Paint a Butterfly with Step-by-Step Tutorials

Have you ever wanted to paint a butterfly, but you're not sure where to begin?

The watercolor Tiger Swallowtail tutorial on the page will help you with a simple 5-step method you can use to paint almost any butterfly.

Plus, you may want to paint some of the other butterflies.

Butterfly Tutorials:

Easy Monarch Butterfly – best for beginners who want a simple first project.
Realistic Watercolor Butterfly – for painters who want a more lifelike result.
Painting Butterflies – for artists who want a fuller composition with flowers.
Paint an Oil Butterfly – for oil painters or those trying a different medium.
Paint a Butterfly this page – 5-steps that teach the butterfly painting process.

Paint a Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

The Tiger Swallowtail is an easy project for developing artists who have some basic painting experience. It follows 5 steps that will work for many butterfly paintings.

How to paint a butterfly watercolor tutorial.

Paint a Butterfly: Tiger Swallowtail

I enjoy painting butterflies, Artist Carol May. - Last updated: November 2026

5 Simple Steps for Painting a Butterfly

Get Ready to Paint

Get your art supplies and reference material ready for painting.

Colors in this example:

Lemon Yellow (cool yellow)
New Gamboge (any warm yellow)

Ultramarine Blue
Dioxazine Purple

Painting Surface: #140 watercolor paper

Brushes: #7 round, 1/2" flat, an extended needle-point brush or a small round

Reference Materials: It's best to have something to paint from.

Paint your butterflies from life, in the garden, at the zoo, etc.
Take photos for reference or see the photos of common Types of Butterflies.

Art Masking Fluid: Use it to protect parts of the paper from being painted.

Let's get started---

Step 1 - Draw and Mask Your Painting

Put a line drawing on the painting surface and mask the areas you want to remain unpainted.

Draw your butterfly on a separate paper because erasures can damage the painting surface.
When you are happy with your drawing, transfer it to your painting surface with graphite transfer paper.

It's best to paint butterflies from a reference.

Tiger Swallowtail reference photo

Step 1 - Do a line drawing for your butterfly painting.

#1 Draw your butterfly.

Masking

Protect the small spots on the back edge of the wings with masking fluid.

The Tiger Swallowtail has white or yellow spots on the back edge of their wings. You may paint around them, but some masking makes it easier.

Use an art masking fluid (also called, frisket) to keep from getting paint in the areas you want to keep light.
Let the masking dry thoroughly, 10 to 30 minutes depending on your environment.

Learn more about preserving white in watercolor paintings.

Step 2 - Paint the Main Wing Colors

Paint a combination of warm and cool yellow on the butterfly wings.

Step 2 - Block in the color of the wings.

#2 Block-in the main wing colors.

It’s always good to have a variation in color in larger areas. One flat - same color is boring.

Pre-wet the wing area, excluding the borders. It is okay to paint over the body because later the black will cover the yellow.
Paint the area with a cool/Lemon Yellow.
Then while it's still wet, load your brush with a warm yellow.
Dab the warm yellow on leaving some areas of the cool yellow showing. The colors will gently flow together.

Step 3 - Paint the Border, Designs, and Body

Mix a black from yellow and Dioxazine Violet for the border and veins. Complementary colors are the best way to mix dark paint colors.

If your black is not dark enough, add more violet or a touch of blue.

Paint the Border

Paint the black border on the back edge of the wings.

Step #3a - Paint the back edge of the butterfly wings black.

#3a Paint the back border of the wings.

You will notice on butterflies that the border colors often blend into the main color of the wings.

How do you make the colors blend in watercolor?

Dampen the edge of the yellow wing color before you paint the black border.
Then the colors run together and make a soft edge.

I first put some blue like I see on some swallowtail butterflies, but then I changed my mind and just made the border black.

Paint the Designs

Paint the large black designs out on the butterfly's wings.

Step 3b - Paint the center of the body and the large black areas on the butterfly wings.

#3b Paint the dark areas in the wings.

Paint the Body

Paint a dark stripe down the center of the butterfly's body.

Leave the sides of the body yellow, we will come back and shade the sides in step 5.

Step 3c - Details of painting the butterfly's body.

#3c Paint the center of the body.

Step 4 - Paint the Veins

Paint the black veins with a fine touch of the tip of a small round or a needle-point brush.

Step 4 - Lightly paint the black veins in the butterfly wings.

#4 Paint the veins with a light touch.

If your vein lines get crooked or too fat, lift off the mistake with the edge of a damp brush.

I use a damp, stiff, flat or angle brush for removing mistakes. Do it before the mistake is completely dry.
Then blot the areas with a tissue and repeat if needed.

Let everything dry and move on to the last step.

Step 5 - Remove Masking and Paint Details

Take the masking fluid off to expose the unpainted areas.

Step 5a - You are almost finished painting your butterfly. Remove the masking fluid to expose the white areas.

#5a Remove masking to reveal the white paper.

Normally we would use a rubber cement pick-up tool to remove the masking.

But when I did - it started taking up some of the black paint.
So, I used a dry finger to take off the masking without disturbing the black paint.

The masking fluid made it so much easier to preserve the white areas. It sure beats painting around each and every little spot.

Paint the Details

It's time for the final details.

Step 5b - Paint the final details of the butterfly.

#5b Paint spots, body and antennas.

Paint the spots and edges on the butterfly wings yellow.
Water down your black mix to make a soft gray and paint the sides of the butterfly body. Paint the edges of the body darker to show the contour of the body.
Use the gray or black to pull out a couple of antennas and put a dark head on the butterfly.

Look around the painting for anything else you want to add or adjust.

Hooray, it's time for a signature. I use a fine felt tip pen.