How to Draw a Butterfly Tutorial

Hello, hello, welcome to the blush studio. Okay, so let's get started. Um, just to kind of For those of you who are new to our lives Every couple of days I try and hop onto instagram just for a live art tip Um, but today specifically we are going to be talking through Just the drawing process of this butterfly I'm going to kind of take you behind the scenes over my shoulder if you will And you'll be able to watch as i'm drawing this. Let's get started Just to review we're using arches hot press watercolor paper A white eraser probably a kneaded eraser and then an hb pencil. This is pencil just in a lead holder, but it's just regular drawing lead The reference image that i'm working off of can be found on my pinterest page I have a board specifically dedicated to butterfly and insect photos There's a lot of examples of real butterflies that you can draw off of And i'll show you the one that we're going to work from today this green guy right here So I usually just start by mapping everything out My husband calls this roughing and i've tried to kind of adapt his terminology because his is probably Actually correct because he's just one of those people And i'm not I would just I say what I want and kind of go with it. Um, but it means the same thing Basically just kind of sketching things out to make sure that they're placed correctly So I have the body I just want to make sure that this is very straight Like the plumb line of a building so you want to make sure that it's very straight because everything that comes off of this will kind of repeat And then i'm looking at my reference photo constantly To start creating the actual body of the butterfly And this is a contour not a sketch. So it's a single line drawing some of it will be kind of sketchy Just because that's a little bit my style but a contour drawing Is a single line illustration i'm not kind of i'm not constantly making a bunch of lines And oddly enough he has the most uninteresting body of the three butterflies I was considering so that's kind of a bummer but When your wings are really complicated, I guess you have to have something that's a little more ordinary And I usually like to make it so the antennae don't match but that's just me Now just in case it wasn't clear at the beginning of this video tutorial I did want to just kind of let you know. This was originally filmed for an instagram live So occasionally i'll be like referencing other people or answering questions kind of out of the blue But that's just kind of what we did So the left hand or the right hand side of this tutorial was all on instagram live And then I did the left hand side On my own. So if you'd like to see both sides, I do have you know a full Tutorial on my website and i'll leave that link down below But don't worry. I do have some tips for you regarding the left hand side that i'll give you before we're done with this today Okay, so this butterfly has a three Three sections to their wings They have this like top section a middle section and then the bottom section and one thing that I love about this is the transparency between The top section and the middle section and I got to get it placed Where you want to If the angle's not right you just Take it up and try again Now my initial contour is usually very light I'd rather have to go back in and darken things Um than to try and lighten things up that I make a mistake on So sometimes just the angle and the swoop is not correct and so we just unswoop it and Unswoop it if you will. Okay, so this one disappears into this lower section. So i'm just going to kind of let it disappear You know what I think i'm off on this so i'm going to back up simplify with some shapes So Do you ever measure or use a ruler, um, not usually Um, sometimes I will like when i'm doing the other side I'll kind of eyeball it like this Or you can use your pencil as a measuring device But with organic elements like this, I usually don't I do use a ruler for um architecture But um That needs to be a little bit more exact where like this I don't mind if it's off a little bit like I purposely made these antennae off because I find that that's just more visually interesting Like they might not stay that much off but When you're working with art I mean, that's why you don't use a photograph, right? If you wanted it to be exact You might as well just take a picture of it. And that was something I struggled with while I was a student Because i've like in my head The best artist was one who You know was the photorealistic artist and you know could make things that looked like a photograph and then I was like You know, I kind of arrived if you will like I was able to do that And I realized how boring it was and even just like from the practical side How do you make any money doing stuff like that? I mean you can definitely But if I might as well just print off a photograph, why would I hire somebody to paint something? um So I started to have more fun with like An illustration style And just like okay, well, how can we allow this to be imperfect? And enjoy it like that if that makes sense And I still like photorealism, I mean I still work With a more realistic style, but for many reasons One of them being time. I've just found that Having a more illustrative style It's more fun All right with my butterflies I like to work outside in and so I like to be able to Have the exterior and then start adding the details on the inside a lot of that Just has to do with Making sure that I have the general shape correct um, because the details can be a little bit more flexible most people don't Um aren't going to notice if you know Like one line should be closer than it is to another line or something like that for the interior veins But if the exterior of the butterfly looks off People are more likely to notice