Drawing For Kids Knowing more about a butterfly’s wing structure before you begin to draw one is incredibly beneficial. This will assist you in organizing the intricate patterning and coloration that give these critters their stunning appearance.
Two forewings and two hindwings make up each butterfly’s four wings. Drawing For Kids Each wing’s shape is created by a “skeleton” of veins stretched over by a membrane of “skin.” Varying butterflies have slightly different proportions of this skeleton. The variations in butterfly shapes that you observe are related to variances in its skeletal structure.
The placement of colors and patterns on a butterfly’s wings matches the skeletal structure of the insect.
Easy Step-By-Step Butterfly Drawing For Kids
1:
- A quick line drawing of the insect’s body is the foundation for our butterfly drawing. The head and antennae, the thorax (middle region), and the abdomen comprise its three main sections (lower section).
- Next, depict a forewing (top) and a hindwing (bottom), paying close attention to the following:
- The forewing’s and hindwing’s different shapes.
- When compared to the body’s size, their proportion.
- the locations where they connect to the body’s side
- Our butterfly sketching approach takes advantage of the fact that color pencil pigment is translucent by gradually adding layers of color to the image.
- Since other colors can be shaded over purple without losing their vibrancy, purple was used to start the underlying sketch. If you begin the underlying drawing with a graphite pencil, the colors you use to combine them will become muddy.
2:
- It would help if you now worked to determine any specifics of the skeletal system in the wings.
- Even though it can be challenging to perceive these lines, any information of this kind will aid in organizing the colors and patterns of the wing markings.
- Keep your lines as light as you can at this early stage of the drawing so that you can erase any mistakes. If a colored pencil drawing is made lightly, it can be erased.
3:
- The colors and patterns on the wings can then be outlined.
- You will see how the arrangement of the shapes and colors of the wing markings match its parts if you successfully plot portions of the skeletal structure in Step 2.
4:
- Once the markings on the first two wings are finished, you have a few options for drawing styles:
- Technique 1: Since butterfly wings seem symmetrical, you can “trace and transfer” the wings to the opposite side of the body to create the second set.
- The benefit of this method rests not only in its speed but also in its ability to produce a well-balanced picture, especially if you made a random error in the initial set of wings. The so-called “mistakes” you make when tracing and transferring your drawing are also reproduced. However, this technique makes them appear intentional as they are symmetrically proportioned. As a result, they are less likely to be seen as mistakes.
5:
- Continue your observational drawing for the second set of wings by taking the same route as in technique 1.
- This is the trickier option since it requires more concentration to capture the minor differences in shape and color between either side of the wings because they are not perfectly symmetrical. By contrasting the lines on each branch, you can tell that we followed this route when creating this drawing.
6:
- You must establish the tonal structure of the drawing before adding any color.
- It would help if you kept using the purple pencil at this point because other colors will easily mix over it.
- As you’ll need the white of the paper to show through to illuminate any regions of pure color or light later in the drawing, avoid shading over any such areas.
- You’ll see that our artist began the shading on the image’s left side. He does this because he writes with his right hand and prefers to work apart from previous drawings to prevent smudge. Naturally, you would begin on the right side if you were left-handed.
7:
- Finish your tonal analysis of the butterfly before adding any color.
- It can be pretty tempting only to apply a small amount of color to test how it appears, but you should resist the urge to do this since you need to progressively add more color in layers to produce a sense of balance across the board. If you concentrate on specific color patches, you can overlook the larger picture.
8:
- Analyze the colors you want to make by separating them into the primary colors used in the mixing process. Apply them in thin, even layers, beginning with the mixture’s lightest hue.
- For instance, we want to generate a yellowish-orange on this butterfly’s forewings that progresses to a dark brown, pink, and turquoise-blue on its hind wings. As a result, we begin with a foundation that is initially yellow and gradually changes color.
