creative writing on butterfly

How to Describe a Butterfly in Writing (100+ Examples)

Butterflies, with their intricate patterns and vibrant wings, captivate us.

Describing them in writing can transport readers into a world of color, transformation, and delicate beauty.

This is how to describe a butterfly in writing:

Describe a butterfly in writing by focusing on color, pattern, movement, habitat, feeding behavior, mating rituals, lifecycle, and interactions with other species. Use vivid imagery, metaphors, and emotive language to capture their ethereal beauty and symbolic significance.

I’ll guide you through the nuances of butterfly descriptions with over 100 examples and words to bring your prose to life.

Types of Butterflies

Table of Contents

Before diving into descriptions, understanding the diversity among butterflies is crucial. Each type offers unique characteristics to highlight in your writing.

• Monarch Butterflies are perhaps the most recognized, with their striking orange and black wings, symbolizing endurance and migration.
• Swallowtails stand out with their large size and tail-like extensions, showcasing an array of colors and patterns.
• Blue Morphos are renowned for their dazzling blue wings, creating a mesmerizing effect as they flutter.
• Painted Ladies exhibit a variety of colors, with their wings painted in shades of orange, black, and white.
• Glasswing Butterflies offer a unique trait with transparent wings, allowing them to blend into their surroundings seamlessly.

Each type brings its own story and ambiance, enriching your writing with detailed imagery and emotional depth.

13 Ways to Describe Butterflies in Writing

There are at least 13 ways to describe a butterfly in writing.

Read through this list (especially the examples). I hope these help you as much as they have helped me!

The color of a butterfly’s wings is its most striking feature, serving as a canvas for nature’s art.

The hues range from the deepest blacks to the most vibrant oranges, often glistening under the sunlight in a kaleidoscope of brilliance.

These colors aren’t just for show; they tell stories of adaptation, survival, and beauty.

They can serve as metaphors for emotions, changes, or simply the marvel of nature.

When describing color, consider the interplay of light, the contrast with the surroundings, and the mood it sets.

• A monarch butterfly, with its fiery orange wings edged in black, danced through the air.
• The swallowtail’s yellow wings, dotted with black, resembled a flickering flame against the sky.
• A blue morpho flashed its iridescent wings, turning the air into a canvas of the sea.
• The delicate hues of the painted lady, a tapestry of orange, black, and white, whispered tales of spring.
• Amidst the green foliage, the transparent wings of the glasswing butterfly made it nearly invisible, a ghost of the forest.

Butterflies’ wings are adorned with patterns that are as intricate as they are symbolic.

These patterns, ranging from simple spots to complex mosaics, serve multiple purposes – camouflage, mating signals, and predator deterrence.

Describing these patterns is another great way to learn how to describe a butterfly in writing.

It can add depth to your writing, suggesting themes of identity, camouflage, or beauty.

Consider the shape, symmetry, and significance of these patterns in your descriptions.

• The monarch’s wings displayed a geometric pattern, a network of lines and circles that seemed to map unseen worlds.
• Swallowtail wings bore a series of eye spots, daring predators to look closer.
• The blue morpho’s wings, when closed, revealed a camouflage of browns and greens, hiding its brilliance.
• Painted ladies boasted a chaotic beauty, with patterns that told stories of their travels.
• The glasswing’s subtle patterns were visible only upon close inspection, a secret shared between the observer and the observed.

The size of a butterfly can range from the tiny, almost invisible, to the surprisingly large.

Describing a butterfly’s size can help set the scene, suggesting the delicate balance of nature or the surprise of finding beauty in the unexpected.

Consider the scale of your setting and how the butterfly’s size contrasts or complements it.

• A monarch, its wingspan as wide as my hand, floated gracefully, commanding the air.
• The tiny blue morpho, no larger than a coin, darted through the underbrush, a flash of color.
• A swallowtail, large and majestic, sailed above the garden, a ship on the breeze.
• The painted lady, of modest size, flitted from flower to flower, a nomad in a blooming desert.
• Glasswing butterflies, so small and delicate, seemed like droplets of glass suspended in the sunlight.

The texture of a butterfly’s wings, though delicate to the touch, can vary greatly, adding a tactile dimension to your descriptions.

From the silky smoothness of freshly emerged wings to the rugged feel of those weathered by journeys, texture tells a story of life and survival.

Describing this element invites readers to imagine the feel of wings against their fingertips.

• The monarch’s wings felt like satin, a smoothness earned from its long migration.
• Swallowtail wings, rugged at the edges, spoke of battles with the wind and escape from predators.
• The blue morpho’s wings were like velvet, inviting the touch with their softness.
• Painted ladies, with a texture that hinted at fragility, seemed as though they could crumble under the lightest touch.
• The glasswing’s wings, almost imperceptible, felt like a whisper against the skin, a testament to their ethereal nature.
• As I gently held the monarch, its wings brushed against my fingers, like the finest silk.
• Touching the edge of a swallowtail’s wing, I felt the history of its survival etched into the texture.
• The blue morpho, landing on my palm, offered the softness of its wings, a momentary gift.
• I traced the pattern on a painted lady’s wing, marveling at the delicate balance of strength and fragility.
• Holding a glasswing was like touching air, its wings barely registering in my hand, a marvel of nature’s design.

The way a butterfly moves—its fluttering, soaring, or gliding—can evoke emotions and symbolize themes such as freedom or transformation.

Observing a butterfly in motion is witnessing poetry in the air.

Their flight is not just a means of travel but a dance with the wind, a display of resilience and grace.

When describing movement, consider the rhythm, direction, and purpose of their flight, and how it reflects the butterfly’s interaction with its environment.

• The monarch moved with purpose, each beat of its wings a stroke towards its distant goal.
• Swallowtails danced in the air, a ballet of twists and turns, each movement a flirtation with the breeze.
• Blue morphos glided through the forest, flashes of blue that seemed to teleport from one spot to another.
• Painted ladies fluttered erratically, their unpredictable paths a mirror of their migratory journeys.
• Glasswing butterflies moved with a delicacy that matched their appearance, as if afraid to break the spell of their transparency.
• Watching a monarch navigate the wind, I felt a longing for distant places stir within me.
• The swallowtail’s playful dance reminded me of the joy found in freedom.
• A blue morpho gliding past me was like a glimpse into another world, ethereal and unreachable.
• The painted lady’s erratic flight spoke of determination, of journeys undertaken against all odds.
• The gentle movement of a glasswing was a reminder of the fragility of beauty, a fleeting moment to be cherished.

The habitat of a butterfly, from lush gardens to dense forests, sets the stage for your descriptions and can reflect themes of adaptation and belonging.

Butterflies thrive in a variety of environments, each offering unique elements to explore in your writing.

The habitat not only influences their behavior and appearance but also serves as a backdrop for their stories.

When describing a butterfly’s habitat, consider the interplay of light, the diversity of plant life, and the presence of other creatures.

• Monarchs, amidst the milkweed, seemed like embers floating through a green world.
• Swallowtails, in the shadow of towering trees, danced in shafts of sunlight that broke through the canopy.
• Blue morphos, against the backdrop of the rainforest, were like living jewels hidden among ancient treasures.
• Painted ladies, traversing fields of flowers, painted the landscape with their colors, a moving tapestry of life.
• Glasswings, in the understory of the forest, blurred the lines between the seen and unseen, a part of the air itself.
• The milkweed garden, home to the monarchs, was a sanctuary of vibrant life amidst the calm.
• Standing in the forest, watching swallowtails, I felt the ancient rhythm of nature pulse around me.
• The rainforest, with its blue morphos, was a realm of mystery, each flutter a secret whispered.
• Walking through the meadow, the painted ladies around me seemed like fragments of dreams made real.
• In the quiet of the forest, the glasswings moved silently, a reminder that not all wonders shout their presence.

Feeding Behavior

Describing a butterfly’s feeding behavior not only highlights their role in the ecosystem but also adds a layer of intimacy to your narrative.

Butterflies, with their proboscis uncoiled to sip nectar, are symbols of delicacy and interconnectedness.

Observing them feed is a lesson in patience and the subtle interactions that sustain life.

When writing about feeding behavior, consider the types of flowers visited, the method of feeding, and the butterfly’s impact on its environment.

• Monarchs, hovering over milkweed, were like artists carefully choosing their colors, each flower a different hue to explore.
• Swallowtails, with their long proboscis, delved into the deepest blossoms, uncovering hidden sweetness.
• Blue morphos, preferring the dampness of the forest floor, sought out the rotting fruit, a reminder that beauty often finds nourishment in unexpected places.
• Painted ladies, flitting from flower to flower, were the epitome of wanderlust, each stop a brief taste of home in their transient lives.
• Glasswing butterflies, almost invisible against the foliage, sipped from small flowers, a gentle interaction that spoke of the subtleties of survival.
• As a monarch approached the milkweed, its precision in feeding reminded me of the delicate balance of nature.
• Watching a swallowtail probe into flowers, I marveled at the efficiency of nature’s design.
• The sight of a blue morpho feasting on fruit on the forest floor highlighted the cycle of life, even in decay.
• A painted lady moving from one bloom to another symbolized the constant search for sustenance and beauty.
• Observing a glasswing feed was like witnessing a secret, its delicate form barely disturbing the air around the flower.

Mating Rituals

The mating rituals of butterflies, intricate dances of attraction and courtship, offer rich imagery for describing themes of love, desire, and connection.

Butterflies engage in complex behaviors to attract mates, from visual displays to chemical signals.

Describing these rituals can add depth to your narrative, drawing parallels between the natural world and human emotions.

Consider the specific actions involved, the interaction between individuals, and the symbolism of these rituals.

• Monarchs, with their aerial dances, seemed to write love letters in the sky, each movement a word, each flight a sentence.
• Swallowtails engaged in a delicate ballet, their wings touching in brief, tender moments, a dance of potential futures.
• Blue morphos flashed their vibrant wings in the dim light of the forest, a signal meant for one, amidst the many.
• Painted ladies circled each other in a slow, measured waltz, a prelude to the continuation of their journey.
• Glasswings, in their transparency, offered a pure connection, their rituals a testament to the unseen forces that draw beings together.
• Watching monarchs court was like observing a timeless ritual, unchanged by the ages.
• The swallowtail’s dance was a reminder of the elegance that exists in nature, a beauty that surpasses all artifice.
• A blue morpho’s display, in the quiet of the forest, spoke of the longing that drives all creatures.
• The painted lady’s careful approach to its mate mirrored the cautious steps of new love.
• In the simplicity of the glasswing’s mating ritual, I found a reflection of the clarity and honesty that love demands.

The lifecycle of a butterfly, from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to adult, is a narrative of transformation and renewal.

Describing the lifecycle of a butterfly offers a powerful metaphor for growth and change.

Each stage brings its own challenges and beauty, reflecting the journey of life itself.

Consider the details of each transformation, the struggle for survival, and the emergence of new beginnings.

