This lesson is part math, part magic and all art! Get ready to fold, draw, smooth, and paint your way to a beautiful butterfly masterpiece.
For this lesson you will need:
– White 12″ x 18″ sheet of paper
– Black oil pastel
– Watercolor or cake tempera paints
To add an optional background to your butterfly, you will need scissors, glue and colored paper.
If you want a little inspiration, take a peek at some butterfly photos.
The Project
Begin by folding your paper in half like a book, then open it back up. You’ll be drawing on just one side for now.
Start by drawing the butterfly’s body at the fold line.
Add large wings and antenna.
Now it’s time to decorate that wing with shapes and patterns!
Want a tip? Trace just inside the wing edge to make a cool border before adding more designs.
After drawing half the butterfly, fold the paper in half and rub vigorously.
The oil pastel will transfer onto the other half of the paper. It’s important to use a dark color oil pastel that is creamy, not brittle, otherwise the pastel will not transfer properly. The heat and pressure help the pastel transfer to the other side.
TIP: Use a Popsicle stick on its side to help add additional pressure to transfer the drawing.
Now grab your oil pastel again and trace over the faint lines.
You’ve just made a perfectly symmetrical butterfly! That means both sides match – just like in real life!
Now the fun really begins – time to add color!
Use your watercolors or tempera paints to bring your butterfly to life. Make sure the colors on one side match the other so your butterfly stays symmetrical and stunning.
How will you show off your fluttery friend?
You can paint a background right on the page, or carefully cut out your butterfly or even glue it onto a colorful piece of paper. You could even add clouds, flowers or a rainbow.
Download the Art Teacher’s Supply List for a free guide in helping you choose the best supplies for your classroom!
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Love this project! My first graders made beautiful butterflies and learned about symmetry at the same time.
Thanks Patty
Hi! Thanks for lesson…we’re going to give it a try this week…can’t wait to see how they turn out. I do a similar “transfering” project with my 1st graders & wanted to supply a little tip to help make the transfer of the oil pastels a little easier. I give each student a craft stick and tell them to use it as a “magic” wand and rub it over the top of their picture, making sure to apply some pressure. The image trasfers very easily this way and the kids love that they got to use a “magic wand”. Makes it a bit more fun and eliminates little ones from becoming frustrated with images that don’t transfer so well. Thanks for the lesson!
This is a great tip! I love the verbiage…who wouldn’t want to use a magic wand?
We did this last week in first grade and they LOVED the magic wands!! I’m going to attempt it this week with kindergarten and the tissue paper. I *know* they will love the wands…I just hope they “get” the symmetry part and I can get them to draw only on one side of their paper.
I did this project last week and they turned out so beautiful! I used the “magic wand” to rub, and the kids loved the whole process. We hung them from the ceiling.
I did this project a few weeks ago and just posted about it tonight!
http://artdishwithmj.blogspot.com/2011/05/oil-pastel-butterflies.html
We used black oil pastels and then colored with oil pastel. They turned out so bright and beautiful! Thank you for all of your inspiring ideas!
try to use paint (poster paint) then color the symmetrical picture and fold and rub gently and be care full on rubbing .thanks a lot..!!!
try it on the other side has a picture like on the otherside!!
i like the butterfly
This worked great with my 4th graders today. I’m a volunteer art teacher at my kids’ school. It’s not my training and I am learning everything just in time to teach them. My assigned artist today was Odilon Redon and we did butterflies in homage to all his beautiful butterfly paintings. I made three sample butterflies to see what medium I liked best. I did watercolor, which looked great but kind of limited me in color choice because I didn’t try mixing the watercolors. Then I did water color pencils but it just didn’t turn out the way I wanted. Finally, I used chalks and loved that look.
When I had students finish early, I used a tip I heard on a podcast this summer. Tell your students to write a few sentences on the back about ….. (I asked them to tell me if they like butterflies and why or what they thought about the lesson.)
I appreciate your website!!!
Clarification- the podcast tip I mention above was from your website also.
So why are the examples showing using tissue paper and the directions say nothing about tissue paper?
Truth? I hired a gal to edit my blog posts and she did a number on a few of them. Still trying to sort the out. Thanks for the head’s up. We’ll fix it!
That’s a great tip. I have been drawing butterfly’s for some time now and I struggle to get both sides the same. I never thought about folding it in half and making it imprint on the other side..thank you ?
This was really useful and I will try this. (P.S. I bet my friends would faint of your genius ideas!)
I think it is lovely
Butterfly