Pikachu (Pokemon) Pancake Art Tutorial

Introduction

Let’s get started making Pikachu Pancake art! Before we begin, you’ll want to mix your batter, pour it into your bottles/batter pens, and prepare your colors. Below is a list of the batter colors we’ll be using – but if you want to see an in-depth guide to how we mix and color our batters, click here!

Batter Colors:

Black
Red
Light Red (One drop red dye)
Yellow
Light Yellow (One drop yellow dye)
Dark Yellow (One drop yellow, one drop brown dye)
Brown
White
Plain

Note: You can simplify this design by doing a solid yellow for the body.

Remember, feel free to customize any part as we go; this is simply a straightforward tutorial. Be as creative as you want!

It's the most famous pokemon pal of all time! From the pokedex: "Its nature is to store up electricity. Forests where nests of Pikachu live are dangerous, since the trees are so often struck by lightning."

Step 1

Begin by drawing the outlines of Pikachu's facial features - the eyes, the dot for the nose, and that cute mouth!
Continue to outline Pikachu - two round circles for the cheeks, cute little arms, the outline of the head and the ears (with a line drawn for the black tips at the ends of the ears).
Keep outlining Pikachu's feet, back, and that iconic zig-zag tail! Your outlines don't have to be perfect, you'll get better with practice, and remember: Mistakes are Delicious!

With your griddle/pan off, begin by drawing the outline of Pikachu with your black pancake batter. We recommend starting with the eyes, and keeping them fairly small (about the size of an american quarter coin). Remember, you don’t want to make the pancake too big to flip! The bigger they are, the more chance of breakage and burning. If you are worried about yours being too big as you go or don’t want to do so much detail, feel free to just make Pikachu’s face! Use the reference image, and take your time! Remember, you can use paper towels or Q-tips to wipe up any mistakes you may make. I also keep a towel on my drawing hand side to occasionally wipe off the tip of the bottle, and to rest my hand while I draw.

Step 2

Time to color in the eyes! Grab your white batter and add little dots to the interior of Pikachu's eyes. These 'glints of light' will add a ton of personality to the final product.
Now, switch back to your black batter and color in the rest of pikachu's eyes black.
While you're still holding your black batter, go ahead and color in the black tips of pikachu's ears. Simple stuff!

Once you have your outline, we’ll start by filling in Pikachu’s eyes. Using your white batter, make a small circle in each eye. Put them looking up and centered, even a little cross-eyed. Then, color in the rest of Pikachu’s eyes with your black batter. Then, as long as you’re holding that black batter, go ahead and color in the tips of Pikachu’s ears – all black! Good stuff.

Step 3

Grab your red batter and color in those famously rosy cheeks!
While holding that red batter pen, go ahead and color in the top of pikachu's mouth. Draw a curved line to mark the tongue, and color in the mouth above that.
Now, switch to your pink batter and color in the rest of Pikachu's tongue. All the facial features should be colored in now! Time to move on to highlights.

Now we’ll fill in his cheeks with red batter. Once you’ve done that, use the red and fill in the space in his mouth, above his tongue. Then fill in the tongue with pink/light red. The reference image has slightly different shades of red, but we’re doing two easy shades to simplify. But feel free to get as complex as you want!

Step 4

Now it's time for highlights! With your lightest yellow batter, begin marking places on pikachu's body where the 'light' hits the character. A rounded oval on the head...
...a triangle on the top of the tail, and some other smaller ovals on the arms and knees...
...and voila! Highlights done. They'll look a little like this when you finish this step. These details are subtle, but they make a difference!

Now we’ll add in the highlights. Remember that these are where the light hits Pikachu the most! We’ll assume that light is hitting Pikachu from above, so we’ll add highlights to the top parts of him. With your plain/light yellow, draw a flat oval on top of Pikachu’s head and on the tops of his ears. Draw a line along the top of the left arm (Any directions using right or left will be from your perspective, not Pikachu’s). Draw a line on the inside of the right arm, draw a curved line along the top of the knees, and lastly, lay a line of highlight on the top of Pikachu’s tail.