• Monarchs, in their journey from egg to butterfly, epitomize the struggle for existence, each stage a step towards the miraculous migration.
• Swallowtails, through their lifecycle, reveal the art of camouflage, each form a masterpiece of adaptation.
• Blue morphos, hidden as caterpillars, emerge as symbols of transformation, their beauty a reward for their earlier invisibility.
• Painted ladies, in their rapid development, remind us of the fleeting nature of life, urging us to savor each moment.
• Glasswings, even in their earliest stages, hint at the transparency they will carry into adulthood, a lesson in vulnerability and strength.
• Witnessing a monarch emerge from its chrysalis, I was reminded of the resilience required to reach our fullest potential.
• The transformation of a swallowtail caterpillar into a butterfly was like watching a master artist at work, each detail carefully planned.
• The emergence of a blue morpho from its cocoon felt like a revelation, a hidden truth finally unveiled.
• Watching painted ladies progress through their lifecycle, I saw the beauty of adaptability, the constant evolution to meet life’s demands.
• The development of a glasswing, from egg to adult, taught me the importance of transparency, of being seen for who we truly are.

Check out this good video about describing the lifecycle of a butterfly:

Interaction with Other Species

The interactions between butterflies and other species, whether symbiotic or predatory, underscore themes of coexistence and interdependence.

Butterflies do not exist in isolation.

Their lives are intertwined with a multitude of other organisms.

Describing these interactions can illuminate the complexity of ecosystems and the delicate balance that sustains life.

Consider the mutual benefits between butterflies and pollinated plants, the threats posed by predators, and the protective mechanisms butterflies have developed.

• Monarchs and milkweed have a relationship of mutual survival, a dance of nourishment and protection that spans generations.
• Swallowtails, with their mimicry, blur the lines between themselves and more dangerous species, a lesson in the power of perception.
• Blue morphos, by feeding on fermenting fruit, contribute to the forest’s cycle of renewal, a small but crucial role in the ecosystem.
• Painted ladies, in their migration, connect different habitats, spreading pollen and linking the lives of distant communities.
• Glasswing butterflies, with their transparent wings, evade predators, a testament to the ingenious adaptations forged by the pressures of survival.
• Observing monarchs feed on milkweed, I was struck by the intricate balance of nature, where each entity plays a crucial role.
• The swallowtail’s mimicry, a clever deception, reminded me of nature’s complexity and the survival strategies it engenders.
• Watching a blue morpho contribute to the cycle of life in the forest, I understood the interconnectedness of all beings.
• The journey of painted ladies across continents illustrated the interconnected web of life, each species dependent on another.
• The glasswing’s ability to avoid predators through its transparency showed the delicate dance between visibility and survival.

Conservation Status

Discussing the conservation status of butterflies highlights the challenges they face and the importance of environmental stewardship.

Butterflies, like many other species, are facing threats from habitat loss, climate change, and pollution.

In your descriptions, you can raise awareness and inspire action to protect these delicate indicators of environmental health.

Consider the factors contributing to their decline, the efforts being made to protect them, and the role individuals can play in conservation.

• Monarchs, their numbers dwindling due to habitat destruction and climate changes, have become symbols of the need for conservation efforts.
• Swallowtails, with some species listed as endangered, remind us of the fragility of nature and the urgent need to protect biodiversity.
• Blue morphos, facing threats from deforestation and the illegal pet trade, exemplify the challenges of preserving natural beauty in the face of human greed.
• Painted ladies, though widespread, suffer from the effects of pesticide use and habitat fragmentation, highlighting the impact of agriculture on natural populations.
• Glasswing butterflies, with their unique beauty, face the risk of habitat loss, underscoring the need for habitat preservation and sustainable land use practices.
• Witnessing the decline of monarch populations, I felt a call to action, a reminder of our responsibility towards the planet.
• Learning about the endangered status of certain swallowtail species, I was reminded of the preciousness of each form of life.
• The threats facing blue morphos drove home the importance of conservation, of protecting the wonders of the natural world for future generations.
• Seeing the effects of human activity on painted ladies, I understood the need for more sustainable practices and the role each of us can play in conservation.
• The vulnerability of glasswing butterflies to habitat loss highlighted the interconnectedness of species and the importance of preserving the environments we share.

Inspirational Symbolism

Butterflies, with their transformative lifecycle and ethereal beauty, serve as powerful symbols of hope, change, and resilience.

In literature, art, and culture, butterflies are often used to symbolize transformation and the potential for growth.

Describing the symbolism of butterflies can add a layer of meaning to your narrative.

Consider how the journey of a butterfly can reflect personal transformations, the overcoming of obstacles, and the beauty of emerging stronger from challenges.

• Monarchs, with their epic migrations, symbolize endurance and the ability to navigate life’s changes with grace.
• Swallowtails, with their stunning beauty and survival strategies, represent the power of adaptation and the beauty that comes from overcoming adversity.
• Blue morphos, emerging from their cocoons into breathtaking beauty, remind us of the potential within each of us to transform our lives.
• Painted ladies, with their vast migrations, symbolize the restless spirit of exploration and the courage to embark on new journeys.
• Glasswing butterflies, with their transparent wings, inspire thoughts of vulnerability and the strength found in openness and authenticity.
• Watching a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis, I was reminded of the possibilities of transformation, of new beginnings waiting to unfold.
• The resilience of monarchs on their migratory journey inspired me to face my own challenges with determination and hope.
• The adaptability of swallowtails, their ability to thrive in a changing world, encouraged me to embrace change with flexibility and grace.
• The journey of painted ladies, spanning continents, spoke to me of the adventure that lies in seeking new horizons.
• The transparency of glasswings, revealing the beauty of their inner structure, taught me the value of being true to oneself, of the beauty in authenticity.

Best Words to Describe a Butterfly in Writing

When writing about butterflies, choosing the right words is crucial for capturing their essence.

Here are 50 words that encapsulate the beauty, movement, and spirit of these delicate creatures:

• Translucent
• Luminescent
• Mesmerizing
• Spectacular
• Resplendent
• Effervescent

Best Phrases to Describe a Butterfly in Writing

Capturing a butterfly’s essence goes beyond single words.

Here are 50 phrases that vividly bring butterflies to life in writing:

• Dancing on air
• A brushstroke of nature
• Wings like stained glass
• Fluttering whispers of color
• A fleeting glimpse of beauty
• Nature’s delicate ballet
• A waltz of wings
• Sailing on a breeze
• Like petals on the wind
• A symphony in motion
• Cloaked in iridescence
• A canvas of vibrant hues
• Glittering under the sun
• Whispers of gossamer wings
• Drifting on the zephyr
• A mirage of colors
• A tapestry woven from light
• Kissed by rainbows
• A whisper of spring
• The embodiment of grace
• A flicker of brilliance
• Dancing to an unseen rhythm
• Nature’s brush at work
• Adorned with nature’s jewels
• A creature of the air
• Painted by the dawn
• Bathed in sunlight
• A silhouette against the sky
• The poetry of motion
• A mural on the move
• Gleaming with dew
• A spectacle of splendor
• The art of flight
• A mosaic in motion
• A phantom of beauty
• Caressing the flowers
• A beacon of transformation
• Veiled in mystery
• A symphony of colors
• The spirit of the garden
• A masterpiece of evolution
• Fluttering heartbeats of color
• A harbinger of change
• Draped in the spectrum
• The essence of delicacy
• A dance of shadows and light
• An echo of summer
• A burst of color in the air
• The language of the breeze
• A jewel of the sky

How to Describe a Butterfly in a Poem

Describing a butterfly in a poem involves more than just listing characteristics.

I’s about evoking emotions, invoking imagery, and capturing the ephemeral nature of the butterfly’s existence.

Here are some tips on how to weave butterflies into your poetry:

• Use vivid imagery : Employ descriptive language that appeals to the senses. Describe the color, texture, and movement of the butterfly’s wings, and the way light plays off them.
• Incorporate metaphors and similes : Butterflies are perfect subjects for metaphors and similes, symbolizing transformation, beauty, and the fleeting nature of life.
• Embrace emotion : Let the butterfly evoke emotions in the reader. This could be a sense of wonder, a feeling of serenity, or a pang of nostalgia for the transient beauty of life.
• Focus on movement : The unique flight patterns and grace of butterflies can be mirrored in the rhythm and flow of your poem. Use verbs and adverbs that capture the butterfly’s dance.
• Invoke the setting : Place the butterfly within a rich setting—be it a garden, a meadow, or a forest. This context can add depth and texture to your poem.

By blending these elements with your unique voice, you can create a poem that captures the essence of a butterfly in a way that resonates deeply with readers.

Here’s a brief example to inspire:

In the garden’s heart, a whisper flits— A brush of wings, a drift of dreams, Where dappled light through leaves permits A dance of hues, a spectrum gleams.

With every flutter, every sway, A tale of change, of life’s rebirth, In vibrant splendor, they convey The fleeting beauty found on Earth.

Final Thoughts: How to Describe a Butterfly in Writing

Now that you know how to describe butterflies, your writing can truly take flight.

For more on writing, check out our many other articles about describing, characters, and more.

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Smithsonian (Information on Butterflies)

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19,890 quotes, descriptions and writing prompts, 4,964 themes

butterfly - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

• caterpillar
• first day of spring
• spring flowers
• Spring to summer

Butterfly of heartbeat flutter, of summery-song and sweet-memories' serenade, enjoy these days of heady wonder and pay no mind to winters bite.

Then came a bouquet of butterflies, wings of bright tempest scales, that rained unseen to blossoms sprung.

Black veins upon butterfly wings are the perfect hue to accompany such sunny golds.

A marriage of browns upon velvet wings gives the butterfly safe harbour in my fondest memories.

In aromatic spring air comes the dance of the white butterfly.

The butterfly sat upon her finger with wings of black and gold, the colours blending and swirling as playful waves upon night sands.

If ever there was magic powder, it was that iridescent glow of the butterfly wings. It casts a spell on these eyes so that my soul is brought into the moment with a fullness. I feel as if my thoughts were more tuned in somehow, as if I were a radio that's found a frequency that is both more calm and more intense all at once. That instant of seeing those petal-wings brings a serenity that holds me as if in some universal camera flash.

The butterfly, flower of the sky, dances by in a whirl of colour. She is born to fly from her cocoon, to bring a beauty so delicate into the warming summer air. As sweet as the nectar she seeks, she raises her wings as an organic clock, each flutter a moment until her time of rest.

The butterfly is a rose on a beach; she is the life amid so much sky. She swims into the air, letting it eddy beneath her wings, curling in the sweetest of swirls. I watch her pass, fast despite her erratic path, choosing her direction by a silent serenade of the blooms.

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45+ ‘Butterfly’ Writing Prompts

The Life of a Caterpillar

Describe the life cycle of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.

Flight of the Butterfly

Write an exciting story about a butterfly who is on a journey to find a specific flower.

Life Cycle Chronicles

Write a story about a day in the life of a butterfly, from a caterpillar’s perspective.

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Compare who you were at the start of the year to who you are now, akin to a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly.

Life of a Butterfly

Write a story from the perspective of a butterfly from caterpillar to transformation.

A Thousand Threads

Construct a saga where several characters from different backgrounds converge by the end.

Emerging from the Cocoon

Write a story about the life cycle of a butterfly from the butterfly’s perspective.

Journey of the Monarchs

Write about your journey as a Monarch butterfly migrating for the fall.

Temporal Healing

Write about a protagonist who travels back in time to fix a regretful moment in their past.

The Butterfly Effect

Write a story about the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly.

The Accidental Fulfiller

Write a story about a character who, unknowingly, is fulfilling a long-forgotten prophecy.

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Write a step-by-step explanation of the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly.

Rewrite History

Choose a historical event and reimagine it with a speculative element, such as alien intervention or time travel.

Imagine you’re a budding entomologist tasked with watching a butterfly from caterpillar stage to winged creature. Write about the changes you observe.

