Butterfly Ballet Sketch

Year

2026

Dimensions

3.5 in x 7 in

Materials

Graphite on Drawing Paper

Butterfly Ballet Sketch is a small graphite drawing I made for a younger dancer I mentor at my studio. I wanted to give her something encouraging, so I combined a ballet pose with large butterfly wings using imagination and several photo references. The wings are not meant to carry a complicated symbol. I thought they made the pose more interesting and gave the figure a stronger silhouette. The hardest part was the dancer's arms because they bend and overlap in an unusual position. I like that this drawing came from wanting to make something for another person rather than from an assignment, competition, or application. It connects two parts of my life without needing to force a larger story onto them.