Okay, so you see how this kind of tucks in here and it looks almost like it's becoming one with this It's actually like that in my reference image, but i'm going to cheat I want it to look like It's you know, three wings rather than the two So i'm going to use what's called artistic prerogative also known as cheating And i'm going to shift things around a little bit So that way it looks like it's being tucked under oh baby is kicking me Baby, I guess That way it looks like it's being tucked under so you could almost have like an imaginary Line under here that I can't see in my reference image And then these are still nice and crisp Okay, so we've got the exterior done on this right hand side and in general, um If you are right-handed, I recommend starting on the left side so that you can work left to right And if you're left-handed vice versa, but I for some reason can never get in the habit of doing that I even thought about it last night when I was thinking about um preparing for this Video and then I just started on the right hand side anyway So I will have to lay down like a piece of paper to protect this side from my hand when i'm doing the other side, but That is just the price you pay when you don't do things the right way Okay, so now I would start working on the outside And working in and also like from the inside it kind of like depends on what i'm doing But i'll work from the exterior of each wing In and i'm breaking them down into just by wings and by shape And that way it doesn't get too complicated too quickly So to start let's get rid of this Want i'm going to start from the inside of this section We've got this light Circular shape And i'm extending it from what's on my reference photo just because I like to have things to be a little bit elongated And then looks like we go I'm, just breaking the shapes down. So I see a line that the first line looks like it connects to this first section i'm just gonna kind of Bring it down and then i'm going to go to the next line this next line here Goes down to this section we're going to just Pull it down This one actually goes over here, which I would have guessed it went here, but it doesn't so we're gonna Do what's in our actual reference photo And then And then it looks like there's one it's hard to see it just kind of comes out here It goes on the edge, but it disappears momentarily In this darker section here So if we look at our reference image real quick Again So I just did these tiny veins that are in here. I was just Tracing them And seeing like okay, I go to this one and it goes down to here Okay, let's go to the next one that one goes out here and that's what I was doing slowly now this section Is what i'm going to do next This dark section i'm just going to kind of trace that i'm going to start by finding out like okay See this little dip here that goes to that first line that we made Okay, so from what i'm looking at it starts up here It curves in not a lot it's not like exaggerated or anything, but the next one is So it's a deep dip down And instead of a lot of the butterflies i've done kind of match up like this With kind of a sharper point this one actually comes up in more of one two two carryway Goes up more of like a um Half circle like a dome shape I'm going to let this dome again And then point Up this one Softer Those two didn't line up that's why you don't try and Make two shapes And bring them together they don't usually line up So that's our bottom wing basically done so this whole section here And kind of erase because it will all be that very dark Green or black tone And that's just what i'll do for the rest of the wings so for this one And you start at the top It's going to come down and pretty much Goes right to The other side but this one Sweeps up to the top Like so there's a little bit more Okay, this one has a lot more detail so let's start on the exterior And it kind of comes it's very close to the edge, but it's not quite And it will have kind of a scallop, but i'm just going to kind of map this out very very lightly Figure out where it's going to be so that I have a consistent place for it to always stop This section Goes out And then in These points And that's basically how i'll do the whole thing i'll just follow one line at a time simplify it into a shape so this is kind of like A polygon, but it's got kind of a chubby side here Bumps here And then it kind of comes in here, so I guess not really but you get the idea of what's going on right now Um, i'm going to before I kind of get back into it I'm, just going to clean up some lines a little bit with my kneaded eraser um I just kind of I don't know. There's something that I like to do a little bit Especially if i'm like coming back to something after i've had a short break. Hey mandy Okay Now I don't love how sketchy and fuzzy these lines are that will cause some problems when i'm painting So i'm going to take my kneaded eraser. I'm going to pinch it so that it's nice and tiny And then i'm just going to kind of get rid of that line and it's happened because see how my Pencil is so i'm going to be like really careful while i'm drawing this So that doesn't happen again I should just sharpen it but I forgot to do that before going live again. So i'm just gonna Make do with what we've got All right, so i've got my reference image back up i'm also going to lighten this because this Needs to fade into the background because it has that transparency Um, the wing in the on top is the wing that's in front So I want to make sure That that is what? Is prominent Okay This one Let's start here because I know where this And again, just like I was talking about before we're just going to go one shape one line at a time and a lot of these can kind of be Simplified to a sense. So like that's kind of a long rectangle Or like a flag shape how it kind of