Space-Time Slip

You accidentally find a device that transports you to different timelines. Write about your time-travel adventure.

Blooming Encounters

Describe a moment of interaction between a particular animal and a blooming flower in spring.

Chasing Butterflies

Narrate an adventure through a garden in pursuit of a butterfly.

Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Write a detailed and informative essay on the lifecycle of a butterfly.

The Unintended Consequence

Design a scenario where the main character’s minor decision leads to massive unforeseen consequences.

Brief Butterfly Effect

Tell a story that traces the impact of a minor event on a character’s life in 150 words.

Innocent Assassin

Write about a character who, unbeknownst to them, carries out an action that drastically alters another’s life.

Parallel Possibilities

Imagine if a pivotal decision you made in life was made differently – how would your life look now?

Write out the life cycle of a butterfly in your own words, providing detailed explanations of each stage.

If you could change one small event from your past, what would it be and why?

Lifetime of a Butterfly

Narrate the lifecycle of a butterfly from a first-person perspective.

Friendship Between Bee and Butterfly

Imagine a story of a unique friendship between a bee and a butterfly.

Butterfly Transformation

Write about a caterpillar’s transformation into a butterfly.

Butterfly Journey

Write a story about a butterfly’s migration journey.

Write a fictional piece about a time when a small environmental act had a huge global impact.

Fairy Wings – Butterfly’s Tale

Create a fairy tale around a unique symbiosis between a fairy and a butterfly.

Caterpillar To Butterfly

Write about the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, from the viewpoint of a caterpillar.

Magical Four-Leaf Clover

What would you do if you found a four-leaf clover that granted a single wish?

The Temporal Love Letter

Your ship can use time travel to send letters, but not people, into the past.

Caterpie’s Big Dreams

Write about a caterpie’s aspirations to become a beautiful butterfly pokemon and its transition to a metapod.

The Time-Turner Dilemma

Imagine you have a Time-Turner like Hermione. What past situation would you like to change and how would it affect your present?

Social Butterfly’s Impact

Describe an incident where your social skills had a positive impact on someone.

Decoding Past Decisions

Write about a decision you made in the past that seemed small at the time, but turned out to have a significant impact on your life.

The Beauty in Diversity

Compare your body to a natural feature or creature in nature.

Intimate Encounter with Nature

Describe a private, personal interaction with a natural element – a flower, a stream, a butterfly, a blade of grass.

Paradox Pathway

Concoct a sci-fi story involving time travel where the plot twist reveals a paradox.

Alternate Reality

Your character wakes in an alternate reality.

Unattended Consequences

Consider a split-second decision you made, and imagine how that decision drastically changed your life (for better or worse).

Catastrophic Consequences

Tell a story about a character who makes a seemingly insignificant decision that leads to disastrous results.

Generational Journey

Describe the life and migration cycle of an animal that travels long distances during its lifetime.

A Life Reborn

Describe a metamorphosis or transformation experience from an animal’s perspective.

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Butterfly Writing Templates: Extra Large Butterfly Creative Writing Projects

Butterfly Writing Templates: Engage your students in fun creative writing activities!

Butterfly Creative Writing Templates: Extra Large Butterfly Projects

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Caterpillar writing templates: matching teaching resource set, click here to go: caterpillar story writing templates, click here to go to caterpillar writing templates page, related teaching resources, butterfly and caterpillar book report project templates, colorful butterfly project (#1).

For this first butterfly book report project, students find examples of colorful elements in their stories: colorful verbs , colorful adjectives , colorful characters , and colorful plot . The colorful caterpillar book report below matches this butterfly book report.

Project Measurements: Width = 14 inches Height = 14 inches

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Story Elements Butterfly (#2)

For this second butterfly book report project, students write about the main elements of their books: setting, characters, plot, solution, conclusion, and illustration. The story elements caterpillar book report below matches this butterfly book report.

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Colorful Caterpillar Project (#1)

For this first caterpillar book report project, students find examples of colorful elements in their stories: colorful verbs , colorful adjectives , colorful characters , and colorful plot . The colorful butterfly book report above matches this caterpillar book report.

Project Measurements: Width = 30 inches Height = 9 inches

Click below for more information about: Caterpillar Book Report Projects #1

Story Elements Caterpillar (#2)

For this second caterpillar book report project, students write about the main elements of their books: setting, characters, plot, solution, conclusion, and illustration. The story elements butterfly book report above matches this caterpillar book report.

Click below for more information about: Caterpillar Book Report Projects #2

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Butterfly - Story Starters (Spring)

This Butterfly story starter is a creative writing prompt that kids can do for Spring. Story Starters are creative writing prompts to help kids develop their creative writing skills. Creative writing focuses on self-expression and teaches kids the basic rules of language.

This Story Starter page is a printable activity that makes story writing fun for kids.

Name: __________________________

Flap! Flap! Flap! A butterfly fluttered outside my window

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Spring butterfly writing activity.

This Spring Butterfly Craft Activity is a creative end of the school year spring activity or novel study for elementary students. 

I look forward to sharing this craft project with my students every year, and every year I’m  amazed  at my students’ creative ideas.

We all know students love creative, artistic craft projects – and when you can combine creativity with writing lessons – kids learn.

These butterflies look incredible hanging in the hall or on bulletin boards. They’re the perfect way to decorate your classroom for spring.

This spring writing activity works well for whole class large group learning but can also be used for station work, centers, free time, morning work, or independent work for fast finishers.

Figurative Language Butterflies

One option included with the butterfly craft set is the Figurative Language Butterfly. It’s easy to create with your class and a simple way to refresh students’ memories about figurative language. There’s a place for a definition, an example, and room for students to draw a picture.

When my class makes them, I write the definitions on the board for students to copy. Then, we brainstorm examples of figurative language being discussed and even create some of our own. Finally, I challenge my more capable students to find figurative language examples online or create their own.

Then, students get even more creative when they draw pictures representing their favorite example. I’m always amazed at how incredibly creative and innovative our students are.

The picture above features butterflies that were decorated with highlighters. They look exceptionally bright, fun, and cheerful.

You could challenge students to use figurative language based on the  spring season  or  Mother’s Day  (if you want to use this as a gift).

Differentiation

The butterfly writing activity is easy for students to make, and differentiated lessons are a snap. One idea is to work on one butterfly section each day, which works exceptionally well for students who move slower or require more in-depth teaching.

This spring writing activity works well for fast finishers and can be completed as station work, free time, morning work, or independent work. 

Once they’re finished, these butterflies will make decorating your classroom super easy. And they look incredible!

I’d  LOVE  to see how your students decorate their butterflies!

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Home — Essay Samples — Science — Zoology — Butterfly

Essays on Butterfly

Examples of thesis statements for different types of essays on butterflies:, analytical essay:.

1. "The metamorphosis of a butterfly serves as a compelling analogy for personal transformation, illustrating themes of growth, adaptation, and rebirth."

2. "The migration patterns of Monarch butterflies are intricate and strategically brilliant, showcasing the species' incredible resilience and adaptability."

Argumentative Essay:

3. "Conservation efforts for butterflies are critical, not merely for the species themselves, but for entire ecosystems that depend on them for pollination and balance."

4. "Climate change poses a severe and immediate threat to butterfly populations worldwide, impacting their migration patterns, lifecycles, and survival rates."

Expository Essay:

5. "The life cycle of a butterfly, consisting of four distinct stages – egg, larva, pupa, and adult – exemplifies one of the most remarkable transformations in the animal kingdom."

6. "Butterflies play a crucial yet often overlooked role in pollination, contributing significantly to the health of ecosystems and human agriculture."

Compare and Contrast Essay:

7. "While butterflies and moths appear similar at first glance, they possess distinct differences in their behavior, anatomy, and life cycles that set them clearly apart."

8. "The migration patterns of Monarch butterflies in North America and Painted Lady butterflies in Europe present intriguing similarities and differences in terms of distance, duration, and survival strategies."

Descriptive Essay:

9. "The vibrant colors and patterns of butterfly wings are not merely for show; they serve critical functions including mate attraction, thermoregulation, and predator avoidance."

10. "The Monarch butterfly’s annual migration is a breathtaking spectacle, a journey of thousands of miles from North America to Central Mexico that is one of nature’s most astonishing phenomena."

Essay on Butterflies

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The Butterfly Effect

"When the monarchs hang clustered together, paralyzed by the cold, they are clasped to each other, holding the heat between them. They wait for the sun to warm them."

[Metamorphosis] It was cold in Maine. Cold. And the snow was heaped in dirty piles on the side of the road. And the sidewalks were icy. And it got dark at 4:30 in the afternoon.

It was the dead of winter, and I wanted out, so I flew to California—to Pacific Grove, aka Butterfly Town, USA, to see the monarchs. It was a journey home, really, though I had never been there.

I grew up in a box-shaped house on a well-manicured lawn in the suburbs of a mid-sized Canadian city in Ontario. Across the road and abutting the river was a patch of city land, untended, wild, a field of tall grasses flecked with milkweed and Queen Anne’s lace. There, I discovered my first monarch caterpillar. I was 9 years old, and I had never seen anything like it. Boldly ringed in concentric stripes—black, yellow and white—it was stretched out on a milkweed leaf, eating. I plucked it off, held it in my hand, touched it with my fingers. Its skin was smooth, leathery. It did not roll up in a ball. It did not seem afraid. Docile. I broke off the milkweed near the top and carried my find home.

I scoured the fields in search of more. I filled jars with milkweed and caterpillars. I pounded nail holes in the lids. I spent hours watching them.

They ate voraciously. I could see their mandibles working. I could see the chunks they took out of the leaves, bite by bite. They grew fast, and before I knew it, they were climbing to the lids of their jars. They spun small mounds of silk and attached themselves to the mounds and hung there in the shapes of J’s for a long, long time. And then, when the moment was right, they split the skins on their backs, wrestled with themselves and turned inside-out, and, suddenly, there they were, something wholly different: an emerald green chrysalis with little golden flecks and a gold crown.

Miraculous.

They would hang for days, for what seemed like forever, and nothing changed. And then one day, I could see the darkening. The butterfly was forming. Soon, I could see the outline of a wing. The orange. The black veins. The white polka dots.

The waiting for what would come next. … It seemed interminable.

I didn’t want to miss it.

[Migration] When a monarch butterfly sets off on its journey to its winter destination, it does not have to pay a $100 fee because its suitcase is 25 pounds over the limit. It does not have to take off its shoes, its watch, its coat and scarf, in case of bombs. It does not have to put its carry-ons in the overhead compartment or under the seat in front of it. It does not have to watch the flight attendant demonstrate how to put on a seatbelt or an oxygen mask. It does not worry about going down. It does not worry.

It’s 11 degrees Fahrenheit and a cold, clear day when my flight departs, and it’s hard to imagine what a monarch does experience on its own winged migration. It experiences, certainly, the view. It experiences a silence I cannot imagine. It experiences, I think, a certain peace, a free tilting. It knows nothing but how to ride the waves of the wind.

It is the opposite of me, crammed here in the stale air of this “Freedom Air” Embraer EMB-45.

[Habitat] I have a carbon filter mask. If I were to give it a name, I think it would have a male name. Tom. Something strong and protective.

My mask is battleship gray. It shields me from perfumes and colognes, air fresheners, cleaning products, pesticides, fumes from fresh paint. I carry it in a baggie in my purse, and I take it out now, on this airplane, and strap it on.

