Teach students how to draw a butterfly with an easy-to-teach, step-by-step lesson. Kindergarten and primary kids love directed drawings!
How to Draw a Butterfly
As the days get longer and warmer, it’s the perfect time to bring color and creativity into the classroom with a butterfly-directed drawing! Whether it’s a lesson on the life cycle of butterflies or a seasonal classroom activity, this drawing will engage students.
Seeing how excited young learners can get as they bring their butterflies to life is amazing. Ready to give it a try in your class? Keep reading to discover how to guide students step-by-step through this fun and simple activity!
Table of Contents
- How to Draw a Butterfly
- Directions for How to Draw a Butterfly
- Step One: Drawing the body of the butterfly
- Step Two: Starting the butterfly’s wings
- Step Three: Continuing the wings
- Step Four: Adding details to the butterfly wings
- Step Five: Adding details to the butterfly
- Step Six: Add a face and butterfly antennae
- Adding Details to the Butterfly Drawing
- Extending the Butterfly Activity
- Try the Butterfly Directed Drawing Today!
- Spring Science Resource
- More Great Spring Ideas
Materials for How to Draw a Butterfly
This spring drawing idea can be adapted for any primary classroom or completed at home by following the easy steps with a few simple materials. You will need white paper, pencils, erasers, fine black ink pens to outline, and watercolor paints, crayons, or colored pencils to decorate. You’ll want to consider using cardstock or proper art paper for durability.
Stand front and center when teaching this art lesson and use a large easel and chart paper to draw on. Students can sit at their desks with their supplies. Take things slowly, drawing each step and giving each instruction individually. Give my students plenty of time to follow along and ask questions. You will have the most success if you model the lesson this way and take your time.
Directions for How to Draw a Butterfly
Step One: Drawing the body of the butterfly
Place a large white piece of art paper in landscape orientation. Starting in the upper middle of the page, draw a small circle.
Add an oval from the circle and another smaller oval from the bottom. These comprise the three parts of a butterfly’s body (head, thorax, and abdomen).
Step Two: Starting the butterfly’s wings
To draw large upper wings, start on one side first and then the other. Draw a curved wing shape below the head up and around, connecting it to the bottom of the thorax (middle body). Repeat on the other side.
Step Three: Continuing the wings
To create the smaller lower wings, start at the outer corner of the top wing and draw a curved wing shape down and back up to make the bottom wings, connecting with the bottom of the abdomen (lower body) to create the edges of the wings. Repeat on the other side to finish the body of the butterfly.
Step Four: Adding details to the butterfly wings
Now, add the designs to the pencil sketch of the butterfly’s wings. Encourage creativity here and give them some examples, or they can follow the steps to create beautiful insects.
Start by drawing a curved line along the inside of each lower wing. Follow that with a scalloped line inside. Do this on both the upper and lower wings.
Step Five: Adding details to the butterfly
Add straight lines, swirls, curves, and circles to give the wings more detail. Fill in all the space, and remind students they will be painting the wings, so they should leave plenty of space.
Step Six: Add a face and butterfly antennae
Draw two antennae from the center of the head, going out in different directions. Draw a swirl or circle at the end. To finish it up, give the butterfly a smiling face.
Adding Details to the Butterfly Drawing
- Adding details to the face is optional and would not remove any beauty if left blank.
- To add the details for the eyes, draw two circles at the top of the head. Draw small curves at the top for eyelids.
- Add three small eyelashes.
- Draw and color in pupils, leaving a small spot of white in each eye.
- Add a small smile and a tiny heart-shaped nose if you wish.
Tip: Use a fine-point black marker or Sharpie pen to trace all the lines of your spring butterfly-directed drawing. Erase the pencil lines with a good white eraser.
Extending the Butterfly Activity
This activity is typically completed over two days or periods. On day one, students focus on drawing and tracing with a black marker. On day two, they move on to painting. If the class hasn’t used watercolor paints before, it’s helpful to demonstrate how to make proper brush strokes with a paintbrush and explain the water-to-paint ratio. Larger paintbrushes are recommended over the small ones, which are usually included with watercolor sets.
First, start painting the butterfly’s body using watercolor paints. Begin in the center of the body and work outward. Black is often used for the entire body. Be careful not to let the paint spill into the eyes or run.
Paint different parts of the butterfly’s wings in various bright colors (yellow, pink, green, blue, purple). Use one color entirely before moving on to the next color.
You could continue to paint the background a different color or leave it as is. The butterfly pops when left against a white background. You could cut the butterflies out and glue them onto construction or other special paper.
Once everyone completes their spring butterfly-directed drawing, they place it somewhere to dry completely. Please don’t make a mistake; hang or put them upright; paint and water would drip down onto the butterflies. Once dry, hang them up or create a fun bulletin board display for spring.
Extend the activity further by adding exciting spring read-alouds to your lesson plans! Kids will learn bout life cycles and spring before painting their butterflies. Add other directed drawings like the ladybug drawing to your collage to make spring tons of fun!
Try the Butterfly Directed Drawing Today!
You can download and print the instructions for drawing a butterfly for your classroom art lesson.
Click the image below to sign up for your free copy!
Spring Science Resource
Ready for spring but want more butterfly activities? This Butterfly Science & NonFiction unit includes science and nonfiction activities to teach about caterpillars and butterflies (life cycle activities, anchor charts, crafts, sorts, & more).
Love this unit and want more? Check out the Spring Science Bundle, which includes 5 units on spring, frogs, chickens, butterflies, and flowers.
More Great Spring Ideas
PIN for Later
Love your directed drawings. What type of paper do you use? Your mentioned that you use larger paint brushes than what comes with the watercolors. What paint brushes do you use?
Thank you
Thank you, Molly. I recommend art paper meant for paint rather than regular white paper (computer paper ha!). My paintbrushes are from the dollar store. Nothing special really just larger than the ones that come with the watercolor paint sets. You can find premium paper and paintbrushes at any Michael’s stores.
What kind of water colors do you use? They are so bright, I love them!
Hi Darcie. I use Crayola watercolor paints. I buy the large pack with many colors including those bright pastels.
Is there a link to get the written step by steps to print out?
Hi there! If the click here popup doesn’t work above please email me at elyse@proudtobeprimary.com.
Sana po isa rin po ako sa Mapili
This step-by-step guide makes drawing a butterfly so fun and easy for kids! The detailed instructions and creative tips help bring art to life in the classroom. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful resource!