How to Draw a Butterfly in Procreate

There are thousands of different kinds of butterflies, and today, we will learn how to draw a butterfly in Procreate. We will sketch the parts of a butterfly, draw the actual butterfly following the sketch, and finally, fill in the butterfly with color.

After learning how to draw a butterfly in Procreate, you'll be able to draw butterflies in your own style to fit any design.

Add some butterflies to your logo, sublimation designs, greeting cards, children's apparel, etc.

If you would like to follow along, we will be using the 6B Pencil brush that comes with Procreate and the Tapered Rough Sketcher brushfor textured edges.

Set Up Canvas for Drawing a Butterfly

In this tutorial, we will be using the drawing guides in Procreate. Butterflies have bilateral symmetry meaning the left and right sides are mirror images of each other.EnableVertical symmetry.

Make sure Drawing Assist is enabled for each new layer that is added while drawing a butterfly.

Sketch the Parts of a Butterfly

When drawing anything, you should always start with a sketch. The three parts of a butterfly we will focus on are the body, the wings, and the veins of the wings.

Step 1 - Sketch the Body of a Butterfly

A butterfly’s body consists of three parts (the head, the thorax, and the abdomen). We will also draw the antennae in this step.

Using the 6B Pencil, sketch a small circle for the head. Next, draw a slightly wider vertical ellipseoverlappingthe bottom of the circle. Then draw a thinner longer vertical ellipse overlapping the bottom of the first ellipse. Sketch the antennae on top of the head. See the following image for a better understanding.

Step 2 - Sketch the Wings of a Butterfly

A single butterfly wing consists of two parts. The upper part of the wing usually spans wider than or the same width as the lower part. Draw the wings in any shape you would like. Reference a photo of a real butterfly if needed.

For an easy-to-draw butterfly, you can simply draw overlapping circles or ovals for the wings. See the following image for an example.

Step 3 - Sketch the Veins of the Wings

Next, divide the wings into sections by sketching the veins. The veins generally fan out from the center of the butterfly. Divide the sections into smaller areas if you would like. Again, for a more realistic look, you can reference a photo of an actual butterfly.

Before we start drawing the actual butterfly over the sketch, lower the opacity of all the sketch layers to about 30-35%.

Draw the Actual Butterfly

Now that wehave a general idea ofwhat we want the butterfly to look like, we will draw the actual butterfly using the Tapered Rough Sketcher brush.

Step 1 - Draw the Body

Add a new layer and enable Drawing Assist. Trace the sketch and draw the parts of the butterfly’s body. Fill in the shapes.

Step 2 - Draw the Lines of the Wings

Add a new layer and enable Drawing Assist. Following the sketch, draw the lines of the wings.

Step 3 - Add More Details to the Wings

Add a new layer and enable Drawing Assist. Draw thelines of the veins thicker. Round the outer edges of the sections. Fill in the areas between the sections and the outside edges of the wings.

Step 4 - Fill in Butterfly With Color

Finally, bring your butterfly to life by adding color to the wings. Following are a few different examples.

To add solid colors to the butterfly wings, merge the wing layers (not the sketch layers) into one layer. Make that layer a Reference.

Add a new layer and enable Drawing Assist. Drag and drop colors into the sections of the wings to create a butterfly similar to the one in the following image.

The following butterfly was created using a gradient. Check out the tutorial we have available for [how to make a gradient in Procreate] so you can color your butterfly in the same way.

You can even combine both coloring techniques and add more details to create a butterfly like the one below.

If you liked this tutorial, you may enjoy learning how to make a mandala in Procreate as well.