I wear it when I can feel the headache coming on. When it hits, it feels as though my brain has swollen inside the cradle of my scalp. A fog rolls in. My capacity to juggle a number of thoughts at once, an ability most people take for granted, dwindles. It alarms me when this happens, when my brain gives way.

I have it easy compared to some people. I know people who suffer seizures when exposed to chemicals. Closed airways, joint and muscle pain, nausea, insomnia, disabling fatigue. Panic attacks, mood swings. I know people who could never hazard the bad air on planes. Some of them live in ceramic trailers in the deserts of Arizona. Some of them are homeless; they live in their cars or tents. They can’t find anyplace safe to breathe. They can’t find habitat.

We call ourselves “canaries in the coal mine.” We have multiple-chemical sensitivity, and our numbers are growing.

[Butterfly Town, USA] Everywhere, all over the little town of Pacific Grove, population 15,522, there are butterflies. And not only the real live fluttering kind: There’s a monarch emblem in bas-relief on the Chamber of Commerce plaque hanging at the Butterfly Grove Inn; there are 22 wooden monarchs of various sizes adorning the town’s Shell station; even the bakery’s cookies come in the shape of monarch butterflies. This place, this magical little place, is indeed Butterfly Town, USA.

I did not know, when I was 9 years old, that it would come to this. I didn’t know that the magic would stay with me, all these 30 odd years. That I would fly across the country to see the monarchs. That I would finally—or ever—get to see the overwintering monarchs clinging together in their clusters of thousands.

[Torpor] When the monarchs hang clustered together, paralyzed by the cold, that is called “torpor.” They are clasped to each other, holding the heat between them. They wait for the sun to warm them. You wouldn’t know they are so beautiful, hanging in the trees like dead leaves. Wings closed, their brilliance is disguised. They wait for the mercury to hit 55 degrees, and then they open their orange wings to the sun. Some of them flutter aloft; others stay together, warm and close in their safe clusters. They cleave to each other like family, like best friends, like a community.

The earliest record of the monarchs in Pacific Grove dates back to 1875, the year the town was established as a Methodist resort, when several hundred people first assembled there in worship. But as far as anybody knows, monarchs have been migrating to Pacific Grove for thousands of years. It is their home.

As recently as 1997, there were 65,000 monarchs overwintering in a little 2.7-acre grove of eucalyptus trees behind the Butterfly Grove Inn. When I am there in early January 2008, however, we count only 4,000. It is a bad year for monarchs.

In fact, annual counts show the monarch populations all over California in a rapid downward spiral. What is happening to the monarchs? Why are their numbers plummeting?

[The Butterfly Lady] In 1987, Ro Vaccaro was a high-powered secretary at a high-powered law firm in Washington, D.C. She could type 130 words a minute. She typed for four lawyers and answered the phone for nine. She made a good living. 

But four years earlier, Ro had been diagnosed with lupus, and her symptoms—joint pain, sensitivity to touch and depression, to name a few—were flaring. It had gotten so bad she had to wear braces on one arm and one leg to get around, to keep going. The stress was aggravating her symptoms. She worked in a 12-story building, and she was thinking of jumping off it.

One day, her sister Beverly called. Beverly knew how butterflies buoyed her sister. Twelve years earlier, at an estate auction, Ro had found her first butterfly—in the shape of a beautiful pin. She was in the middle of a divorce at the time, and she told Beverly, “I feel better just holding it.” In that moment, Ro Vaccaro was transformed.

So when Beverly learned of the Pacific Grove monarchs, she called her sister and suggested they make a pilgrimage.

That October, the sisters found themselves celebrating the butterflies’ return with the rest of the town at its annual Butterfly Parade, a Pacific Grove tradition since 1939. There were all the kindergarteners decked out in their bright orange monarch wings. There were all the town’s children dressed in costume, marching down Lighthouse Road. There were the school marching bands, the baton twirlers. Monarch cookies! Monarch cinnamon rolls! There were all the happy people, celebrating the return of the monarchs.

Ro was touched by the magic.  She knew she needed to come back to this place.

A year later, she did just that. And when she looked up into the butterfly trees, she told her sister it was like a cathedral. Later, she wrote, “They are nature’s stained-glass windows, flying high between us and the sun.”

She found a job there and took a $10,000 cut in pay. Appointing herself Pacific Grove’s first butterfly docent, she joined a small cluster of monarch aficionados, and, together, they organized Friends of the Monarchs, an education and advocacy group. Many years later, one February, she told a National Public Radio (NPR) reporter her story (which you can hear for yourself at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4498763):

I surprised even myself by sending my letter of resignation by Federal Express. I said, ‘Consider my two-week vacation your two-week notice. I’m moving to live with the butterflies.’ And I did. As you can see, there’s no brace on my leg, there’s no brace on my arm, and I haven’t wiped this silly grin off my face since I got here.

[Migration] How do they know where to go? How is it that they trace the same route, the great-great-great-grandchildren, year after year, and end up in the selfsame trees? Scientists have found 40 genes that help monarchs use the sun as a compass to guide them to warmer climes. Still, it seems to me there is mystery in it.

It’s possible that some of the monarchs I raised as a girl migrated down the coast and all the way to Mexico. East Coast monarchs flock to Mexico by the millions, as they have for thousands of years. Until recently, only the Mexican locals knew about the magnificent “magic circles” where the butterflies overwinter. There, millions of monarchs hang from the oyamel firs—Latin name: “Abies religiosa.”

They fly about 12 miles per hour, 46 miles a day and as high as 4,000 feet. They migrate as far as 2,200 miles. In early November, millions of monarchs stream into Mexico.

On Nov. 2, my birthday, Mexicans celebrate “Dia de los Muertos,” Day of the Dead, honoring friends and relatives who have passed on. In Michoacán, where the monarchs come to roost, the locals say the spirits of their beloved return in the shape of bright, fluttering butterflies.

The locals call the butterflies “las palomas,” which translates as “the doves” or, according to Robert Pyle in “Chasing Monarchs,” as “the souls of lost children.”

[Diapause] There are approximately 200 roosting sites along the coast of California. None of them attracts the millions of monarchs that the Mexican sites see. One or two may count as many as 100,000 in a good year. Pacific Grove averages 20,000. The monarchs cluster there for five months, arriving in time to be fêted at the annual butterfly parade, then mating and departing around Valentine’s Day. These butterflies live as long as eight months, much longer than the summer generations, which enjoy the bright flowers and summer breezes for a mere four or five weeks. They are in a state of diapause, these migrating monarchs: Their reproductive functions are switched off. They are conserving their energy. They are waiting for the right moment.

Around Valentine’s Day, as milkweed starts poking through the earth north and east of Pacific Grove, something changes in the small enclave where the monarchs have spent the winter. The butterflies come to life. There’s energy in the air.

Here is how Ro Vaccaro, the Butterfly Lady, described it on the Valentine’s Day 2005 NPR broadcast:

They chase in spirals up into the sky, and there are chases going on all over the grove as the male butterflies try to choose their Valentine sweethearts. And when he finds the girl that he thinks would be just perfect, he zooms in front of her, and he sprinkles her with this wonderful perfume, and she is just dazzled. And he grabs her in midair with his feet, and so, like a little maple seed, they come twirling down out of the sky. He strokes her body, and then he puts his head right down next to hers, and it looks just like he’s whispering sweet things in her ear. But he’s going to trick her. He stands on his head and flips her, and if he does it correctly, he’ll have the abdomens aligned, which is the only way he can make the connection. Then she becomes very docile, and she folds her wings together. He runs two or three steps. He lifts her up underneath his body, and he carries her all the way up to the top of the trees where they’ll be the warmest, and they’ll stay together till the sun comes up the next morning.

[Chrysalis] One day this past summer, at the park where I take my dog, I spotted a monarch fluttering around a milkweed plant. I stopped and watched. The butterfly dropped down to the top leaf, touched the tip of her abdomen to it and then flew off. I bent over the leaf and beheld something I had never seen in all my years of monarchs: an egg, gleaming like a small gem.

The butterflies lay them one at a time—400 in all—on milkweed all along the migration route north. They mate repeatedly. Each egg is sired by the female’s most recent mate. Each is fertilized only when she deposits it on a milkweed leaf. Only milkweed. Nothing else will do.

When the caterpillar hatches, three to seven days later, it is 1/25th of an inch long. Tiny. Its first meal is the egg it comes from. Then, the fine, hairlike filaments of the milkweed. Finally, as soon as it is large enough, it begins its leaf-feast. It eats and eats. It’s as though the monarch caterpillar were born to eat. It grows 2 inches in two weeks, fattens to 2,700 times its birth weight. It outgrows its skin four or five times and molts to accommodate its expanding girth.

And then, one day, it is time. Who knows how the caterpillar decides? It attaches a little silk fastener to the underside of a leaf. It pierces the silk with its “cremaster”—a small, hooklike appendage at the end of its body—and wriggles hard to make sure the connection will hold. It hangs … still … in the shape of a J, and then, when the moment is right, it splits the skin on its back, miraculously transforming itself into an emerald green chrysalis with a crown of gold.

[Mystery] What happens inside a chrysalis?

One day, I decided to find out. Nine years old and aching with curiosity, I took one of my chrysalides to the side of the house and set it down on a large rock. I held it gently with my thumb and forefinger as I cut into it with my jackknife.

No butterfly, no caterpillar: just black ooze.

I’d made black ooze out of something that could have become a butterfly.

What I didn’t know, what I was trying to find out, was what Kathryn Lasky describes in her lovely little book, “Monarchs”: “The body of the caterpillar melts away into a solution of transforming cells and tissues.”

Something magical happens inside.

[Eclosion] It hangs, this gem of nature, for nine to 15 days. When it is almost ready, the “imago,” or butterfly, can be seen in outline. The orange wing, the black veins, the white spots—they darken. The chrysalis is now translucent.

Finally, one day, in one small moment, the butterfly breathes. Its intake of air splits the chrysalis open. This is called “eclosion,” when the butterfly emerges from its chrysalis. It hangs there, stunned, perhaps, by its new form. The world looks different through its new eyes. Its abdomen is fat with hemolymph, which it pumps through the veins into its wings.

[Flight] A 9-year-old girl is closer to the ground. She sees things up close. She watches. She waits for miracles to happen. And sometimes, when she is really lucky, she witnesses one with her very own eyes. The chrysalis cracks open. The monarch, fat and wet and crumpled, bursts into the world.

A 9-year-old girl takes the time to lie down on the burnt orange rug in her parents’ living room, holding the new monarch on her finger above her. It clings to her. It hangs, drying. Her arm gets tired, but still, she holds the butterfly aloft. She wants to watch its wings unfurl. She wants to see its abdomen slim. She wants to watch it get strong.

When it starts to open and close its wings, it is almost ready for flight. The girl stands up. The butterfly clings to her hand. Carefully, gently, she walks out of the living room, pushes the screen door open, carries her monarch to the middle of her weedless, grassy yard. She holds her hand out to the sky.

She expects the monarch to fly away in an instant, glad to be set free. But it clings to her hand for a long time, opening and closing its wings, waiting. And then, suddenly, it lets go. It lifts itself up into the blue sky and flutters off into the distance and out of sight, leaving the girl down below with her hand over her brow, shielding her eyes from the sun.

