In this simple Butterfly Rock Painting for Beginners tutorial, you’ll learn the easy steps to creating a monarch masterpiece!
Supply List
• Smooth, flat Rock
• Acrylic paint, I used turquoise, dark purple, light purple
• Paintbrushes, thin flat-point brush, thin round-point brush
• Acrylic sealer, spray or paint on
• Black permanent marker or black paint pen
• Other supplies: table cloth, paper plate, cup of water
Fall Monarchs
Fall is a great time of year to seek butterflies. The caterpillars are actively turning to chrysalis and then to Monarch Butterflies before the first freeze sets in. We have had a few pop up in the plants on our front porch.
I have a friend who is very into butterflies. She has a massive garden that expands around both her front and back yards. Monarch caterpillars feed only on milkweed leaves. She has planted many milkweed plants to encourage caterpillars to call her garden home. It is fun to watch her Facebooks posts on the chrysalis that she find in random places in her yard. My kids have gone to her house several times to watch them emerge.
Butterfly Rock Painting – Butterfly design
As a thank you, we decided to paint a butterfly rock for her to put in her garden. My children wanted to be very involved in the drawing and painting of this rock so I tried to keep the design simple. I have linked below a couple of tutorials for easy butterfly drawings.
How to Draw a Cute Butterfly (wedrawanimals.com)
How to Draw a Butterfly Step by Step for Kids – Easy Peasy and Fun
How to Draw a Butterfly: 6 Kid-Friendly Steps – Proud to be Primary
Steps for drawing a butterfly
These are the steps that I followed for a very simple butterfly. First, I drew a small circle for the head and a similar-sized circle for the body.
Then, I added the tail end by making more of a rounded heart bottom shape. This part was slightly bigger than the head and the body.
Next, I added the wings. I drew loops from the space between the head and the body to the space between the body and the tail. I drew the same on the other side trying to keep the size as even as possible.
Finally, I added the detail pieces with the antenna and some design to the wings. I kept the design very simple for this particular rock.
Angela at The Inspiration Edit had a different approach to her design, but it is still simple and fun.
Choosing & Priming your rock
Rocks are everywhere. But not all rocks are ideal for painting. You can go on a stroll through your neighborhood or park and pick up a few rocks. However, I have found that most of those can be too small or not have much of a flat surface. Purchasing rocks is also an option. You can find them at craft stores, home improvement stores, landscaping companies, or even order them online.
I decided to use a larger rock for this project. I want to put some brighter colors on the rock and I wanted them to pop out. This rock that I used had a broken edge which I thought made it look interesting.
In addition, this rock had a slightly slick surface. I cleaned the rock with some dish soap and a sponge and let it dry. The slick surface remained after cleaning the rock, so I put a primer coat on the rock. You can prime a rock in several ways, I chose to put down a few layers of paint over the whole surface of the rock. I used a turquoise blue, making the background a sky color. This took four layers and the pictures show some of the progression. Make sure to allow the paint to dry completely between coats.
Here is an example from paint happy rocks using a background color. I love the way Adrianne used a contrasting color scheme for the butterflies. It really makes them stick out.
Rock Painting Ideas | Butterflies – Paint Happy Rocks
Drawing and Painting the Butterfly on the Rock
Once the primer coats were dry, I drew the butterfly on the rock lightly in pencil. If you make a mistake, lightly erase the pencil lines. I do recommend practicing your design on paper before trying on your rock. Practice will make you more confident to take on your project.
For painting, I started with the wings. I chose to paint them a light purple color and make the inside of the wings a darker color. The best thing about this simple design is you can customize it any way you want to. It would be easy to make the wing color dark, or to all more detail to the center of the wings.
Next, I painted the body of the butterfly. I chose a medium brown color. I wanted to avoid black because I was going to outline the different sections of the butterfly’s body. But if you choose, using black paint here is perfectly fine.
After the wings and body were dry, I added the detail work. I used simple oval shapes inside the wings and painted them a darker purple. I used a black paint marker for the outlining and the antennae. You could also use a black permanent marker. However, be careful when using a spray sealer. The aerosol can make the permanent marker run.
Sealing the rock
I decided to seal the butterfly rock using a spray acrylic sealer. I made sure to do this step outside. Spray sealer can give off some strong fumes and you don’t want to have that linger inside the house. I set the rock on some sort of protective surface so I didn’t get the sealer everywhere. Using a paper plate or plastic table cloth works perfectly for this step. I sprayed a light coat of sealer and let it dry. Be sure to follow the package instructions on your sealer.
Butterfly Rock – Gift for a friend
My friend was very excited to receive her butterfly rock and display it in her garden. We love seeing our rock when we go over to her house. Painted rocks make thoughtful gifts.
Butterfly Rock Painting for Beginners Top Take-Aways
- Don’t be afraid to use a bold background color. The design has the opportunity to shine against the background.
- Sometimes a rock needs several coats of paint when priming. That is OK. It is worth the dry time.
- A personalized gift makes a great gift for anyone.
- Think about a friend for your butterfly rock – How to Paint a Bee on a Rock – 2 easy ways
Happy painting!