Butterfly Coloring Pages

The wings are not printed dark

A butterfly wing is usually drawn the way it looks — dark cells with pale veins running between them. That is most of the page filled in before you start. On every one of these the veins divide each wing into separate cells and every cell is left white, so the biggest and best part of the drawing is yours. The same goes for the markings: each spot, crescent and eyespot is an outline around white paper rather than a solid dot.

Four real species

The monarch has its cell pattern and spotted border. The swallowtail has the two long tails trailing from its hindwings. The blue morpho has the broad rounded wings it is known for — drawn open and white, so you can colour it any blue you like, or not blue at all. The peacock butterfly has its four big eyespots, drawn as rings inside rings.

The caterpillar too

Plenty of children looking for a butterfly actually want the caterpillar. There is one on a large leaf with eleven round segments to colour separately, and the life cycle page sets caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly on one sheet — the page teachers print most.

Six pages for older colourists

The stained glass butterfly is built from about forty leaded panels. The wreath sets seven butterflies in a ring of roses, daisies and ribbons. Then the mandala, the patterned butterfly, the six patterned butterflies and the doodle sheet of twenty-six.

Colour ideas

Real butterflies rarely use more than three or four colours, and the wings look best when the cells nearest the body are darkest and the ones at the wing edge lightest. Colour the border spots last, in white or a pale tint, and the wing suddenly reads as a wing.

Printing

Print at 100% scale rather than “fit to page”, and match the file to your paper — Letter or A4. The button at the top bundles all twenty into a single download.