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Monarch & Two-tailed Swallowtail Butterflies " Double Duty" 

This month I have been working on a special project. The Rotary 100 Club of AZ does charitable works. They put out a call to artists to used these aluminum butterflies, create a design in their style to be auctioned off at the Shemer Art Center on March 24th, 2024. The address and some websites will be listed at the end.  My newsletter post Art - Love & Possibilities will have a little different take on this project. I thought I would use the blog post for more technical information. With some step by step pictures to help describe the process. 

The aluminum butterfly I worked on was approximately 31x30" and about 1/2" thick. To start it was cleaned with alcohol, sanded to created a tooth and cleaned again. Spray paint went on first to create the background color. In the 3rd picture you can see a light pencil sketch to work out the details. 

 Black spray paint was used along the edges. Looking at photo references there are small black dots coming into the yellow area. Additional acrylic paint was used to define the black pattern. Blue acrylic paint was used for lower spots and to carve out the second part of the two-tailed swallowtail. 

Yellow, bronze, iridescent acrylic was used for the spots. White and black dots were applied using the bottom rounded end of a paint brush. Even though these dots will be hard to see from a distance, they will help with light and shadows. 

Side two: Cleaned, sanded and sprayed for under color, light pencil sketch for details. Used black acrylic for outline and edges. White, bronze and iridescent acrylics were used for spots. Yellow and orange were added to body. Black and white dots applied with bottom of paintbrush. Since, the monarch does not have the extension on the lower wings I use milkweed and a caterpillar to fill in those areas. Alizarin, Windsor Blue, Perm. Green, Light Yellow, White & Black were needed for these small spaces. 

This is just one medium size butterfly to be auctioned off March 24th, 2024 at the Shemer Art Center: 5005 E. Camelback Rd., Phoenix, AZ. This will take place during the Art in the Garden Event open 10-4pm. The auction will take place that afternoon and an online option will be available soon. Check on the www.rotary100.org website for additional details or email them at [email protected]

Pictures of additional works can be found on FaceBook and Instagram. 

If you have any questions on techniques email me at [email protected]

Thank you for reading, linda