Squirtle (Pokemon) Pancake Art Tutorial
Introduction
Batter Colors:
- Black
- Red
- Orange
- Light Orange (One three-second squirt of Orange BATTER)
- Dark Orange (One drop Orange, one drop brown dye)
- Yellow
- Light Yellow (One drop yellow dye)
- Light blue (One drop of blue dye)
- Lighter Blue (One five-second squirt of Light Blue BATTER)
- Lightest Blue (One three-second squirt of Lighter Blue
- White
- Plain
Note: You can simplify this design by doing a solid light blue for the body, a solid light yellow for the stomach, and a solid orange for the shell.
Remember, feel free to customize any part as we go; this is simply a straightforward tutorial. Be as creative as you want!
Watch out for the Squirtle Squad! From the pokedex: "Squirtle's shell is not merely used for protection. The shell's rounded shape and the grooves on its surface help minimize resistance in water, enabling this Pokémon to swim at high speeds."
Step 1
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Using your black batter, begin by drawing Squirtle's facial features and outlining the head.
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Continue outlining Squirtle's body, belly, and shell.
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Finish up Squirtle's outline with the tail, and then add minor details like a swirl on the tail, and segments on the chest and shell.
With your griddle/pan off, begin by drawing the outline of Squirtle with your black pancake batter. We recommend starting with the eyes, and keeping them fairly small. 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 Squirtle’s face! Use the reference image, and take your time! We’ll explain step-by-step how we’ll draw our linework. Remember, you can use paper towels or Q-tips to wipe up any mistakes you may make.
Step 2
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Using your white batter, add a shine to each of Squirtle's eyes, as well as the white edge of the larger one. As long as you're holding your white batter, go ahead and color in the edge of Squirtle's shell.
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Using black batter, add Squirtle's pupils - a black shape in the middle of each eye.
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Now, using your red batter, color in the rest of Squirtle's irises. The eyes are all done!
Once you have your outline, we’ll start by filling in Squirtle’s eyes. Using your white batter, make a circle at the top of the right eye (Any right or left direction is from your perspective, not Squirtle’s). You’ll also apply white to the top of the left eye, but a bit more like a half-circle. No need to be perfect! Wse white to fill in the small, rightmost sliver on the right eye (note that the other eye doesn’t have this). (And as long as you’re holding your white batter, you can go ahead and fill in the edge of Squirtle’s shell – we won’t need any more white batter for this design after this).
Then, using your black, go to the right eye and fill in the black space above the curved line that goes across the pupil. Then, fill in the half-circle space in the left eye, under the white. Finish the pupils of each eye by filling them with red. Great work!
Step 3
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Using your lightest blue batter, add some highlights to squirtles head, arms, legs and tail, like so.
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Using your plain batter, add a slid oval highlight to Squirtle's chest.
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Using your very light orange batter, add a jagged highlight to the back of Squirtle's shell.
Now we’ll add in the highlights. Remember that these are where the light hits Squirtle the most! It looks like Squirtle is facing the light source in this picture; that the light is coming in from the left. Knowing this, we’ll use our lightest blue for the brightest spots (or, alternatively, you can use white + the lightest blue drawn around it for extra glow!). Apply highlights to the top left portion of the head, a triangle over the left nostril, a line along the right eyebrow, an oval on the top left of each arm, and a circle on each knee.
Then, with our plain batter, we’ll draw a large patch on the top left of Squirtle’s tummy. Finally, taking our light orange, we’ll draw a line down the top of their shell to the very back, where we’ll put down a patch of light orange.
Step 4
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Using your darkest blue batter, begin to fill in shading zones on Squirtles head, arms, legs and tail, like so.
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With your lighter yellow batter, add shading zones to Squirtle's chest/belly, and under the head.
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Using your burnt orange/brown batter, shade the bottom of Squirtle's shell.
Now we’ll add the shadows. Remember that these are the places where the light hits Squirtle the least, almost like the opposite of the highlights. Knowing that the light source is coming from the left, most of the shadows will be on the right side of him. Using your Darkest shade of blue (called “Light Blue” on the Batter Colors section), draw a large shadow along the bottom right portion of Squirtle’s head. Continue adding shadow to the right sides of the arms, under their fingers/hand, the bottom right portions of Squirtle’s legs, and the majority of the tail, minus an oval shape in top-left section,
Next, we’ll use our yellow batter to draw shadows along the right side of Squirtle’s tummy, under their belly, and under their chin. Use your dark orange to then shade the bottom portion of Squirtle’s shell.
Step 5
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With your middle blue batter, you can start filling in the rest of Squirtle's head, arms, and tail. This is my favorite part of the process!
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With the lighter yellow batter, fill Squirtle's chest.
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Finally, fill in the rest of Squirtle's shell with your bold orange batter.
All that’s left to do now is fill in the rest! Fill the remainder of Squirtle’s head, arms, and tail with the middle shade of blue (called “light blue” in the Batter Colors section). Fill the rest of the tummy with light yellow, and the shell with orange.
Step 6
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Once a pancake design is all filled in, I like to add an outline of plain batter to give it some extra body and make it easier to flip without damaging the piece.
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Surround the design entirely with plain batter (we're using the Dancakes fill bottle here, which has a much wider aperture and pours faster).
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At the very end of this step, I like to drizzle some extra batter across the back of the pancake to make sure I didn't miss any spaces.
Create an outline around your entire Squirtle 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 make it stronger for the flip!
Step 7
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Once your pancake design is all finished, you can turn your griddle n to about 225 degrees fahrenheit. Don't burn yourself! The surface with get hot soon, so be careful.
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As the pancake cooks you'll see bubbles appear on the back, like so. You want bubbles to appear across the whole back and for the batter to stop looking shiny as the pancake cooks through.
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When the pancake is cooked all the way through, you can start 'carving' it from the griddle. Use the flat edge of your spatula to gently ease the pancake off the griddle. When the whole pancake gently releases, you can get it to slide across the griddle, and that's how you know it's time to flip!
Once you’ve covered every part of Squirtle (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.
Step 8
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When the pancake is loose, it's time to flip! With confidence, gently slide your spatula beneath the design...
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...turn it over all at once...
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...And voila! You've flipped your Squirtle pancake! Look at how cute that is. Allow your design to cook on the reverse side for a moment, and then remember to turn your griddle off.
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 Squirtle pancake art, and enjoy! I wonder if this little one will be joining the Squirtle Squad? Gotta catch 'em all!