Step 5

Time to do the shading! Grab your darkest yellow batter (sort of a golden brown) and begin marking out the places where the light doesn't hit Pikachu as strongly. There's a patch under Pikachu's head...
...spots under Pikachu's arms and feet, and on the bottom of the body...
...and most of Pikachu's tail is in shadow, too. Once you've finished your highlights Pikachu ought to look a little bit like this.

Now we’ll add the shadows. Remember that these are the places where the light hits Pikachu the least, almost like the opposite of the highlights. Assuming that the light source is coming from the top, the shadows will fall under Pikachu. Use your dark yellow to fill the space under Pikachu’s legs, feet, tummy, and chin. You can also apply thin shadows to the underside of their ears and arms. Lastly, we’ll shade the tail. But first, use your right brown to color the base of Pikachu’s tail. Once you’ve done that, fill the tail with show until you almost reach the top.

Step 6

It's time to color it all in! Once highlights and shading has been applied, you can grab your bold yellow batter and color in the rest of the pancake. This process can be very relaxing; take your time; the more methodical you are, the more satisfying the process will be!
Pikachu uses a lot of yellow! If you start to run out of batter, you can always refill your batter pens as you go. Take your time!
Once your Pikachu pancake is totally filled in, it will look something like this.

All that’s left to do now is fill in the rest! Fill the remainder of Pikachu with yellow, careful to stay within the lines. There’s a lot of yellow going on here, so you might run low on your yellow batter. That’s okay! If you need to mix a little bit more yellow batter you can do so on the fly, and if your batter doesn’t perfectly match the rest of the yellow you’ve used, that’s alright. Perfection is a false ideal!!

Step 7

Once your pancake design is filled in, I like to add a solid outline of plain batter all around the edges. This makes the pancake stronger, makes the design pop, and gives you a little extra to snack on!
Make sure that you fill in those gaps between Pikachu's back and tail!
Lastly, I like to zig-zag some plain batter across the back of my pancake designs. This adds a little bit more body to the pancake and, again, gives me more to eat!

Once your main design work is done, I like to outline my work. Create an outline around your entire Pikachu with batter. We often use plain batter for this, but You can use any color (or colors) that you’d like! Then cover the back of your pancake with a zig-zag as well. For extra precautions (like say, if your pancake is looking paper thin) you can cover the whole backside in plain batter to give it more thickness. This’ll help make it stronger for the flip!

Step 8

Once your pancake design is filled, outlined, and there's nothing else to add, it's time to cook! I usually cook my pancakes around 225 degrees - hot enough to cook the batter, but not hot enough to brown it so much that you lose your color fidelity. Remember not to touch the surface of the griddle after this! You can burn yourself, so be careful.
As your pancake cooks you'll see bubbles appear and pop on the back of it. This is great! You want to see bubbles appear on the whole back, and for that shiny 'wetness' to subside. Once the pancake looks less shiny and has bubbles all across it, you can start gently nudging it with your spatula through what we call 'carving'. Work your way around the outside edge of the pancake without forcing it; it should release all by itself.
You'll know that your pancake is ready to flip when the whole thing slides easily across the surface of the griddle. When it moves, you're ready to flip!

Once you’ve covered every part of Pikachu (check for holes!), you can turn the griddle/pan to around 225°.

While it’s cooking slowly, don’t panic! These pancakes are cooking at a much slower temperature than typical pancakes. They will take a very long time to burn.

Once bubbles begin to cover the surface of your pancake, and the pancake starts to look more like a solid than a liquid, you can work the spatula gently around the edges to separate the pancake from the griddle. This is a process we call “carving.”

Be patient, you shouldn’t need to carve the pancake off forcefully; it’ll separate more and more as it cooks. Once it moves across the surface of the griddle with ease, it’s ready to flip!

Step 9

Once the pancake is unstuck and can freely move around the griddle, it’s about time to flip. It’s very important to slide the spatula under the pancake in one smooth motion, quickly and confidently. You also can’t be hesitant while flipping it. The more confidently you do this step, the more likely your pancake will be fine. Take a breath, have faith… and give it a flip!

Conclusion

Congrats! We’re sure you did great. Even if you don’t think so, remember,

Mistakes Are Delicious!

You’ll do even better next time!

Plate your Pikachu Pancake and enjoy! This most famous pokemon makes for quite a tasty treat!