Another eye-catching but small butterfly is the green hairstreak, with iridescent green wing undersides. They never rest with their wings open (the overside is a dull brown). In German, the name relates to brambles (blackberries), but they actually have a large variety of food plants. The green wing color gives them great camouflage.
I chose this butterfly as the subject of a painting tutorial because of its shimmering green wing color. Iridescence is easy to paint with watercolors if you know how, and that’s why I added the video to my butterfly class update.
Here’s a shorter outtake of the video:
Sketching a green hairstreak butterfly in watercolor and colored pencil
For those of you interested, a longer version of this tutorial is available in my (updated!) class “How to paint butterflies”. The class covers the basics of butterfly anatomy, I show sketching techniques and tips, and give several demonstrations in watercolor and colored pencil from start to finish, including several different butterflies, caterpillars and moths. The whole course has over 2 hours of video.
