How to Draw a Butterfly
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Draw a light vertical line down the middle of the page.
It should run the full height of your drawing area.
Drawing on paper instead?
We straighten and clean up the photo for you. Paper counts exactly the same.
About this drawing
A butterfly is the best possible lesson in symmetry, because it is the one subject where being symmetrical is actually correct. Draw a line down the middle, put a wing on one side, then copy it.
That copying is the skill. Almost nobody can draw a matching shape by feel - you have to compare, measure and correct - and a butterfly makes every error obvious immediately, which is exactly what you want when you are learning to see them.
Step by step
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Step 1
Draw a light vertical line down the middle of the page.
Everything in this drawing is measured from this line, and it is the only reason the two halves will match. Draw it lightly - it runs right through the finished butterfly, so you will want it gone at the end.
Watch out Pressing hard, so the guide survives into the finished drawing.
Check It should run the full height of your drawing area.
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Step 2
Draw a long thin body on the line.
A narrow oval, longer than you think - roughly three times as tall as it is wide. The body is what the wings attach to, so getting its length right sets the scale for everything.
Watch out Drawing the body short and fat, which leaves nowhere for four wings to attach.
Check It should be about three times taller than it is wide.
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Step 3
Add a round head at the top of the body.
A small circle, clearly narrower than the body is long. Keep it modest - an oversized head turns the butterfly into a cartoon character.
Watch out Making the head as wide as the wings' attachment.
Check The head should be smaller than a third of the body length.
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Step 4
Draw the upper left wing, big and rounded at the top.
Start at the body and sweep out and up, then come back down to the body. This is the wing you will copy, so take your time - every error here gets doubled in the next step.
Watch out Starting the wing away from the body, so it looks detached.
Check Both ends of the wing outline should touch the body.
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Step 5
Draw the second wing to match the first.
Compare it to the one you just drew rather than to your idea of a wing: same size, same angle, same distance from the centre. This is the comparison habit that fixes proportion everywhere, and a pair is the easiest place to practise it because the error is obvious once you look for it.
Watch out Making the second wing smaller - it usually happens because your hand is more cramped on that side.
Check Both should sit the same distance from the centre line.
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Step 6
Draw the lower left wing, smaller and rounder.
It attaches just below the upper wing and hangs down and out. Keep it clearly smaller - the size difference between the pairs is what makes a butterfly read as a butterfly rather than a clover.
Watch out Making the lower wing the same size as the upper one.
Check The lower wing should be noticeably smaller than the upper.
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Step 7
Draw the second lower wing to match the first.
Compare it to the one you just drew rather than to your idea of a lower wing: same size, same angle, same distance from the centre. This is the comparison habit that fixes proportion everywhere, and a pair is the easiest place to practise it because the error is obvious once you look for it.
Watch out Making the second lower wing smaller - it usually happens because your hand is more cramped on that side.
Check Both should sit the same distance from the centre line.
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Step 8
Add two antennae with a small club at each tip.
They curve out and away from the head, roughly as long as the body. The little club at the tip is what distinguishes a butterfly from a moth - straight bare lines read as the wrong insect.
Watch out Drawing them straight and clubless.
Check Each antenna should curve, and end in a small blob.
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Step 9
Put two or three shapes on the left wing as pattern.
Simple shapes - a circle, a band - placed with space around them. Pattern works by contrast with empty wing, so leaving most of the wing alone is what makes the marks read as decoration.
Watch out Filling the whole wing, which turns pattern into texture.
Check More than half the wing should still be empty.
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Step 10
Mirror exactly the same pattern onto the right wing.
Same shapes, same sizes, same distance from the centre line. This is the whole lesson in one step: not drawing a nice pattern, but reproducing a specific one on the other side.
Watch out Drawing a similar-but-different pattern, which reads as damage rather than design.
Check Measure from the centre line - both patterns should sit the same distance out.
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Step 11
Go over the lines you want to keep, and lose the guides.
This is the step that turns a construction drawing into a finished one, and it is the one most people skip. Press harder on the outline and the features; leave the small stuff light. That difference in weight is what makes a drawing look deliberate rather than traced, and it costs thirty seconds.
Watch out Going over everything at the same weight, which flattens the drawing back out.
Check The outline should be clearly darker than the smallest details.
What it looks like finished
The same drawing with every guide erased and only the lines you meant to keep, at the weight you meant them to be. If yours still has centre lines and blocking-in shapes in it, this is the step you have not done yet - and it takes about thirty seconds.
Yours will not look like this, and it is not supposed to. This is the construction with the scaffolding taken away, not a drawing somebody made to be admired - the point is to show you which of your lines were guides.
What this one actually teaches you
This is a comparison lesson. Symmetry cannot be felt, only checked, and the checking - reach, height, angle - is the same procedure you use for a pair of eyes, a pair of ears or a pair of hands.
It also teaches restraint with pattern: repeating a mark on both sides is what makes decoration read as design rather than as mess.
Underneath both of those is the habit of building a drawing out of landmarks. You place a few marks you trust, check them against each other, and only then join them up - which is a slower start and a much faster finish, because you are never rubbing out a wing you already spent five minutes on.
Practise these: Line confidence Proportion Value range
What you need
Anything. If you are on paper, draw the centre line lightly - you will want to lose it at the end, and it runs right through the middle of the finished drawing.
If it's going wrong
If it looks lopsided, do not redraw the second wing - measure it. How far does the first wing reach sideways? How high does it go? Match those two numbers and the shape follows.
Keep the lower wings smaller than the upper ones. Equal-sized wings read as a moth or a clover.
Whatever pattern you put on one wing, put on the other. A butterfly with mismatched patterns looks damaged rather than decorative.
Print the steps
Take it away from the screen. The step sheet prints on one page.
Questions people ask
- Why does my butterfly look lopsided?
- You drew the second wing by feel instead of measuring it. Check how far the first wing reaches sideways and how high it goes, then match those two numbers.
- Should the four wings be the same size?
- No. The upper pair is larger than the lower pair - equal wings read as a moth or a clover.
- How detailed should the pattern be?
- Simple, and identical on both sides. Two or three shapes per wing is plenty, and mismatched patterns look damaged rather than decorative.
- How long should the antennae be?
- About as long as the body, with a small club at the tip. Straight lines with no club read as a moth.
- Do the wings have to touch the body?
- Yes - all four attach along the body. A gap makes them look stuck on afterwards.
- Can I draw it from the side?
- You can, but do this one first. The symmetrical view is where the measuring skill lives.
- My centre line shows in the finished drawing.
- Draw it lighter next time. It runs through the middle of the butterfly, so it is the one guide you really do need to lose.
- What should I draw after this?
- The cat - it uses a centre line the same way, but the two halves no longer have to match exactly.