Coloring a stylized butterfly

A few months ago I had a chance to draw this really awesome butterfly. Drawing things like this is very meditative for me- I'm sure many of you can relate. It took many hours to draw, and I drew it with a 0.03mm multiliner on the Copic Art Paper (sketchbook paper).  If you would also like to color this exact butterfly, it is now available for download here on the Copic website, along with a few other doodles in a similar style. Check out our whole range of illustrations for download, since they're only $0.99 each.

Anyways, I was at a demo recently and I had a chance to color the butterfly. Although there are many many details, when you color it, you can choose to ignore most of those details, and have them just become part of the patterning.

I printed the butterfly on the Copic Art Paper  so it wouldn't bleed when I colored it in.

The technique I used for this entire image is feathering colors. I started with a light V12, feathered up, then I took a B66 and feathered down into the V12, and I went back and blended with the V12.

Then I feathered the B66 up, feathered a B04 down, then blended with the B04. I feathered the B04 up into B02, and that up into B00.

I repeated the process up along the top edge of the wings. Then, I went into each of the inner segments and repeated the same color scheme.

Once I'd finished those sections, I colored the main background of each wing with a feathered gradient from Y11 into YR65, and finally into R37.


Although the finished piece is a full sheet of paper, it was surprisingly quick and easy to color (I think it took about an hour, and I was demoing for customers as well). I love how vibrant the colors appear! the finished piece looks a lot more complicated than it really was.

The store that I was demoing at liked it so much, they asked if they could keep my colored piece. I was happy to share it with them, since it was so easy to color.

If you are looking for something a little different to work on, I encourage you to check out our full collection of downloadable coloring sheets and make your own fun artwork.

Have a relaxing week coloring!