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Get ready to learn how to draw a butterfly!
Did you know that there are over 20,000 butterfly species in the world?
They’re delicate but can evolve into powerful crime fighters if need be. I mean, have you met Butterfly, the first black female comic book superheroine in Hell-Rider? *wink*
If you want to add a butterfly character to your comic book or you just want to learn how to draw this beautiful insect, watch this video:
We’ll share the secret to making a cool butterfly drawing the easy way in this guide for beginners!
If you prefer learning how to draw by looking at images, keep reading and you’ll discover a set of illustrations for every step!
Sketching Tools To Draw A Butterfly
While you can use whatever sketching tools you have handy, here are some of our favorites you might want to stock up on:
- An H pencil: A hard lead is ideal for sketching because of the light trace it leaves on paper. This makes it easy to erase, but also easy to build in the later stages of your butterfly drawing.
- An HB pencil: If you have a pencil with a medium-hard lead in your toolbox, use it to add details to your sketch and make the lines darker.
- A B pencil: The soft lead is a good choice for shading because it leaves a super dark trace.
- A kneaded eraser: This is our go-to eraser because it’s easy to change its shape, so you can adjust it depending on what you need to erase. Plus, you can use it to go over the darker parts of your sketch to highlight them.
- Lightly-textured paper: The smoother the surface of the paper, the easier it is to move the pencil over its surface, so we recommend using lightly-textured paper for your butterfly drawing.
You don’t *have* to use all of these tools. If you don’t have them — that’s totally fine!
These are just our recommendations, but any pencil and paper will do!
Easy Butterfly Drawing In 8 Steps
The easiest way to draw a butterfly is to draw its parts one by one.
And that’s exactly what we’re going to do!
1. Draw The Head, The Body And The Eyes
Recommended tool: H pencil
The first step to drawing a butterfly is to sketch its head.
Since you’ll need room to add the rest of the butterfly’s body, make sure to leave enough room below the head.
Now, draw a small circle, like this:
Next, add the butterfly’s body.
Make it the size of approximately four heads glued together.
Draw the body as an oval shape that widens in the middle and gradually narrows down as it reaches the bottom:
For the eyes, draw two oval shapes on the head.
Position them in the upper half of the head, like so:
2. Segment The Body
Recommended tool: H pencil
The butterfly’s body is divided into three sections:
- The head
- The thorax
- The abdomen
Let’s segment the body so that all three parts clearly show.
For starters, put a dot in the middle of the butterfly’s body.
Then, connect the left side of the butterfly’s body to the right side, by drawing two almost half-circles and connecting them in the middle.
The upper part is the thorax and the lower is the abdomen:
3. Draw The Antennae
Recommended tool: H pencil
Butterflies have antennae or feelers attached to their heads.
These help them smell, navigate their surroundings and tell the time of day.
To draw antennae, first, connect the eyes with an upside-down “V” share.
Then, draw thin lines next to both eyes, point them upward and then curve them, like this:
4. Draw The Wings
Recommended tool: H pencil
The butterfly’s wings are comprised of two parts:
- The upper wing or the forewing
- The lower wing or the hindwing
First up, let’s draw the forewings.
Draw the forewings so that they start at the top of the butterfly’s body, and end near the middle of the body.
Keep the angles a little sharp, like so:
Start drawing the hindwings just where the upper wings angle toward the thorax.
Then, draw round lines on either side of the body and have them meet at the very bottom of the abdomen:
5. Add The Wing Patterns
Recommended tool: H pencil
Now that you finished drawing the basic butterfly sketch, next comes decorating the wings and adding patterns to them!
Butterflies have gorgeous shapes and even scales on their wings (who knew?!), but we’re going to keep the patterns pretty simple and beginner-friendly.
Let’s start from the upper wings and add two small, horizontal wing shapes on either forewing:
Next, add the same wing shape to the lower wings but make it vertical, like so:
Now, let’s go back to the forewings.
Draw two lines from the middle of the upper wings and have them touch the angled side of each wing.
As you draw those two lines, make sure to follow the wings’ shape:
Now’s the time to get groovy!
Connect the horizontal wing shapes with the curved lines you drew in the previous step using wavy strokes:
Add the same wavy lines to the lower wings, but make them vertical, like this:
6. Draw The Legs
Recommended tool: H pencil
Butterflies have three legs on either side:
- Foreleg
- Midleg
- Hindleg
To add the legs, simply draw three thin, small, curved lines to the sketch and attach them to the thorax:
7. Add Details To Your Butterfly Drawing
Recommended tool: H pencil and kneaded eraser
The basic butterfly outline is ready, but it’s time to add some details to it to make the sketch come to life.
Let’s start at the abdomen.
It needs to be striped, like a bumblebee’s:
Next, let’s make the wing lines less rigid.
Start at your butterfly’s outline, and identify the spots where the groovy lines meet the outline of the wing.
In these spots, rework the outline to make the lines wavy as well, to match the grooves.
Oh, and you can use the eraser to remove the line between the eyes:
Once you’re done beautifying the butterfly’s wings, go back to the antennae.
You can make them thicker at the ends so that they resemble clubs. Or, you can have some fun and bend them inwards to form spiral-like shapes.
On their head, butterflies have a proboscis and they use to eat. You can draw it as a very narrow heart with a dark line that stretches from its middle to its bottom:
8. Finalize And Shade Your Sketch
Recommended tools: HB and B pencils
To finalize your butterfly drawing, take an HB pencil or simply apply more pressure to whatever pencil you’re using, and trace over the legs.
Make them darker and more pronounced.
Then, using the B pencil, gently trace over the stripes and add slight shade to the wings around the abdomen and the thorax:
And that’s it, your butterfly drawing is d-o-n-e!
Finished Learning How To Draw A Butterfly? Try These Next!
Now that you’re on a roll, how about trying some more drawing tutorials?
If you’d like to learn how to draw more animals, check out our guides on:
- How to draw a horse
- How to draw a bunny
- How to draw a wolf
- How to draw a dog
- How to draw a dragon
- How to draw a cat
Meet The Artist
The lead BIOWARS artist — Goncalo Lopes — created this easy-to-follow guide on butterfly drawing.
He’s the man who designed the BIOWARS characters and gave them a distinct, powerful appearance.
Aside from making tutorials and comic books, Goncalo also works on movies and TV shows. You might’ve heard of some of the projects he had participated in, such as Godzilla, Transformers, TMNT, GI-Joe and Adventure Time. Pretty impressive, huh?
A Recap On How To Draw A Butterfly Step-By-Step
The easiest way to draw a butterfly is to do it step-by-step:
- Draw its head, the body and its eyes
- Separate the thorax from the abdomen
- Add the antennae
- Draw the wings
- Add the wing patterns
- Sketch the legs
- Add the finishing touches
- Shade your butterfly drawing
