Art Project for Kids: How to Draw and Watercolor Paint a Butterfly Garden

1. Introduction and Supplies You Will Need for This Project: Hi friends, how are you? I hope you're having a great day today. I'm excited about sharing this project with you. This is a drawing and watercolor painting project that I designed, especially for kids. You do not need to have any drawing or painting experience at all to be successful with this project. I will guide you step-by-step through all the steps that you need to take. Today, we are going to be creating a butterfly garden. Let's talk about the supplies and the materials that you will need for this project. The first thing that you'll need is a piece of watercolor paper. You will need some watercolor paints and a paintbrush. You will also need a cup or a bowl with clean water. You will need a set of crayons or a set of oil pastels and a paper towel. Go ahead and gather all of those supplies and materials. And I'll see you back here in the next video. 2. Step 1: Draw a Butterfly Garden Design: In this step we are going to draw a butterfly in the garden design. Let's get started. The first thing that we're going to do down in this left-hand corner here at the bottom, is we're going to draw a giant flower. And it's not going to be the whole, entire flower. It's just going to be about a quarter of the flower. So it's almost as if the flower is taking up this space right here. But we're only going to be able to see this much of the flower. So think of the colors that you'd like to use to draw your flower. I think I'm going to use this color. It's like a purplish color. It's hard for you to see probably because it's pretty small. Keep in mind with oil pastels, they break fairly easily. So sometimes you break them and you just say, oh wow. And you put one section back into the box and you take your other section, it's still perfectly good to use. I'm going to draw my big flower with this purple. So go ahead and choose a color from your colors in your oil pastel box or in your box of crayons. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to start by making a curved line like this. I'm going from the side of my piece of paper to the bottom of my piece of paper. Now I'm going to go back up to bow right here. And I'm going to start making some petals. Remember this is a giant flowers, so I'm going to make some giant petals in there, even going off the piece of paper. Remember it's a flower that's about this big. And we're just seeing a little part of the flower. Now I'm going to make a few little details in my flower. I'm going to make some lines coming out on each petal. Then if you'd like to make something on the inside here, maybe I'll make some circles. But you don't have to do this part if you don't want to. All right. I think I'm finished with my purple. Now what we're going to do is we're going to create a butterfly right here in this area. So let's choose a different color. I'm going to choose this color, green, but you can choose whatever color you'd like. What we're going to do now is we're going to draw the head of our butterfly and then the body with this color that you chose. I'm going to make a round circle for the head. And remember this is a cartoon. It's not going to be very realistic. I have my round head and then I'm going to come from the bottom or it's a little bit to the side of the head and I'm going to make a curved line. It's pretty big, pretty big butterfly. And then I'm going to close that up with another curved line, that's a very slightly curved line. Then if you'd like to add some details, some lines or other shapes inside the body of your butterfly. You can go ahead and do that as well. Now I'm going to put that down, that green down, and I'm going to choose a different color. I think I'm going to choose this orange. And I am going to draw a butterfly's wings with this orange. I'm going to start here on this curve line. I'm going to come up. Then I'm going to curve around and I'm going to come back down. Remember we're just seeing this butterfly from this side. Then I'm going to make another curve line. Then come back down and meet right there at the body. Alright, now I'm going to make some circles inside here and maybe even a swirl. Let me make a circle there. In a circle here, and I might add another color in just a bit. Let me put that away. Now that we have our flower or big giant flower and our large butterfly, what we're going to do is use our black to add some details. I'm going to make an eye. I'm going to put my eye about right here. Then I'm going to make some little legs and feet. I'm just going to have four. Then I'm going to make some antenna lines coming straight up from the head, some little balls at the top. Dots. If you'd like to make a little smile, go ahead and do that, that would be cute. If you have any oil pastels that get on your hands, you can go ahead and use your handy-dandy paper towel to get the extra off. Now what we're going to do is we're going to fill in the background with some shapes in some different lines. So go ahead and choose some colors that you'd like to make some shapes in different lines. I think I'm just going to make a few swirls like this. Then if there's another color that you'd like to use, go ahead and do that. I'm going to use yellow. And I'm just going to mix some yellow dots around. I'm not sure if you can see these very well because they might not show up very well on the video. What I'm trying to do is I'm just trying to fill in the space a little bit around our design. When we start painting, what will happen is these colors will pop out. Alright, that looks great. I think I'm going to add a little bit of a pink dot right here. I think that'll look great. I think that I'm happy with mine. What I'd like you to do is if you see any other spaces that you feel like you'd like to fill with any shapes or different lines. Go ahead and do that. Now, remember this is your artwork, so you get to do what you'd like to do. But for me, I'm happy with the way that mine looks. So I'm going to leave, as is. When we come back, we will apply some watercolor paints to our design. 3. Step 2: Paint the Design: In this step, we are going to apply some watercolor paints to our design. Let's get started. The first thing that we're going to do is we're going to add a drop or two of water to each pan of paint. And what this will do is it will soften up our paint just a little bit and then it'll be a lot easier for us to use. So I am going to take a minute to do that. There we go. While those are softening up, while they're dissolving those paints, when I'm going to do is turn my attention to my design. Alright, so I am just going to start choosing colors to add to my design. And I'm not going to think about it very much as I go and I see how my painting is turning out. Then I will just keep going with the colors that I think will look great at that moment. I think that I'll start by painting my flower. Then I'll move to my butterfly. Then I'll move to the background. But I haven't decided on my colors yet. So go ahead and paint your artwork, the colors that you'd like to use. I would suggest using really bright colors for this project as it is, butterfly in the garden. I'm going to just start painting and I think I'm going to start with pink because I like pink flowers. And I do have to tell you if your paint goes outside of the lines a little bit. That's okay, that's not going to be a problem. You will notice with watercolor paints that they do spread around and they like to mix together with other colors. And that's one of the beautiful things about watercolor paint. So don't worry about it too much if they get into another spot that you were not expecting. That's part of the beauty of the watercolor paints. All righty friends, I've finished painting my design. I'm really happy with it. I hope that you had a lot of fun with this project. I will see you next time.