Butterfly Easy Butterfly Drawings Step by Step
Butterflies are a wonderful drawing subject—their wings have a certain pattern that can be reduced to a few rules. Once you know the rules, you can draw a realistic-looking butterfly without any special drawing skills.
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to draw a detailed butterfly step by step, right from scratch. We'll create a monarch butterfly, but you can also modify my method to draw any other butterfly!
What You'll Learn in This Realistic Butterfly Drawing Tutorial
- How to draw the body of a butterfly
- How to draw butterfly wings
- How to draw the cells of butterfly wings
- How to draw patterns on butterfly wings
1. How to Draw the Body of a Butterfly
Step 1
Let's start this butterfly detailed drawing tutorial with a realistic butterfly outline. Sketch a vertical oval for the torso.
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Step 2
Cross the torso in half with a vertical line. This will be the length of the body.
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Step 3
Draw a longer oval below; this will be the abdomen.
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Step 4
Connect the abdomen to the torso with a slim waist.
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Step 5
Draw a circle on top of the body—this will be the head.
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Step 6
Add two ovals on the sides of the head.
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Step 7
Add two tiny ovals on the front of the head. These will be the short, furry antennae called palpi.
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Step 8
Draw a pair of curves for the big antennae.
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Step 9
End each antenna with tiny "beans."
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Step 10
You can now outline the body and add all the necessary details. The torso is fluffy, and the abdomen is segmented.
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2. How to Draw Butterfly Wings
Step 1
Learning how to draw a beautiful butterfly step by step isn't complicated. Next, let's see realistic butterfly wing drawings. Mark a dot in the upper part of the torso. This will be our point of reference for placing the wings.
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Step 2
Draw a horizontal line across the point. Each half should be roughly as long as the whole body (antennae excluded).
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Step 3
Draw two longer lines about 30 degrees over the previous line. You don't need to measure anything—just eyeball it.
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Step 4
Draw elongated teardrop shapes around these lines, as if it were a dragonfly.
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Step 5
Draw a line from the end of the horizontal line to about 60% of the length of that "dragonfly wing."
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Step 6
Gently outline the shape of the upper wing.
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Step 7
The lower wing can be created in a similar way. Draw two lines down from the point, slightly below the abdomen.
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Step 8
Draw a line between each end of the lines and the upper wings.
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Step 9
Draw a line from the torso point to close the triangular shape of the wing right under the upper wing.
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Step 10
Mark a point in the center of the farthest line of the triangle.
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Step 11
Cross each point with a line coming from the torso.
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Step 12
Outline the shape of the lower wing. And that's the outline of the realistic butterfly wing drawing done.
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3. How to Draw the Cells of Butterfly Wings
Step 1
Now we're going to divide each wing area into smaller areas called "cells." This is important if you wish to learn how to draw a detailed butterfly. First, mark three points in the area shown below.
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Step 2
Draw an elongated cell through these marks.
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Step 3
Use the same trick to draw a similar cell in the lower wing.
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Step 4
There will be more cells starting here. Mark their starting points.
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Step 5
Draw gentle curves from these points to the edge of the wing. Have them slightly falling down.
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Step 6
The uppermost cell is divided into more cells:
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Step 7
The lower wing has similar cells, going out radially from the middle:
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Step 8
Each cell has a subtle "wrinkle" in the center, and it will be a useful guideline for us. Mark it subtly, to make it distinguishable from the veins. The butterfly detailed drawing of the wings is almost complete!
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4. How to Draw Patterns on Butterfly Wings
Step 1
In the next part of this tutorial on how to draw a beautiful butterfly step by step, we'll look at the wing patterns. Now we have plain butterfly wings, but it's their pattern that makes them so beautiful! Let's add a specific pattern for the monarch butterfly.
Create a margin for each wing, drawing curves between the veins.
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Step 2
Mark the area where the wrinkle is—this place will be slightly less dark.
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Step 3
Outline the edges of the wings, making them "bumpy" around the ends of the veins.
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Step 4
There is a pattern of bright dots in the margin. Outline them.
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Step 5
The edges of the wings may look slightly ragged because of white lines placed between the veins and the wrinkles. This is a subtle effect, but it will add to the realism of the wings.
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Step 6
Draw some markings in the upper part of the upper wings.
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Step 7
The pattern is created not by lines only, but mostly by contrast. So we need to darken certain parts to achieve realistic results. First, darken the body. It may have a pattern on it as well!
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Step 8
Darken the side margins, leaving brightness where the markings are.
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Step 9
Darken the margins, moving carefully around the little markings.
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Step 10
Darken the area around the markings on the upper wing.
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Step 11
The veins have a dark outline, so mark it. You can also subtly mark the wrinkles to make the drawing more detailed.
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Beautiful! Your Cool Butterfly Drawing Is Finished!
Good job—you've learned how to draw a beautiful butterfly step by step! We went from a realistic butterfly outline to a complete, detailed drawing. If you want to learn more about butterflies, their anatomy, and other species, make sure you check this tutorial as well:
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Discover More Awesome Drawing Tutorials
Now that you know drawing a butterfly step by step is easy and fun, you might be looking for more drawing tutorials. Here's a selection of resources you can find on Envato Tuts+. Get ready to make cool butterfly drawings and more!
Source: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-draw-a-butterfly-step-by-step--cms-28682