How to Draw Pikachu

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Do not be fooled by Pikachu's cute appearance.
It can shoot serious lightning bolts at you!

If you dare to draw it anyway, here are the steps how to do it.
But you better already prepare a pokeball while drawing.

How to Draw Pikachu - 1: Basic Outline

1. First, draw a simple circle.


2. Add Pikachu's long rabbit-ears to the head.
One ear should start a bit inside of the circle, because it is in the foreground, while the other one just starts at the edge.

3. Let Pikachu's round cheek stand out from the head.
This is a very small step, but important for a good look.


4. Now you can draw in the torso.
It's pretty much just a sack. Make it no larger than the head, and draw it in a slightly diagonal position, because in our picture Pikachu is not standing straight, but running forward.

5. Outline the arms with two curved lines.
One arm looks a bit shorter because it is hidden behind the body, while the other one is in the front and starts inside of the torso.

6. Close the arms at the top with a zigzag line that also creates Pikachu's fingers. Each little spike is a single finger, and they are all very short.


7. Now outline the feet.
Here it is the same thing as with the arms again.
One foot is a bit behind the body, while the other one is partially in front of the body.

8. Close the feet with a zigzag line, creating three toes for each foot. The toes should be larger than the fingers.

9. And now comes Pikachu's lightning shaped tail.
You can also think of it as a staircase with four steps.
Draw the tail narrow at the beginning and very thick at the end.

How to Draw Pikachu - 2: Ear and Tail Detail

10. Separate the tips of the ears with curved lines because they have a different color.
Also draw a zigzag line across the tail to separate its lower part, which also has a different color than the rest.

How to Draw Pikachu - 3: Face

11. Draw in two circles for Pikachu's eyes.
Place one of them close to the circles edge, and the other one closer to the middle. Add the nose as a tiny triangle in between them.

12. Draw a smaller circle into the upper left corner of each eye.
This is for a light reflection, which will make the eyes look much more alive.
Then outline the mouth's top below the nose.

13. Sketch in the opened mouth as a rounded triangular shape.

14. And now you can erase the circle's bottom, so that there is no separation between head and torso anymore.
Then draw a short line through the mouth's upper left corner to outline the tongue and also add circles on Pikachu's cheeks.


15. This step may not be necessary for you, but I needed to redraw the backside of the head to make it smooth and rounded.
So either redraw it, or move on to the next step right away.

How to Draw Pikachu - 4: Body Details

16. Pikachu's legs are very short.
You can bring out their shape with a few curved lines along the torso's bottom. Let one knee stand out from the body a little bit.

Do you see the little red circle I placed on one arm?
This is where I erased a small part of the line to allow for a connection between arm and torso.
When you have done that you're ready for the last small step.

How to Draw Pikachu - 5: Shadows

17. Pikachu is actually complete now, but with a few small shadows it looks much better, because the shadows help to accentuate its form.
Outline a small triangular shadow below Pikachu's chin.
This is the most important one, since it lets the head stand out clearly.
Also draw a shadow lying on feet and legs.


18. Now you can redraw your pencil drawing carefully with a black pen, if you want to. But don't draw black frames around the shadows.
You just want to slightly see where they are, so that you can give these areas a darker tone while coloring.

And that's it.
Pikachu is complete.