[Microclimate] Ro Vaccaro decided the butterflies needed an advocate. So, she began showing up at city council meetings, using the three-minute public comment period to talk about the butterflies. Soon, everybody was calling her the “Butterfly Lady.” It was here, at these meetings, that she first laid eyes on Mrs. Edna Dively, the woman who owned the Butterfly Grove Inn and the land beside it—the magical place where the monarchs roosted every year. Mrs. Dively was fighting for permission to develop her property. She wanted to build houses and an apartment building. And one day in 1989, the city granted her wish.

Mrs. Dively swore that she had no intent to take down the butterfly trees, that she would build around them. But Ro Vaccaro was dubious. Any change in the microclimate might make the monarchs decide the grove was no longer fit for their needs.

So Ro Vaccaro set about to stop Mrs. Dively.

[Chrysalides] I can’t help it. When I see milkweed, I look for monarch caterpillars. And when I find them, my heart leaps with that familiar joy and excitement, and the impulse to take them home is too strong to deny. One year, long before I flew to California to see the monarchs, I found three caterpillars in the park and brought them home. Despite all my best intentions, I killed every one. Each died in a different stage of metamorphosis. The first, a caterpillar, got sluggish and simply stopped eating. The second died with only a little triangle of green on its back where the splitting had begun. I found it, finally, hanging vertically, its J depleted: done. It simply didn’t have the strength to complete the transformation. The last died in chrysalis. It simply turned black. No orange of the wings, just black, and finally, I gave up waiting and took it outside, laid it in a pile of brush.

The next year, I found two caterpillars munching away on separate leaves of the same milkweed. My heart leapt. Then I hesitated. What if I had become, somehow, an angel of death for monarchs? I should not take these caterpillars, I thought.

I uprooted the entire milkweed and brought it, and them, home.

What could it be? What was killing my monarchs? Was it my loss of innocence—the simple fact of my adulthood—that left me incapable of supporting the magic to completion? Or was it something more sinister?

I built a screened cage for them. I avoided city milkweed. I doted. A few days later, both caterpillars hung themselves in J’s and turned into green chrysalides. I waited. I waited. And once again, the chrysalides turned black.

[Memorabilia] She saved monarch memorabilia the way a mother saves all of her firstborn’s artwork and school assignments. Boxes and boxes of letters, handouts and newspaper clippings. If it had to do with the monarchs of Pacific Grove, Ro Vaccaro put it in a box and kept it.

“I wear a butterfly every day, at least somewhere—but usually multiple butterflies,” she told the NPR reporter.  “I have a butterfly watch, butterfly earrings, butterflies on my shoes and socks.”

She had monarchs on her hat, monarch pins and buttons and patches on her coat. She decorated her house with them. The walls, the pillows, the rugs, the shower curtain. And she blazoned her car with bumper stickers about saving them.

Ro Vaccaro, the Butterfly Lady of Pacific Grove, lived and breathed monarch butterflies.

[Breathing] My other mask—my special occasion mask—is a flowery, lacy affair, skin-toned, with a little rose appliqué by its left strap. Feminine. Or as feminine as a fume-deterring mask can be.

It’s not any better, really, this flowery, lacy mask. What I really want is a mask bearing an appliquéd symbol that stands for “your toxic products are making me sick.” It would be nice if the symbol could point out, too, that 62,000 chemicals used in the United States have never been tested for safety. That we are human guinea pigs. That while we think our government would surely protect us from egregious toxins, we are wrong.

But what would that symbol look like?

If I have to wear something that makes me stand out in a crowd, I’d rather it not be something that stands for “crazy” (think Michael Jackson) or “communicable” (think SARS). I want people to know that this mask isn’t about me so much as it is about us.

[The Butterfly Grove Inn] The Butterfly Grove Inn is a pink motel nestled right next to the stand of eucalyptus trees where the monarchs have been overwintering for generations. In the lobby, someone has cut out a newspaper article about the monarchs and posted it on Bristol board next to the front desk. There are butterfly pins and postcards for sale. I buy an extra-long postcard depicting, in five photographs, the stages of metamorphosis. I have arrived at dusk, too late to find the monarchs.

I have always loved motels. The thrill of opening the door. Fresh space. But my love for an empty motel room comes fraught, now, with doubt and anxiety. Will the room be safe? Or will it be toxic?

I swing the door open and take a whiff. Inside, the walls are painted beige, and framed photo prints of waterfalls hang over the two beds. The room smells fresh at first sniff. But is that chemical fresh or clean-air fresh?

I drag my big suitcase through the door. Inside my head, the alarms begin to sound. Get out! Get out! The air is not good. But I have paid to stay the night at the Butterfly Grove Inn. There’s nothing to do but open the window and let in the cold, clean air. The room is frigid. I put an extra blanket on the bed. The brain fog rolls in; the glands in my throat swell; I’m rubbing my eyes. The headache is on its way. Cleaning products, must be.

[The Butterfly Effect] In the 1960s, meteorologist Edward Lorenz made a discovery that would change the way we view the world. He found that even minute discrepancies between two starting points could produce vastly disparate outcomes. For instance, if a little boy took two identical balls to the top of a hill and released one just a fraction of an inch away from where he let go of the other, they would probably end up in two very different places. The scientific term for this was “sensitive dependence on initial conditions.” More poetically, it came to be known as “the Butterfly Effect,” and Lorenz suggested the possibility that something so seemingly innocuous as the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil could create changes in the atmosphere leading to something as momentous as a tornado in Texas.

What happens, then, when there are no butterflies left?

[Monsanto] Almost 50 percent of this country’s landmass is cultivated for agricultural purposes. Not so long ago, Midwestern corn and soybean fields furnished about half of the breeding grounds for the Eastern monarchs. No longer. Now, thanks to crops made “Roundup Ready” by genetic-engineering monolith Monsanto, 100 million acres of monarch habitat have been annihilated; milkweed has been virtually extirpated from American farmland.

Roundup, advertised on TV in mock-Old-West-style, with suburban “cowboys” wielding Roundup “guns” while a little boy rides past them on a bicycle, is the herbicide of choice not only for homeowners and public works departments, but also for farmers. “Roundup Ready” crops can withstand heavy doses of the herbicide, which kills most every plant it touches, including milkweed.

Over 18 million pounds of glyphosate—Roundup’s active ingredient—are sprayed annually on U.S. crops, sidewalks and yards. The “clean field” ideal of industrial monoculture farming—no weeds, no insects and no diseases, thanks to insecticides, herbicides and genetically engineered crops—is wiping out the monarch caterpillar’s only food source.

[Global Warming] California is heating up. Most areas in the country, in fact, are getting hotter. Insect ecologist Dr. Orley R. “Chip” Taylor, director of Monarch Watch—an educational outreach program whose mission is to create, conserve and protect monarch habitats—has demonstrated a correlation between rising temperatures in California and lower West Coast monarch populations.

Taylor reports that monarch numbers crash every time temperatures above 90 degrees combine with low water availability for a week or more. The hotter it gets, the shorter the lifespan of flowers, so nectar is less available. And while the need for water increases in hot weather, availability decreases. So monarch butterflies don’t live as long in the heat, and they lay fewer eggs. This is called “decreased realized fecundity,” and what it means is that populations take a nosedive.

Temperatures have increased 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1990 in the West and have been higher than normal for eight years in a row. Precipitation has declined 0.25 inches per decade.

I feel a weight in the pit of my stomach when I read these numbers.

[Deforestation] In 1976, a National Geographic article revealed, for the first time, the location of the East Coast monarchs’ Mexican hideaway. All of the East Coast monarchs, millions and millions of them, flock to the oyamel firs and other trees in seven to 12 sites (depending on the year), spread across the state of Michoacán’s Transvolcanic Mountains. But there is a problem: logging. Although 217 square miles of these mountains are now a designated Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR) and protected by government decree, still, at a rate of 2 percent to 5 percent a year, the trees keep coming down.

Illegal logging strips away the butterflies’ particular roost trees; it also puts gashes in the forest canopy. As Chip Taylor describes it, “These gaps are like holes in your winter coat, as far as the monarchs are concerned. They let in snow and rain, and the roosting monarchs are more vulnerable to freezing.” In 2002, millions of monarchs froze and dropped to the ground. Witnesses described wading through dead monarchs, knee deep.

Shortly after he took office in December 2006, Mexico’s new president, Felipe Calderon, promised to protect the MBBR, and in December 2007, the government conducted what amounted to the largest illegal-logging sweep ever seen in the vicinity of the Reserve. Nineteen sawmills and lumberyards were raided, and at least 45 people were arrested and charged. Logs and lumber from as many as 1,750 trees were confiscated.

Of course, those trees could not be taken back to the forest. And although the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico and the Michoacán Reforestation Fund have planted a combined total of more than 4.8 million trees over the past 10 years, even these aren’t enough to keep up with the rate of deforestation.

[Habitat] Every day in the United States, new subdivisions, malls, condominiums and parking lots consume 6,000 acres of natural habitat. This adds up to 2.2 million acres per year. At this rate, an area of habitat the size of Illinois is razed, then paved, every 16 years.

Soon, the butterflies will have nowhere to land.

[Waystations] Chip Taylor had an idea. It was a simple idea, really: If enough people would create way stations in their backyards or on their rooftops, then perhaps, despite the clear-cutting and the Roundup and the development, the monarch migration—one of the great natural phenomena of the world—might be saved.

The Monarch Waystation Program encourages people all over the country to create garden sanctuaries to sustain breeding and migrating monarchs. Monarch Watch sends starter kits that include seeds for six kinds of milkweed and six nectar plants favored by the butterflies. The nonprofit’s Web site, http://www.monarchwatch.org, also lists noninvasive milkweed-host varieties, as well as monarch nectar plants, including tithonia, cosmos and echinacea. Butterfly gardeners can register their way stations online and even order a weatherproof sign identifying their habitats as official Monarch Waystations.

Since the program was introduced in 2005, more than 4,000 Monarch Waystations have been registered.

“Loss of habitat is pinching all species,” says Taylor. “It’s hard to figure out how to help the larger species, but for the butterflies, there is something we can do. The individual citizen can do a lot.”

[Petition] She rallied the schoolchildren—that’s what Ro Vacarro did. She went into the schools and told the children about Mrs. Dively and the houses she wanted to build on the monarchs’ land. She handed out petitions and urged the children to take them door to door and get signatures. The Friends of the Monarchs also canvassed the town. They needed 6,000 signatures to get it—a resolution to stop the development, buy the land and grant permanent sanctuary to the monarchs—on the ballot.

And sure enough, one day, Ro Vaccaro strode into the town hall, bearing her pages of signatures. Next, she had to write a ballot bond and convince Pacific Grove’s voters to pass it. So the Friends of the Monarchs marched in that year’s annual Butterfly Parade, handing out “Vote Yes” flyers. Scholastic Review got wind of the butterflies’ plight and published a cover story about it, and students from all over the country sent letters in support of the monarchs. The story ran on the “CBS Evening News” and in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

In the end, the citizens of Pacific Grove voted to raise their own taxes. For what amounted to about $30 per person, per year, they purchased the $1.2 million plot of land.

Years later, Ro’s sister said, “The monarchs saved her. She was just returning the favor.”

[Convalescent] Her last two years as a docent at the sanctuary, the Butterfly Lady used a walker.

Finally, her body could no longer hold her. On top of lupus, diabetes, fibromyalgia and emphysema, Ro had contracted lymphoma. She had no choice but to move into a convalescent home.

