Watercolor Butterflies

Materials you will need:

White watercolor paper or other heavy weight paper (8.5x11)

Pencils

Watercolor Paints

Small and medium watercolor brushes

Water cups

Black tempera paint

Scissors

Butterfly photographs for references

I really love this lesson because the kids get really excited about it. In the classroom, it's a great tie-in when the students are studying insects in science. I start by looking at butterfly photographs with the kids and examining all of the different wing shapes and patterns. Then, I have the kids sketch a few different butterflies on scratch paper. I talk about drawing big and filling up the paper. The kids select their favorite sketch and we start to draw it on the watercolor paper by first folding our paper in half. Then, we draw half of the butterfly (emphasizing symmetry and composition) with the body of the butterfly being drawn along the fold. Now, the kids can cut our their butterflies, open them up and begin to draw their wing patterns. They need to use large shapes to keep from having a hard time with the tempera paint later. After they've drawn their design,  they can paint the butterflies with watercolor. In the classroom, I make the kids choose one of the color groups. The butterflies need ample time to draw before outlining with the black tempera. The kids can go over all of their pencil lines and also outline the edges of the butterfly. This will really make their colors pop. If you don't have tempera paint, you could also use black oil pastel or crayon.