Butterfly Illustrations

[Ldina]

Some recent butterfly illustrations, done in Affinity Designer. 

 

[jmwellborn]

@Ldina  These are all beautiful.  Mourning Cloak looks like softest velvet!!  Lovely!

[Ldina]

@jmwellborn Thank you. They're gorgeous butterflies for sure...nature is pretty amazing. 

[StuartRc]

They are all fantastic!....So good I could not pick out a favourite!

[Alfred]

The textures in the first two are wonderful, and the bright blue and orange in the third one are quite stunning. Reading up a little on the Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) tells me that they’re native to North and Central America: I’ve certainly never seen anything quite like that here in the UK.

[Ldina]

@StuartRc & @Alfred ... Thanks for your kind comments. Yes, butterflies are beautiful, which is why I love illustrating them. Their colors and patterns are gorgeous. All three of these butterflies are found here in North and Central America. I've never seen a Bordered Patch Butterfly in person, but I have seen the other two. 

[Alfred]

5 hours ago, Ldina said:

Yes, butterflies are beautiful, which is why I love illustrating them. Their colors and patterns are gorgeous.

Many moths are beautiful, too! Most of us think of moths as being dull, brown creatures, but there are some richly coloured and patterned species out there. A distinguishing feature of butterflies is that they all have clubbed antennae, which no moths have.

https://www.treehugger.com/moth-species-more-beautiful-than-butterflies-4864257

https://www.color-meanings.com/colorful-moths

[Ldina]

@Alfred Thanks for the links. You're right, many moths are equally beautiful and I've illustrated a few. Here's one of a "White-lined Sphinx Moth" (sometimes referred to as a 'hummingbird moth'). I've seen many of these in the wild. I've done a few others too, but they were done when I was first learning to use Designer and need to be redone. 

 

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Ldina said:

Here's one of a "White-lined Sphinx Moth" (sometimes referred to as a 'hummingbird moth').

Once again, Lou, absolutely stunning work! Thanks for sharing it here.

[Ldina]

Just now, Alfred said:

Once again, Lou, absolutely stunning work! Thanks for sharing it here.

Thank you. 

[Jonopen]

Super illustrations. You've really caught the iridescence sparkle in the wings. I also like butterflies, but sadly becoming more difficult to see them here in UK.

I've never seen one but the Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa is a rare migrant to the UK from Scandinavia and mainland Europe. Over here it is known as The Camberwell Beauty on account of it being first recorded near Camberwell (South London) in 1748.

[Ldina]

7 minutes ago, Jonopen said:

You've really caught the iridescence sparkle in the wings.

I often use either Procedural Texture or bitmap texture 'overlays' on butterfly wings (and sometimes bodies) to add variation, noise/grain, and texture. Add Noise filters, or noise in the Color Panel can sometimes work too, but they are less flexible. Finding a suitable texture, and then the best layer blend mode and opacity, helps break up the 'flat smoothness' of pure vectors. Textures can add a lot to some illustrations, especially things that are organic, like moths and butterflies. 

[Jonopen]

Thank you for your insights into achieving that. I'll bookmark this thread for the future! 😀

[Hootowl]

These are beautiful!!!  They look very real!

[Ldina]

1 minute ago, Hootowl said:

These are beautiful!!!  They look very real!

Thank you!

[MmmMaarten]

Awesome work! They all look superb

[Ldina]

27 minutes ago, MmmMaarten said:

Awesome work! They all look superb

Thanks, MmmmmmmmmmmmMaarten!

 

[Ldina]

Two more illustrations...one butterfly and one moth, both recently completed. The "cracker" gets its name from the cracking sound the male makes when seeking a mate or declaring his territory. There are dozens of different species, colors, patterns, etc, many of which are extremely different. I've never seen one in person, but I have seen many One-eyed Sphinx Moths. Cool "eyes" and "nose", probably emulating an owl to scare off potential predators. 

 

[Alfred]

14 minutes ago, Ldina said:

Two more illustrations...one butterfly and one moth, both recently completed.

I love these. Keep ’em coming!

[Ldina]

Here's the latest Butterly illustration...a female Diana Fritillary, which is found in much of the USA. The males look completely different, with a lot of orange coloring. 

[TestTools]

Phew!!!! Beyond Astounding…thanks. I can do technical illustrations, but I wouldn’t know where to even start with making such subtle softness. Well Done

[Ldina]

On 7/5/2025 at 2:55 AM, TestTools said:

Phew!!!! Beyond Astounding…thanks. I can do technical illustrations, but I wouldn’t know where to even start with making such subtle softness. Well Done

Thank you...maybe this will help provide a starting point. Designer is good for illustrations like this because it natively mixes vector and pixel elements. I typically start by outlining major elements in the Designer Persona (individual wings, bodies, antennae, background, etc). I'll put each major element in its own Container Layer. I typically use vectors quite a bit, especially early on, to help me outline those areas I want to work on, incorporating blurs, gradient and transparency tools, layer blend modes, etc., where needed. Where I have a lot of "mottled" areas, I sometimes use textured vector brushes, and I often use bitmap texture overlays or procedural texture filters to add some texture and variation, varying the layer blend mode, opacity, etc, for the desired effect (which often involves trial and error to find the right combination).

When needed, I duplicate a vector layer/Group/Layer and rasterize it (converting it to a single pixel layer, retaining my vector elements as a backup), switch to the Pixel Persona (or Edit in Photo) to access other tools, such as Pixel Brushes, Smudge/Blur Tools, Filters, Procedural Textures, Masks, etc. The Smudge Tool is very helpful for softening hard edges or even adding tiny 'hairs' to wing edges by dragging with a small diameter brush (just a few pixels in width). The process varies somewhat for each image and evolves as I'm working, depending on what is needed. The process is time consuming and requires attention to detail.