How to Draw a Butterfly – Step by Step

In this drawing tutorial, we’ll take a look at how to draw a realistic butterfly – one step at a time.  Insects are a bit more complex than one may think.  It can actually be overwhelming when you start to notice all of the details that exist.  A butterfly can be one of the most complex insects to draw, because of the amount of detail that can be found in the wings.  The majority of our drawing here will focus on the wings.

Even though a subject such as this can be complex, we can still simplify it. We’ll break the butterfly down into basic shapes and concentrate on drawing those shapes first. Then, once we have these basic shapes in place, we can develop the details.

Step 1 – Draw a Circle for the Butterfly Body and a Shape for the Lower Wing

We’ll first define where the center of the body of the butterfly is located and draw a circle for it. Then, a simple shape that is similar to a triangle can be drawn for the lower wing. Draw loosely at the beginning stages of the drawing and concentrate only on these two large shapes.

 

 

Step 2 – Draw the Head of the Butterfly, Legs, and Upper Wing

Next, we’ll branch out from our original shapes and add a head, some antennae, and few lines for legs.  We’ll also draw a shape for the upper portion of the wing. The antennae can be drawn with just a couple of simple lines. This is also true for the legs at this point. We can also go back into the drawing and thicken up any of the elements that we add.

The upper portion of the wing extends outward from the lower portion, but the shape drawn is quite different.

 

 

Step 3 – Add Complexity to the Butterfly Wing

Next, we’ll add a bit of complexity to the wing of the butterfly by drawing a pattern of intersecting lines.  This pattern is different on every butterfly, so pay close attention to your subject.  We’ll have our butterfly resting on a branch, so a couple of lines are drawn to indicate its location. Notice how the bottom of the wing of the butterfly overlaps the tree brach. This helps to create the illusion of space in the drawing.

 

Step 4 – Segment the Edge of the Butterfly Wing

Now, we’ll add some straight lines connecting the lines at the ends of the wings of the butterfly.  This segmentation will make the butterfly appear more realistic. Notice how we can use the larger shapes that we drew before as a guide to draw the back edge of the wing.

 

Step 5 – Finish the Drawing of the Butterfly

Lastly, we’ll use the structure that we have created with our looser sketching to finish the drawing of the butterfly.  In the case of this butterfly, there are lots of areas that need to be filled in completely with black in order to create the heavy contrast and make the pattern on the wings stand out.

Although there’s a lot of black that is added to the drawing, we’ll still leave a number of open spaces to create the patterning on the wings. You’ll also notice that the top portion of the branch has a few highlights. These are areas where light is hitting the branch from above. We’ve also added a few more lines to indicate a few stray branches extending out from the main branch.

 

Here are the steps we covered for drawing a butterfly in one image…