Flitting About in my Sketchbook

Hi Reader,

Lately at lunchtime I have been flitting about in my mini square sketchbook drawing butterflies.

You know I am devoted to finding small pockets of time for art.

On my four day work week I take a tiny sketchbook and a few favorite supplies with me.

That quiet half hour in the middle of the day has become a gentle creative ritual.

Butterflies

Butterfly Day

Someone mentioned that March 14th was National Butterfly Day and that was all the nudge I needed.

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Monarch

I prefer to draw real species rather than fantasy creatures, so I searched for a red butterfly and discovered the monarch. Danaus plexippus.

Bright orange wings edged in black. A long distance traveler across North America.

Apparently, it is the unofficial national butterfly of Canada. Who knew?

That felt like a good place to begin.

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Process

Pencil

In my little square sketchbook, I lightly mapped out the wings with a 2H pencil.

I angled the butterfly across the page so the wingspan stretched corner to corner.

Then I carefully added the body and fine antennae.

Ink

Once I was happy with the outline I traced everything with my black Pigma Micron pen and erased the pencil marks.

I slowly inked the dark edges of the wings using short strokes that followed the natural direction of the scales.

This part alone took nearly two hours but it was the most soothing kind of focus.

Color

Then came the color.

I chose deep red, dark cadmium orange, Naples ochre and light chrome yellow.

I layered from dark at the top of the forewing down to golden yellow at the base.

I left the tiny white spots untouched and added the name monarch beneath.

And there it was. My first butterfly. I was thrilled.

But I did not stop there.

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More Butterflies

Series

A blue one followed 🦋.

Then yellow.

Then green.

Then a deep lavender woodland beauty.

You can see the rest of my butterfly sketch collection and read how this little series is unfolding here:

​Read the full article on the blog.​

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Guide

Free PDF

I even created a simple ​one page monarch sketch guide if you would like to try one yourself.

You can download it here Monarch.pdf​

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Read the full story

Over to You

Questions

Would you ever try sketching butterflies in your own notebook?

Or is there another small subject that is calling your name right now?

Hit reply and tell me. I read every message.