How to Paint Watercolor Monarch Butterflies

How to Paint Watercolor Butterflies

Monarch butterflies, a native insect in California, create a beautiful watercolor painting. These colorful butterflies are easy to paint because of their unique shape and bright colors.

Step by Step Painting a Monarch Butterfly

The first step for this painting involved the initial sketch with a red pencil. I used a reference image on my iPad, and sketched the outline of the butterfly and flower onto watercolor paper.

After sketching the outlines, I used ink to form the shape of the butterfly and provide me with an area to paint inside. Most composition problems can be resolved by doing an initial sketch. I will sketch and resketch a painting, before ever getting out my watercolors. I want to stress that sketching over and over can help you to work out composition problems before you get far into building a piece and invest a lot of time in building layers of color.

After selecting the colors to paint the butterfly with, I began to build color. For this painting, I decided to stick with a simple palette. I used orange, Payne’s grey, yellow, and green. I layered colors in order to create definition. Whenever you feel like you aren’t getting enough depth of color, continue to layer your paints.

I picked a premixed orange for this piece and a warm-yellow base color for the flower.

Below is the time-lapse video showing the process for creating this butterfly painting.