swoops And then we come in Briefly And this part cuts me just a touch And i've got that shape taken care of and these actually all end up going out Towards my edge And i've already kind of started to outline here Now i'm going to this section I'm trying to do one fluid line if I need to go back and erase then I can But it's easier to erase or to work off of something that is very clean and smooth Which is one of the reasons I really push try and push my students to do A contour drawing instead of sketching. I know sketching can be more comfortable because it feels like less of a commitment but in general A contour looks so much more professional And a contour if you are just tuning in that's just a single line So a contour drawing is a single line drawing. So all of my drawings that have outlines Rather than Like any shading that's just a contour drawing but even my shading pieces shaded pieces do have contours underneath all of that shading You know now that I can see this shape a little better and i'm simplifying it instead of Drawing from my head just kind of drawing what I think should be there See that this wing is not a perfect arch. It's really more it goes It curves but then it cuts And then cuts and I didn't capture that here. I kind of continued the curve We've got a curve and then we need it to cut in pretty sharp You see how much different that is from the gentle curve I had before that was not realistic unfortunately But really how fun I love that. Let's play that up a little bit more. I'm going to actually pull it down and exaggerate it just a little bit Why not There's something that you like about a certain You know, like really whatever you're drawing Don't be afraid to play it up a little bit Just by Straightening this section a little bit you get more of that angle and it's so fun so there I mean there are There's beauty to like that simple smooth and graceful line, but this is also really angular as well So this kind of actually mirrors this a little bit better um, and I I don't know. Maybe i'm crazy guys, but I think I think I like what the butterfly actually looks like better than what was in my head All right, this comes down This goes up Okay And so we get to kind of have some fun with this so this starts to As each line comes up Kind of a subtle scallop This one's not as graceful it's a little more angular Let's angle that just a touch And we're just going to kind of keep doing that It really it looks overwhelming at first but when you get started with it Then they realize it's kind of a lot of the same repeated elements over and over again And then i'm gonna go through If I really want to get it clean what i'll pull out is This is my tombow mono eraser It's really like our white eraser But very small so it's a great way to get into these tiny sections But have like a lot of impact So it's a kind of a small but mighty eraser This is it's not like super expensive, but it's more of like a splurge item. It's not definitely not something that you need In order to draw well, but it's something that i've found As somebody who does a lot of detail work To be a really nice investment, in fact, I got a different they have one that has like a square shape as well And I have that one, too So I am going to lightly Show where this wing comes in here just so I have a reference for when I watercolor it later but I don't need it to be very dark You've got this exterior In here nicely i'm just going to start from The outside so we've got a section here That comes Okay One shape at a time got a long kind of rectangular shape You don't want to miss and then we'll do the next shape This one kind of curves out here And you've got a Not that one got too big And the next one looking at my reference image again is much bigger One two Three And we have a really round one Kind of runs into that guy Okay, so then these are going to start coming out Okay this section this little section Here All right There we go. Okay. So that is really the first half of our butterfly and all I would do now Is take this and repeat it on the other side. I don't recommend Working on it like trying to work off of this side And that you know like and mirror it yourself I would work off of the actual reference image I mean like look back to this because I did take some artistic liberties There are a couple things that I changed. Um, just because I liked the style a little bit better Or I stylized things a little bit better. I made some things a little bit longer So i'll like be double checking to make sure that things look consistent But in general I found that it's a lot easier instead of mentally mirroring something Um to just work off of the reference again on the other side And then kind of going from there See I missed some details in here so in before I paint this I would go through and kind of Double check some things make sure that i'm not missing any details Um, just because it's a lot easier to kind of solve those problems or to mark them off Now rather than try and do it later Um, and then I would lighten everything with my kneaded eraser so that the graphite wouldn't end up being in my paint Um, I've have not really experienced any problems with that thus far Um, but that's not to say that it wouldn't happen And that is our completed butterfly, I hope that you found this tutorial helpful Um, if you think you would benefit from seeing like both sides seeing a continuation of this tutorial I do have a full class if you will with like the whole start to finish All the right side and all the left side On my website and I go into a little bit more detail. It's not just like a repeat of this video But that will be listed on my website for a small fee But that might be more helpful if you feel like you really need kind of the extra help for the second side Either way until next time happy drawing