That is where she was living when I first made contact with her friend Sharon Blaziek, head docent at the monarch sanctuary. Sharon told me Ro was in good spirits and would probably be delighted to do an interview once I got to Pacific Grove. I wrote Ro a letter, sent it by U.S. mail, told her I was on my way.

[“Lupus erythematosus”] The first part of the name, “lupus,” derives from the Latin for “wolf”; the second part, “erythematosus,” refers to the red rash that is a frequent symptom of the illness. This is also known as the “butterfly rash,” so called because it spreads across the bridge of the nose and over the cheeks in the shape of a butterfly’s open wings. For obvious reasons, Ro Vaccaro preferred the latter designation.

One day, at the convalescent home, she rolled up her sleeve and showed her sister a bruise. It was 2 inches wide and in the shape of a butterfly. “I’m so gung ho,” she said, “even my bruises come out like butterflies.”

[Monarch Madness] Nothing could stop Ro from joining the festivities at the annual “Monarch Madness” family fun day. That November, she secured an all-day pass from the nursing home. She refused to miss a moment of the fun—the butterfly storyteller, the 5 M’s band (“Mostly Mediocre Musical Monarch Mariposas”) singing butterfly lyrics to the songs of the ’60s and ’70s, the craft table and face painting, the monarch caterpillars and chrysalides on display, the milkweed seeds for sale.

She refused a chair. She stood all day—happy, talking butterflies.

[E-mail] Four days before I was to meet Ro Vaccaro, I got an e-mail from her friend Sharon Blaziek. Ro had died.

I slumped in my chair. The Butterfly Lady was gone.

[Tagging Monarchs] To tag a butterfly, you must first grasp it between your fingers, making sure you have a snug hold of the closed forewings as well as the hindwings. You hold the butterfly in your left hand, with the abdomen toward you. Your partner hands you a tiny, round sticker preprinted with a phone number and an ID. You place the tag on the underside of the right hindwing. You look for the small black dot of the scent gland that is in the vein of only the male’s hindwing, and you report the sex to your partner, who writes it down on the log. You note any damage to the wing, and she jots that down, too. Then you put the tagged butterfly in a paper bag and wait for the sun to rise above the trees.

I have arranged with Jessica Griffiths, wildlife biologist for California’s Ventana Wildlife Society—a nonprofit whose mission is to conserve native wildlife and their habitats—to spend the morning after my arrival with a handful of other volunteers who will count and tag monarchs in the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary. As a kid, I had dreamed of tagging my monarchs and releasing them so that when they fluttered around the house, I would know they were mine, and when they flew away for good, I would maybe someday know where they had gone.

At 8:00 a.m., I open the door to my room and step out into the cold, damp air. It is 48 degrees. It feels colder. I walk around the corner to the sanctuary walkway and hang a right. Most of the trees in the grove are eucalyptus trees, and their scent hangs heavy and rich in the air. I look up into the trees, searching for clusters. I have been told it is a bad year for monarchs. I see one cluster, two. There they are, way up in the highest branches, hanging quietly, waiting for the warmth to come.

A small knot of people stands watching as Jessica and an intern reach high up into the trees, using an unwieldy 10-meter telescoping pole with an attached net, collecting the torpid butterflies. Jessica is bundled up in a knit hat, a scarf and black mittens with pink butterflies on them. I introduce myself, and she pairs me up with Irene—a sanctuary docent for the past 11 years—and puts me to work. Irene and I are sitting on lawn chairs, and there is a paper bag between us. Inside are the sleepy butterflies.

When the thermometer hits the magical 55 degrees, some of the monarchs high up in the trees liberate themselves from their clusters and flutter around against the blue palette of the sky. Jessica gathers the bags of tagged butterflies and steps off the walkway. One by one, she picks the monarchs up by the wings and tosses them into the sky.

[Sanctuary] On Feb. 10, 2008, in a private nook of the monarch sanctuary, in the place that Ro Vaccaro had always described as a cathedral, a small cluster of people, about 30 in all, gathered to pay their last respects to the Butterfly Lady. It was a warm, sunny day, and the monarchs, just heading into their breeding season, were preparing to take off and head north to Canada and east to Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona.

As Sharon Blaziek read the memorial tribute to her friend, orange and black monarchs lit from the surrounding trees and fluttered and soared behind her for everyone to see.

Ro Vaccaro was a good Christian woman, but she had confided to her sister that she hoped to be reincarnated as a monarch.

“I told her to make sure it’s in September,” said Beverly, “so she can come here and tell these monarchs about the people.”

[Fresh Paint] My bags are checked, and I’m waiting for my flight home when a sharp taint suddenly permeates my consciousness. I turn around. Forty feet away, the maintenance man is painting, in vivid royal blue, the doorway to the jet-bridge. The headache starts behind my eyes. My brain fogs in.

I pick up my bags and lug them as far from the paint as I can get. But the fumes are everywhere. I stand up, look for somewhere to go. A little Japanese girl toddles up to me and grabs my legs in a bear hug. I can’t get away. There is nowhere to go.

[Susurrus] It is magic, this orange fluttering, this quiet fluttering. It is peaceful. Free. Surely, even the most cynical can’t help but feel it, watching. One finds oneself breathing deeply, from the belly, in the presence of it.

“A soft whispering or rustling sound: a murmur or whisper”—that is the dictionary definition of “susurrus.” It is the word used by entomologists to describe the sound of hundreds, thousands, millions of butterfly wings, suddenly bursting into flight.

Achingly beautiful. Thank you Achingly beautiful. Thank you.

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Learn Adjectives

Adjectives for Butterfly-Words For ButterFly

Butterfly is a beautiful creature which is often used to describe something or someone delicate, pretty, and graceful. Here are some other adjectives that can be used to describe a butterfly:

List of Adjectives For Butterfly | Describing Words For Butterfly

1. Delicate 2. Pretty 3. Graceful 4. Elegant 5. Feminine 6. Slender 7. Translucent 8. Fluttering 9. Soaring

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Adjectives for butterfly wings

1. Delicate 2. Pretty 3. Graceful 4. Elegant 5. Feminine 6. Slender 7. Translucent 8. Fluttering 9. Soaring 10. Gliding 11. Majestic 12. Playful

Words to describe a butterfly flying:

1. Soaring 2. Gliding 3. Majestic 4. Playful 5. Carefree 6. Free-spirited 7. Joyful 8. Vibrant 9. Exotic

Conclusion: Therefore, these are some of the adjectives which can be used for describing a butterfly. You can use these adjectives to describe the beauty of a butterfly or to describe someone who is like a butterfly in terms of their personality.

>>> Read Also:  ” Adjectives For Baby “

How to describe a butterfly in creative writing?

When describing a butterfly in creative writing, you can use adjectives such as delicate, pretty, graceful, elegant, feminine, slender, translucent, fluttering, and more. You can also use words to describe a butterfly flying such as soaring, gliding, majestic, playful, and carefree.

How to describe butterfly in a poem?

When describing a butterfly in a poem, you can use adjectives such as delicate, pretty, graceful, elegant, feminine, slender, translucent, fluttering, and more. You can also use words to describe a butterfly flying such as soaring, gliding, majestic, playful, and carefree.

How would you describe a blue butterfly?

A blue butterfly is a beautiful creature that is often used to describe something or someone delicate, pretty, and graceful. Other adjectives that can be used to describe a blue butterfly include: slender, translucent, fluttering, and more. You can also use words to describe a blue butterfly flying such as soaring, gliding, majestic, playful etc.

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25 Drawing Easy Butterfly Ideas to Unleash Your Creative Wings

Are you ready to embark on a colorful journey into the world of butterfly drawings? Whether you’re a budding artist or just looking for a relaxing hobby, drawing butterflies can be a delightful and fulfilling experience. 

In this article, we’ll explore a curated list of easy butterfly drawing ideas that are not only beginner-friendly but also allow you to spread your creative wings. So, grab your sketchbook and let’s get started with these drawing easy butterfly ideas!

1. The Classic Monarch Butterfly

Let’s begin with a timeless favorite – the Monarch butterfly. Known for its striking orange and black wings, the Monarch is a fantastic subject for beginners. Start by sketching its basic shape and then add intricate details to the wings. Don’t forget those delicate antenna!

2. The Whimsical Watercolor Butterfly

Watercolors can bring out the true beauty of butterflies. Try your hand at creating a whimsical watercolor butterfly by blending vibrant shades and experimenting with gradients. You’ll be amazed at the ethereal effect you can achieve.

3. The Abstract Butterfly

Abstract art enthusiasts, this one’s for you! Use bold strokes, vibrant colors, and unconventional shapes to craft an abstract butterfly. Let your imagination run wild and create a masterpiece that’s uniquely yours.

4. The Geometric Butterfly

Geometry meets nature in this intriguing concept. Design a butterfly using geometric shapes like triangles, squares, and circles. This fusion of art and mathematics can result in a visually captivating piece .

5. The 3D Butterfly Illusion

Give your butterfly drawing depth and dimension by creating a 3D illusion. Use shading techniques to make the butterfly appear as if it’s about to take flight from your paper. This is sure to leave a lasting impression.

6. The Botanical Butterfly

Combine your love for botany and art by drawing a butterfly amidst intricate floral patterns. This naturalistic approach allows you to incorporate various flowers and leaves, making your artwork come alive.

7. The Minimalist Butterfly

Sometimes, less is more. Embrace minimalism by drawing a simplified butterfly with clean lines and minimal details. This style can be both elegant and aesthetically pleasing.

8. The Butterfly Mandala

Mandalas are known for their intricate and symmetrical designs. Create a butterfly-inspired mandala using the butterfly’s shape as the central focus. This meditative art form can be incredibly therapeutic.

9. The Fantasy Butterfly

Let your imagination soar with a fantasy butterfly. Combine elements from your wildest dreams to craft a creature that’s enchanting and otherworldly. This is your chance to create a butterfly from a fairy tale.

10. The Origami Butterfly

Bring the art of origami into your drawing. Craft a butterfly with the simplicity and precision of origami folds. This unique approach will challenge your artistic skills and yield a stunning result.

11. The Butterfly Silhouette

Silhouettes can be captivating. Draw a butterfly in silhouette against a vibrant background. Experiment with different color combinations to make your butterfly pop.

12. The Butterfly in Flight

Capture the graceful motion of a butterfly in flight. Draw your butterfly mid-flap, with its wings spread wide. This dynamic pose adds a sense of movement to your artwork.

13. The Butterfly and Its Habitat

Expand your canvas to include the butterfly’s natural habitat. Draw a butterfly perched on a blooming flower, surrounded by lush greenery. This brings a story to your drawing.

14. The Cosmic Butterfly

Explore the cosmos by blending a butterfly with celestial elements like stars and galaxies. This cosmic butterfly will take your art to new dimensions, quite literally!

15. The Butterfly Portrait

Challenge yourself with a detailed butterfly portrait. Focus on capturing the intricate patterns and colors of a specific butterfly species. This is a great way to refine your skills.

16. The Glasswing Butterfly

Capture the transparent beauty of a glasswing butterfly. Focus on its intricate veined wings and the magical illusion of seeing through them.

17. The Butterfly Kaleidoscope

Create a kaleidoscope of butterflies, each with its unique colors and patterns. This mesmerizing composition will showcase a variety of butterfly species.

18. The Butterfly Dreamcatcher

Blend the symbolism of a dreamcatcher with the delicacy of butterflies. Imagine butterflies caught in the center of a dreamcatcher’s web, symbolizing the capture of dreams.

