Easy Butterfly Watercolor Painting

Hi, friends in this post I am sharing how to paint watercolor butterfly art. This video will make your watercolor butterfly painting easy. Summertime always has me enjoying the butterflies and flowers in my backyard. While in the studio I decided to paint some butterflies, giving myself freedom to explore colors and wing shape without trying to copy a particular species. I have the steps and supplies listed below.

Supply List

Watercolor Paper. I am using Strathmore Watercolor Paper.

Watercolor paints. I am using Grumbacher Academy Watercolors from the tubes.

Jar of Water

Round brush size 6

Paper towel

Pencil and eraser

Grumbacher Colors

Mauve

Ivory Black

Alizarin Crimson

First step, sketch your butterfly. I drew to large wings on top and the bottom wings are usually always smaller than the upper wings. I wanted a natural looking butterfly, so I was keeping the proportions true to nature, but not following a pattern from a specific species.

Now you are ready to paint. I like to start by wetting my paper inside my sketch lines and then grabbing some color, or I start light by grabbing some color and doing a light wash inside my sketch lines. Either way I like to start with a light transparent wash that I can then work over.

While that first wash is wet, I drop in some details and let the paint spread out on its own. Have fun and make your butterfly look however you want!

Lastly, I painted in the body after the wings had dried. Use just the tip of your brush loaded with paint and not too much water to get very thin lines for the antenna.