Draw a Butterfly from Memory

A small butterfly sits on a cream flap at the top of this page, a dashed line runs across under it, and the rest of the sheet is one big paper. The child looks at the butterfly for as long as they like, folds the top of the page back along the dashed line so the model is out of sight, and draws the butterfly from memory. Unfolding the page afterwards puts the model and the drawing side by side. This grade-2 page is the memory page of the how-to-draw family and has no steps at all.

Drawing from memory asks a child to study a picture with a purpose, which is a different kind of looking from copying. The questions come naturally while the model is still visible: how many wings, where do the antennae start, is the body long or short? A symmetrical animal is a fair first subject, because remembering one wing gives the other.

Print it on plain paper and fold along the line; there is nothing to mark, and comparing the drawing with the model after unfolding is the whole review. The base page of the family shows the steps in full for a child who is not ready to draw unaided. The child draws the animal from its own observation; symmetry drawing, letter tracing and grid-copy pixels have their own pages.