Sketch the butterfly outline. Keep the drawing simple and don’t be heavy handed. Once you’re happy with the outline, rub it back with an eraser so that it won’t be seen underneath your coloured pencils.

Lightly block in the main areas of colour, to create a guide for the following steps, using light chrome yellow, dark cadmium orange, light cadmium red and light phthalo blue.

Once the basic shapes are in place, use black lightly to outline the butterfly and fill in the darker areas with light shading. Note that all the colours, even the contrasting ones, seem to merge into each other. As there aren’t many definite lines you can afford to be quite fluid with this base layer of colour.

Once you’re happy with the first layer of colour, begin to work on the detail on the wings. Use black and dark cadmium orange, with sharp tips, to define the edge of the left-hand wing.

1 Once you’ve mapped out the outline on the left-hand wing with orange and black, do the same on the right-hand side.

2.  Next, use black to block in the most prominent black areas across all four wings. Go a bit lighter with the black when you’re working on the early stages, mark out where you want the areas to remain white and slowly layer up the colours around them.

3. Use pale geranium lake on the red areas, gradually blocking in all the shapes created by the veins.

4. Start to layer terracotta with the black on the body and the area leading to the body from the wings.

1. As the drawing develops, use the black pencil with a sharp tip to map out the rest of the wing outline.

2. Use madder to block in the red on the wings. Be careful to do this in sections, leaving the veins on the wings blank so you end up with very fine white outlines. As you build up the red shades, use the burnishing technique create a vibrant colour with a beautiful sheen.

3. To create the soft striped effect of yellow and black at the top of the wings, use light cadmium yellow and black. Begin by marking in the black stripes then use the yellow and the burnishing technique to build up the colour over the top, softening the black marks, but making sure they are not too blurred.

4. Once you’re happy with the yellow, use a sharp tip on the black and pick out a few of the stripes, lifting the area with a final bit of texture.

5. Start to layer light phthalo blue to make it bolder on the eyes of the top wings. Use light cadmium yellow and white gently to merge the colours of black and blue, to give that bold, lined effect.

Use light cadmium yellow on the bottom wings and start to work on the eyes. Make all your pencil strokes head towards the body of the butterfly. Keep layering the reds, using madder, pale geranium lake and light cadmium red, leaving the vein lines blank as before, and leaving the areas closer to the body a little lighter.

1. Keep using the yellow to soften the edges of the black and blue, but try to keep the areas of yellow very clean of other colours at the same time. To do this, block out the blue and black on the eye first then apply the yellow area lightly. Use short strokes of the yellow across the outline of the black to soften the edge. The trick here is to soften the edge of the black, but not let it spread into the yellow area and make it mucky so, once you’ve blurred and softened the outline, concentrate on brightening the yellow. I did this in a large circular motion, working around and around the eye until the yellow burnished and created that beautiful bold sheen.

2. Start working into the body using black and walnut brown. Remember this really is the centrepiece of the drawing so keep the lines strong and the colour rich.

1. As you near completion, work across the whole image, concentrating on one colour at a time, brightening up the red then the blue followed by the yellow. Notice how the wings are full of more subtle mixtures of colours the closer they get to the body.

2. Use walnut brown to mark the vein lines. Go lightly, and slightly to one side of the gap. This will still leave you with a fine white line next to the dark brown.

For the finishing touches, use black to add texture to the centre of the wings. Start by making tiny marks, moving from the centre of the wings out. Make them quite solid and work across the direction of the strokes you have made so far. This will help the black and the texture you create to stand out more. Work across all four wings. As well as the small, solid marks, use a fine black line to render across some of the vein lines and lightly add black lines in the direction of the veins to keep drawing the eye to the body in the centre.

1. Use white to pick out all the white areas you have left. Use a sharpened point to really brighten these up and if you have a water-soluble white, use a little water so the light really pops.

2 Look across the image and make sure you’re happy with the solid coloured areas – the eyes, the edges of the wings and the body – alongside the slightly more textured and shaded areas, such as the centre of the wings.

3. You are finished when you’re happy that the wings and the body have the sharpest of outlines.

The finished study

Peacock Butterfly, Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils on St Cuthberts Botanical Smooth 300gsm paper, (15x19cm)

If you enjoyed this project, take a look at Millie's demonstration to draw a bee using coloured pencils.

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