Materials List
Canvas: 6x6 inch canvas or paper.
Acrylics: Cadmium Red, Orange, Cadmium Yellow, Phthalocyanine Blue, Raw Sienna, Black, White, Violet.
Brushes: Small round detail brush, Small flat brush, Micro or liner detail brush.
Other: pencil (4H if you have one), cup of water, cloth.
Reference: Draw from the reference photo directly below.
Photo Credit: James Wong @jameswongmacro
On a plain 6x6 canvas, draw out the butterfly using the reference photo above. No need to make this perfect! As you can see I made a rough sketch.
Using a detail round brush and black paint, paint in all the darkest areas of the butterfly. All the black areas of the body and wings paint in first. I missed some black lines inside that lower wing so make sure you add that in now.
Mix up some White with a tiny bit of Phthalocyanine Blue. Paint in the entire background around the butterfly and flowers.
Mix up a small amount of Orange with Cadmium Red to paint in flowers and stems. Wash out your brush and mix Orange with a tiny bit of Cadmium Yellow to add to the wings. If you need to touch up your butterfly legs or wings with black, do that now.
If you already haven’t, paint the black horizontal and vertical lines on the lower bottom wing. Mix up White with Black to create a medium grey (meaning lighter than black, but still a dark shade of grey). Add grey lines to the lower body, and dots to the upper body. Apply thick grey markings to both wings. Add a few dots to the wings as well.
Add in more White to your Grey Mixture and apply more oval shaped markings overtop the markings we made on the wings. Apply this light grey to the dots on the upper body. Apply only to small linear sections on the lower body. Apply straight Raw Sienna to the stems of each flower. Add in more buds and flowers if you would like.
Add a tiny bit of White to Violet and add this dark purple mixture to the front outer edge of both top wings. Wash out your brush and mix up White with Cadmium Red to create a pink. Add little triangular highlights to each flower and bud.
Make it your own now. Get creative with color, texture, and design!
