Let’s draw a Monarch butterfly- Summer 2023 art 1

Medium: Oil Pastels and white acrylic Paint on Mixed-Media paper

Who doesn’t like a Monarch Butterfly? So many of the kindergarteners and first graders must have learned about them in their classroom while observing the life cycle and ultimately seen them hatching out of their cocoons! Well, I am not here right now for giving a science lesson, but I remember my kids used to love those National Geographic books about animals when they were little, and look what I found…an online link to it! So, why not read about it with your kids and have fun drawing them too!!

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/monarch-butterfly

Let’s start with the materials required for the drawing:

Mixed-media paper or any white paper that you have
A well-sharpened pencil and eraser.
A thick card-stock paper or watercolor paper to create a stencil.
Scissors
Oil Pastels
White acrylic paint and a thin brush or an Acrylic Paint pen
Painter’s tape

Step-by-step Process

Making the stencil- We want the left and right sides of the butterfly wings to be symmetrical, so we are going to make a stencil of butterfly wings. If your drawing paper is 9×12, make sure your cardstock is at least 5×7. When we draw the wings on the card stock make sure to utilize maximum space, in other words, draw big. Cut it out to create your stencil.

2. Place your stencil on the paper towards the left and draw the left side of the wing, next turn it to the right side to draw the right side of the wings as shown in the picture. You could stick your stencil on the paper with masking tape before drawing so that it stays in place.