19. The Butterfly Constellation

Draw a butterfly constellation by connecting stars in the night sky to form the shape of a butterfly. Add your own celestial touch with shimmering stars and planets.

20. The Butterfly Life Cycle

Illustrate the incredible journey of a butterfly’s life cycle, from egg to caterpillar, chrysalis, and finally, a beautiful butterfly emerging.

21. The Butterfly Fashionista

Imagine a runway for butterflies, each flaunting its unique wing patterns like a high-fashion model. This idea combines nature and style for a fashionable twist.

22. The Butterfly Symphony

Draw a musical-themed butterfly with wings resembling musical notes and instruments. Celebrate the harmony of nature and music in this creative concept.

23. The Butterfly Mosaic

Craft a butterfly mosaic using various materials like paper, fabric, or even broken tiles. This tactile approach adds a dynamic and textured element to your artwork.

24. The Butterfly Collage

Collect images of different butterfly species from magazines or photographs and create a collage-style butterfly drawing. This idea lets you experiment with mixed media.

25. The Butterfly with Swirling Patterns

Draw a butterfly with wings that have swirling, hypnotic patterns. Experiment with lines and curves to create a mesmerizing effect.

The Evolution of Butterfly Drawing Styles

Scientific illustrations (17th – 19th century).

In the 17th to 19th centuries, butterfly drawings primarily served scientific purposes. Naturalists and explorers meticulously documented species with a focus on accuracy.

These illustrations featured intricate details, precise anatomy, and a lack of artistic embellishments.

They aimed to provide an accurate representation of the butterfly species, often for taxonomic and scientific classification

Naturalist and Realist Art (19th Century)

During the 19th century, naturalist and realist art styles emerged, which celebrated the detailed representation of butterflies in their natural habitats.

Artists aimed to capture the essence of butterflies while maintaining scientific precision. These drawings often featured lifelike depictions of butterflies amidst lush landscapes.

Art Nouveau (Late 19th – Early 20th Century)

Art Nouveau brought a shift in style. Characterized by flowing, organic lines and intricate designs, this movement influenced butterfly drawing.

Butterflies, often portrayed with decorative patterns and fluid shapes, became prominent symbols in Art Nouveau artwork, symbolizing transformation and the ephemeral nature of beauty.

Impressionism (Late 19th – Early 20th Century)

Impressionism introduced a new approach to butterfly drawing. Instead of strict realism, artists began to focus on capturing the essence and mood of butterflies.

They used loose brushwork and vibrant colors to depict the fleeting and atmospheric qualities of these creatures.

Surrealism (20th Century)

Surrealism introduced a sense of dreamlike and irrational imagery to butterfly drawings. Artists like Salvador Dali often incorporated butterflies into their works to represent the subconscious mind.

These drawings included distorted and imaginative depictions of butterflies, creating a sense of otherworldly beauty.

Contemporary and Abstract Interpretations (Late 20th Century – Present)

In contemporary art, butterfly drawing styles have diversified extensively. Many artists experiment with abstract representations, incorporating unconventional materials, colors, and forms to create unique interpretations. Butterflies are often used as symbols of transformation and freedom.

Digital Art (21st Century):

With the advent of digital art, butterfly drawings have taken on new dimensions. Artists use software to create intricate, detailed, and even animated butterfly art.

The digital medium allows for precise manipulation and exploration of various styles.

The evolution of butterfly drawing styles demonstrates the dynamic nature of art and the ever-changing relationship between art and science. Today, artists continue to draw inspiration from both the natural world and the boundless realm of creativity, ensuring that butterfly drawings remain a timeless and evolving form of artistic expression.

Easy Butterfly Drawings FAQ

1. do i need to be an experienced artist to try these drawing ideas.

Not at all! These ideas are designed to cater to artists of all skill levels, including beginners.

2. What materials should I use for butterfly drawings?

You can use pencils, watercolors, markers, or any medium you feel comfortable with. The choice is yours!

3. Can I create my own butterfly drawing ideas?

Absolutely! Feel free to use these ideas as a starting point and let your creativity flow to invent your unique butterfly drawings.

4. How can I improve my butterfly drawing skills?

Practice regularly, study butterfly anatomy, and seek inspiration from nature and other artists. Improvement comes with time and dedication.

5. Where can I showcase my butterfly drawings?

You can share your artwork on social media platforms and art websites, or even consider participating in local art exhibitions to showcase your talent.

Drawing butterflies offers endless possibilities for artistic expression. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced artist, these easy butterfly drawing ideas provide a wide range of options to explore. So, grab your pencils, brushes, or whatever medium you prefer, and start creating your own fluttering works of art.

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Stunning Butterfly Drawings: 21 Artworks to Inspire Your Creative Wings

March 15, 2024 October 25, 2023 | Dee

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Last Updated on March 15, 2024 by Dee

Unleash the fluttering beauty of nature with these 21 enchanting butterfly drawings, all designed to reignite your love for sketching! This specially curated collection celebrates the delicate and diverse world of butterflies, portraying the myriad patterns, shapes, and colors that make each one a flying masterpiece.

For this collection, we’ve delved into a myriad of butterfly inspirations, from the ethereal elegance of the Monarch the subtle allure of the Painted Lady, to the mesmerizing dance of the Swallowtail and everything in between.

And here’s a delightful bonus: be sure to journey to the end of the list to get your hands on my exclusive butterfly drawing templates, entirely on the house!

Whether you’re just starting out in your artistic endeavors or have years of sketching under your belt, these butterfly prompts are bound to infuse new life into your drawings and set your creativity aflutter!

Table of Contents

21 butterfly drawing ideas.

Butterflies are beautiful creatures that can be a great inspiration for artists. Here are 23 butterfly drawing ideas that you can try:

1. Butterfly Pencil Drawing

A butterfly pencil drawing is a classic way to capture the beauty of these creatures. You can use different shades of pencils to create a realistic-looking butterfly.

2. Sepia Butterfly Drawing

A sepia butterfly drawing is a great way to add a vintage touch to your artwork. You can use sepia ink or pencils to create a warm and earthy look.

3. Colorful Butterfly Drawing

A colorful butterfly drawing is perfect for those who love bright and bold colors. You can use markers, watercolors, or colored pencils to create a vibrant butterfly.

4. Whimsical Butterfly Drawing

A whimsical butterfly drawing is a fun and playful way to create artwork. You can use your imagination to create a butterfly with unusual patterns and shapes. This tutorial on YouTube shows you how to draw a whimsical butterfly.

5. Realistic Butterfly Drawing

A r ealistic butterfly drawing is perfect for those who want to create an accurate representation of these creatures. You can use reference images to create a detailed and lifelike butterfly.

6. Butterfly Wing Drawing

A butterfly wing drawing is a great way to focus on the intricate details of these creatures. You can use different shades of pencils or markers to create a beautiful and delicate wing.

7. Butterfly Mandala Drawing

A butterfly mandala drawing is a unique way to combine two popular art forms. You can create a mandala with a butterfly as the focal point.

8. Butterfly and Flower Drawing

A butterfly and flower drawing is a classic combination that can be a great inspiration for artists. You can use different colors and mediums to create a beautiful and harmonious artwork. This tutorial on YouTube shows you how to draw a butterfly and flower.

9. Butterfly Line Drawing

A butterfly line drawing is a simple but elegant way to create artwork. You can use a black pen or marker to create a clean and minimalist look.

10. Butterfly Silhouette Drawing

A butterfly silhouette drawing is a great way to create a dramatic and bold artwork. You can use a black marker or paint to create a striking contrast against a colorful background.

11. Butterfly Watercolor Painting

A butterfly watercolor painting is a beautiful and delicate way to create artwork. You can use different shades of watercolors to create a soft and dreamy look.

12. Butterfly Colored Pencil Drawing

A butterfly colored pencil drawing is a great way to create a detailed and colorful artwork. You can use different shades of colored pencils to create a vibrant and realistic butterfly.

13. Butterfly Chalk Drawing

A butterfly chalk drawing is a fun and playful way to create artwork. You can use different colors of chalk to create a bright and cheerful look.

14. Butterfly Digital Drawing

A butterfly digital drawing is a modern and innovative way to create artwork. You can use a digital drawing tablet and software to create a detailed and realistic butterfly.

15. Butterfly Zentangle Drawing

A butterfly Zentangle drawing is a unique and intricate way to create artwork. You can use different patterns and shapes to create a beautiful and complex butterfly.

16. Butterfly Charcoal Drawing

A butterfly charcoal drawing is a great way to create a dramatic and textured artwork. You can use different shades of charcoal to create a soft and smoky look.

17. Butterfly Pastel Drawing

A butterfly pastel drawing is a beautiful and delicate way to create artwork. You can use different shades of pastels to create a soft and dreamy look. This tutorial on YouTube teaches you how to draw a butterfly with pastels.

18. Butterfly Acrylic Painting

A butterfly acrylic painting is a vibrant and colorful way to create artwork. You can use different shades of acrylic paint to create a bold and expressive butterfly.

19. Butterfly Scratchboard Drawing

A butterfly scratchboard drawing is a unique and intricate way to create artwork. You can use a sharp tool to scratch away a layer of ink and reveal a contrasting layer underneath, creating a detailed and textured butterfly.

20. Butterfly Mosaic Drawing

A butterfly mosaic drawing is a fun and creative way to create artwork. You can use small colored tiles or paper to create a mosaic of a butterfly, adding texture and depth to your artwork.

21. Butterfly 3D Drawing

A butterfly 3D drawing is a modern and innovative way to create artwork. You can use a 3D pen or software to create a realistic and lifelike butterfly that appears to jump off the page.

Butterfly Drawing Tutorial

If you want to learn how to draw a butterfly, there are many resources available to help you like this gorgeous butterfly tutorial.

Here are some tips to get you started:

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

Before you start drawing, you will need to gather your materials. You will need paper, a pencil, an eraser, and any other drawing materials you prefer, such as markers or colored pencils.

Step 2: Choose a Reference Image

To help you draw a realistic butterfly, you should choose a reference image to work from. Look for images of butterflies that show the details of their wings and body.

Step 3: Start with Basic Shapes

To begin your drawing, start with basic shapes. Draw the body of the butterfly using a long oval shape. Then, draw two smaller ovals on either side of the body for the wings.

Step 4: Add Details

Once you have the basic shapes in place, you can start adding details. Draw the veins of the wings and add any patterns or colors that you want. You can also add antennae and legs to the butterfly’s body.

Step 5: Refine Your Drawing

Once you have all the details in place, you can refine your drawing. Use your eraser to remove any unwanted lines or smudges, and use your pencil to darken any lines that need to be more prominent.

With these steps, you should be able to draw a beautiful butterfly. Remember to practice regularly to improve your skills and try different techniques to find what works best for you.

Grab Your Free Butterfly Drawing Templates Here.

Use these 22 Free Butterfly Drawing Templates to practice your butterfly drawing, shading or coloring!

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Renting used to be a source of shame to this apartment manager’s daughter. Now it’s a knowing comfort

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I can barely remember a time when we didn’t live where we worked. Our first property manager job was for a 30-unit apartment building between Beverly Hills and Pico-Robertson. My parents didn’t speak English but got the job anyway because they knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy. There was an elementary school at the end of our magnolia tree-lined street that I couldn’t go to because the Beverly Hills School District allowed only Beverly Hills addresses. I would walk down the block to visit my friend (another apartment manager’s daughter) or to buy a sleeve of blue raspberry sour straws at the Blockbuster around the corner and hear children playing in the well-manicured school yard, but I never once saw an actual child. This was how I learned to perceive wealth in Los Angeles: near, but just out of reach.

