When I asked around among my students a while back what kind of butterfly tutorial they wanted as an update for the butterfly sketching class, I got a lot of votes for the monarch butterfly.
I hadn’t included one in my previous lessons, and this was obviously an oversight on my part, because they’re one of the most common and popular butterflies on the North American continent. We don’t have them in Europe. They’re quite beautiful creatures, and I had a great time sketching them (and the accompanying caterpillar).
Here’s a short outtake of the butterfly sketching video I did with watercolor, colored pencil and a bit of gouache. I hope you enjoy it!
Sketching a monarch 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.
