
Next, add veins on the wings. Draw delicate loops extending outward from the body with watered-down black paint to give the wings a natural, airy feel. Start from the body and radiate lines outward, then pull lines across to form organic, curvy rectangles. Embrace some wobbles in your lines—nature is beautifully imperfect, and these irregular lines will make your butterfly look more realistic!
Step 6: Legs and Antenna
With your smallest brush and some watered-down black paint, add light, quick brushstrokes for the butterfly’s legs. Keep them thin and slightly angled to give the impression of movement, as if your butterfly is about to take off.
Step 7: Highlights
Use the back of your brush to stamp perfect white circles on the wings for spots. These dots give the wings that distinct butterfly pattern and add a touch of magic to your artwork.
For added highlights, brush a few fast white lines around the edges of the wings to create a sense of motion, as though your butterfly is floating in the breeze.
Step 8: Sign your masterpiece
The final touch—sign your work! Every artist deserves to claim their fabulous creation, and that includes you!
Thank you for joining us today at Josie's Paint and Sip!
Don't forget to share your masterpiece on social media and tag us @JosiesPaintAndSip.
We look forward to seeing you again for more fun-filled painting sessions :)
Glamorously yours,
Josie 🎨