Even at the age of 6 or 7 or 8, I knew that this was all temporary. Renting is inherently provisional, especially when you’re not actually paying rent. I made the most of it. While my mother cobbled together a career as a bookkeeper and my father assumed the role of both the maintenance guy and the manager of the building, I stole CDs from the mailroom, Rollerbladed in the slick oil-stained subterranean parking garage and belted Spice Girls lyrics in the emergency stairwell with my cousin until a tenant would open the door and find us there alone in the dark. I still own contraband from that time: someone’s copy of the “City of Angels” soundtrack. Inside our apartment, I shared a room with my parents. Our beds were butted up against each other, as they had always been.

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Before this job and this building we lived in a one-bedroom apartment in West Hollywood with brown shag carpet and a cardboard box as my toy chest. The apartment buildings on our block, once favored by up-and-coming movie stars and writer Eve Babitz, now were occupied by Eastern Europeans fleeing the collapse of the Soviet Union. “There comes a moment for the immigrant’s child when you realize that you and your parents are assimilating at the same time,” writes Hua Hsu in his memoir, “Stay True.” While I attended preschool at Plummer Park, my mother went to community college and my father painted houses for $5 an hour. Before the brown shag carpet, we slept on my aunt’s couch in Mid-City for six months. And before the couch, we lived in a brutalist Soviet government-issued apartment in Minsk, Belarus. From the beginning, my life was steeped in the impermanence of renting, which mirrored the impermanence of our immigrant experience.

All immigrants are opportunists. Or, at least all the ones I’ve encountered. They are keenly aware of how, at any moment, everything can change. “Immigration, exile, being uprooted and made a pariah may be the most effective way yet devised to impress on an individual the arbitrary nature of his or her own existence,” writes Serbian poet Charles Simic . With each move, I felt the arbitrary nature of our existence. And every time I translated a 30-day notice or drafted a memo and slipped it under a tenant’s door, I felt the pull of my parents’ ambition. “We came here for you.” They’d say it often. Lovingly piling on the pressure until I could no longer see a future where I didn’t have something to prove.

My father found the second property manager job listing in a local newspaper. A 50-unit building in the affluent neighborhood of Westwood. He brought Mama and me along to the interview, although technically the managers were not supposed to have a child. I was told that if I was on my best behavior, I would go to the sought-after public elementary school down the street and finally get my own room. The front of the building was covered in a flash of fuchsia bougainvillea, and the surrounding brick towers glowed with inviting warm windows and hints of crystal chandeliers. The owners of the building were a wealthy elderly Germanic-Jewish couple who met us outside and assessed my potential with war-weary eyes. I looked up at them dutifully, every butterfly clip I owned fluttering on my head like a migration. “She’s a mini you,” the woman said, noticing the quiet stoicism I’d picked up from my father. She looked at us as if she were looking into her own immigrant past, her harrowing escape from Austria as a teenager during the Holocaust. She smiled. Bent down. And handed me the keys.

Los Angeles has been a haven for transplants and immigrants since the tail end of the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of the railroad. It was once advertised as a wellness paradise, the sanatorium capital of America , a temporary resort for turn-of-the-20th century tuberculosis patients eager to seek treatment in the form of sunshine and “fresh” air. Many of these patients got better and stayed. “Los Angeles, it should be understood, is not a mere city. On the contrary, it is, and has been since 1888, a commodity; something to be advertised and sold to the people of the United States like automobiles, cigarettes, and mouthwash,” writes Mike Davis in “City of Quartz.”

The commodification of Los Angeles and Hollywood, and the rising population, has made the city an expensive place to live . The majority of the population rents : According to a 2021 report, 63% of Los Angeles households are renter-occupied, while 37% are owner-occupied. And rent has more than doubled in the past decade, leading to an astonishing 57% of L.A. County residents being rent-burdened, meaning they spend a third or more of their income on rent. And yet people continue to move to Los Angeles, a place synonymous with liminal space — the space between who we are and who we want to become. Even if who you want to become is out of reach.

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“If there is a predominant feeling in the city-state [Los Angeles], it is not loneliness or daze, but an uneasy temporariness, a sense of life’s impermanence: the tension of anticipation while so much quivers on the line,” writes Rosecrans Baldwin in “Everything Now: Lessons From the City-State of Los Angeles.”

Los Angeles is a city always on the edge of disaster: gentrification, housing shortages, unlawful evictions, homelessness ( second largest homeless population outside of New York), greed, wildfire, earthquakes, floods, landslides, the imminent death of the legendary palm trees , the intangible but plausible possibility of breaking off from the continental United States and slipping into the Pacific Ocean . The city, like its residents, is impermanent, always shape-shifting, always on the verge of becoming something else.

“Our dwellings were designed for transience,” writes Kate Braverman about the midcentury West Los Angeles of her childhood in “ Frantic Transmissions to and From Los Angeles: An Accidental Memoir.” “Apartments without dining rooms, as if anticipating a future where families disintegrated, compulsively dieted, or ate alone, in front of televisions.”

In Westwood, our living room was our dining room and our office. Leases were signed on the dinner table. At any moment, the phone or doorbell would ring with someone dropping off a rent check or complaining about a broken air conditioner or standing barefoot in a bathrobe locked out of their apartment. I would pretend to not care. I would eat my cheese puffs on the couch and stare attentively at the glowing TV, with the business of the building in my periphery. I would remind myself that this was temporary. Our liminal space. Maybe my parents would invest in an adult day care center like their friend Sasha? Maybe we would one day own a house? As I got older, I grew more ashamed. More aware of my own body and its presence. I would cower in my room or the hallway, shoveling Froot Loops into my mouth until the apartment was no longer an office but our home again. This shape-shifting was its own type of impermanence. One minute the apartment was a place where we lived and the next it was a place where we worked. The line was blurred and so was my idea of home. Of what is yours and what is mine.

Some of the tenants were there before us and some were a rotating cast of characters. But all of them were strangers we shared walls with. Of course, we weren’t the only immigrant family. There were also Persian immigrants who fled Iran during the Islamic Revolution, but they mostly kept to themselves. Due to the nature of the job, we were always on display. My parents’ accents. My growing body. My father’s health. The mezuzah on our door frame. Our apartment, a collection of discarded furniture from vacated units. Early on, I was warned to not make friends with any of the tenants. I was told it was unprofessional. A trap. That they only wanted to be my friend so they could get special treatment. Sometimes, we broke the rules. I babysat the child star while his single mother “networked” (partied in the Hollywood Hills). I played Marco Polo in the pool with the Persian kids. I leafed through headshots with a Russian mail-order bride while my parents drank tea with her mother. They would all eventually move out and so would we.

I used to tell my friends that we owned the building. That I would one day inherit it. This was easier than saying that we lived there because we worked there. I’m not sure if anyone believed me anyway. Many of my friends lived in what I considered to be mansions with nannies and parents with six-figure dual incomes that afforded them trips to faraway destinations I couldn’t place on a map. When my friends were over and the landline would ring, I would rush them to my bedroom before they could hear my father answer the phone with, “Manager.”

The only property my parents own is a shared plot at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. When my father was diagnosed with a chronic disease, my mother was left to manage the Westwood building on her own. Eventually, my parents retired after 21 years and moved out of the building during the first few months of the pandemic. They still rent, and so do I.

What is truly ours?

I’ve spent my life grappling with the concept of ownership. How our identity often gets wrapped up in what we own and what we don’t own. How in the U.S., ownership is the pinnacle of success. How there was no such thing as ownership in the failed Soviet experiment. How you could pick apples off any tree because they were there for everybody to enjoy. How owning a home in Los Angeles may forever be out of reach. How impermanent we are in the arbitrary nature of existence.

After I graduated from college and landed an office job in Los Angeles, I began renting apartments on my own. The eggshell walls painted over and over and over again. The rotating neighbors I still feared to befriend. The flying cockroaches. The broken laundry machines. The unabiding footsteps. The eternal sounds of other people’s lives. The possibility of moving out and starting all over again. It all felt so familiar. The impermanence I witnessed so often as a child was no longer a source of shame but a knowing comfort that at any moment everything could change.

Diana Ruzova is a writer from Los Angeles. She holds an MFA in literature and creative nonfiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars. Her writing has appeared in the Cut, Oprah Daily, Flaunt, Hyperallergic, Los Angeles Review of Books and elsewhere.

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Butterfly Journal: Blue Butterfly Journal for Women to Write In - 6x9 inch Lined Journal with 150 Pages - Small Notebook for Journaling, Creative Writing, Poetry, & Note Taking (Butterfly Journals) Paperback – March 1, 2020

Purchase options and add-ons, this butterfly journal can be used for:.

• Writing poetry
• Creative writing
• Daily journaling
• Gratitude lists
• To-Do Lists
• Day to day note-taking
• Anything that strikes your fancy!

Butterfly Notebook Specifics:

• 150 line pages with butterfly designs
• Blank, lined pages with space to write the date and your notes.
• 6 x 9 Inches - Easy to take with you!
• Soft Matte Cover
• Built to last professional paperback binding.
• White paper
• Printed Locally
• Print length 151 pages
• Language English
• Publication date March 1, 2020
• Dimensions 6 x 0.35 x 9 inches
• ISBN-13 979-8619997293
• See all details

The Creative Writing Butterfly

Everyone is welcomed on my blog, People who are learning new skills or people who are interested in creative writing. I post my creative writings such as short poems and short stories.

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• Academic writing

Short stories

Tuesday, june 14, 2022.

• Descriptive paragraph of my house

  I n my house you can see many things such as :bikes, TV’s and pictures or paintings. Everything that you see in my house is magnificent. There are different types of paintings like: rainbow and nature or houses and culture. Whatever, you touch in my house is either cold or hot (depending on what the object is) but Mostly everything that you touch is cold. However, every electronic in the house is hot because of it’s gas. In my house you’ll taste many different types of food such as :stake, taco, pasta, noodles but you’ll mostly taste rice with fish curry, beef curry and  chicken curry etc. My house is noisy(but not extremely noisy), rarely quiet (unless if it’s really late at night then only we’re quiet).However many other things make noises such as : the heater, the scooter, the mouse(mouse for laptop) and the keyboard etc. You can smell the heater (which smells like it’s burning), food, air freshener, candles and diffuser. Since my mum cooks mostly everyday the house smells like beef curry, chicken curry  and more yum food.

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Hot summer days.

  It's summer!

The hot sunny days arrived

No more coldness 

Only hotness

It might be cold 

But the sun's glazing down at us 

So how's it going to be cold?

The sun rises early in the morning,

And sets late at night,

December, January and February full of hotness,

But as the sun sets it's no longer hot .

Look at the trees there're all green

The next season brings beautiful colours

Get ready for coldness and warmness

Of what the next season brings

Friday, May 13, 2022

The under water city of atlantis(short poem).

Atlantis, shiny, beautiful and full of light🐋

The ships sail while the fish swim

You swim throughout the light and the bright colours

The magic of the fish

Magical mushrooms throughout the city

Some places are bright and some may be dark

The place may look bright and happy

But some things may be hidden

The city of Atlantis 

Bright and dark

Colourful and not  

The magic of the jellyfish

Everything about this city is magical

The colours

And the animals

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