My mother in law sort of kind of asked/hinted that she’d like a painting for Christmas. That’s cool. Art is the best one of kind, made specially for you, thoughtful gift I can think of. The request was a purple butterfly (or at least that’s what I heard from my husband).
At first I thought, sure, easy peasy. Then I couldn’t land on a single idea that was appealing. I looked at hundreds – thousands – of butterflies. Photos, drawings, paintings, illustrations, any and every image I could find googling and on pinterest. Nothing sparked for me – you know, lit that “I want to paint it like THIS” fire.
So I started drawing. And I started with my fall back: tattoo design. haha
An old school gypsy face with the butterfly wings framing her face. I like the drawing, but decided it wasn’t right for the recipient of the painting.
This one came from a photograph of an actual butterfly that my own mother shared with me. It helped give me some idea on the wing shape I liked, but it seemed to simple. I didn’t like the leaf and struggled to fill the space.
Similar butterfly with lots and lots of greenery and stuff. I swung in the other direction and decided this one had too much. (At this point everyone was fairly frustrated with me and my wishy washy indecision).
New idea! A fairy! A fairy with little butterflies. This one I love. However, I knew that this one was destined to become a watercolor. I had canvas in mind for my mother in law’s gift … and this would be beyond tedious for me to attempt with acrylics on canvas. So I put it to the side and started looking … again … for the perfect idea.
Finally, I found a picture of a black and gray tattoo of a butterfly on a rose. It was very simple, clean lines as shading. I loved it. So I drew my own version. Then decided to paint it.
The final product isn’t really similar to the tattoo inspiration at all, but that’s cool. I like it pretty well. The butterfly being purple was obvious, given my request. For the roses, I went with yellow for two reasons: I think it looks pretty with the purple, and I get get tattooed at The Yellow Rose Tattoo Club. ha!
Close up! What do you think??
Bee Girl Art 