Brushstroke Butterflies

Other Supplies

Folkart ® Paint Tools - Detail Painters #4156, Four 6” x 6” Wood Canvas Panels, Brush Basin or container for water, Paper Towels, Foam Plate (for palette), ¾” Flat brush (for basecoating), No. 10 Filbert brush, No. 1 Liner Brush, Fine Grit Sandpaper, Stencil or Painter’s Tape, Palette Knife (for mixing mat color), Tracing Paper, White Chalk, Dead Ballpoint Pen or Artist’s Stylus (optional)

Instructions

1. Begin by basecoating each wood canvas panel Citrus Green, Cobalt Blue Perfect Purple and Teal. Allow all basecoated surfaces to dry. Sand smooth once dry and reapply base color. Allow to dry.
2.  Measure and tape off a 1” border on each canvas panel. Mix a lighter value of each basecoat color by adding a touch of the basecoat color to Wicker White. Paint mat area on each wood canvas panel opaquely. Allow to dry.
3. Load a detail painter with the basecoat color and stencil the mini swirl pattern all over the painted mat. Allow to dry and remove stencil tape.
4. Trace and transfer the butterfly pattern to the center of each canvas. Lay a sheet of tracing paper over the butterfly pattern and trace the main pattern lines using a fine tip marker. Flip the tracing paper over and chalk the pattern lines on the back. Once again flip the pattern over and position in the center of the wood canvas panel chalk side down. If desired, you can use a piece of stencil tape to hole the pattern in place. Retrace the pattern lines using the handle end of a paintbrush, a dead ballpoint pen or an artist’s stylus.
5. Load the filbert brush with Wicker White and paint the butterfly wings. Allow to dry.
6. Load the No. 1 Liner Brush with the base color of each wood canvas panel to paint the interior brushstrokes on each white butterfly.
7. Thin Licorice with water to ink consistency and load a No. 1 liner brush to paint the skinny black brushstrokes as well as the butterfly body.
8. Thin Wicker White and paint the antennae. Add a small Licorice dot at the end of each antennae.
9. If desired, paint a wavy Licorice line along the painted and stenciled mat where it meets the interior using thinned paint.
10. Accent the wavy line with Licorice polka dots as shown in the photo. Highlight each Licorice dot with Wicker White.