Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Lewin.
Hi Ryan, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I sort of stumbled into pancake art randomly by watching some pancake art videos online back in 2019. I thought it was so cool how you could draw and create things on a pancake, that I thought I would give it a try with my kids. I have always loved to draw and had drawn some portraits for family and friends as gifts in the past but hadn’t really had time to get into it as much as I would have liked. So, I thought that pancake art would be a fun way to tap back into my creative side while also having some fun with my kids.
My first pancake art design that I attempted was Ariel from the Little Mermaid for my daughter. We prepped all the batter and colors together and had a lot of fun with it. At the time, I thought my Ariel design was going to turn out looking great, but once I flipped the pancake, it was a complete disaster! The Ariel pancake was burnt, the colors were splotched everywhere, and it was a total mess! But my daughter loved it and in her 5-year-old eyes it was Ariel and she was so excited. Seeing the joy in her eyes and how happy this blotchy Ariel pancake made her made me want to get better at this pancake art thing.
So, I practiced and practiced, kept learning from my mistakes, started seeing improvements, and decided to start posting time-lapse videos of my pancake art on my social media pages @flippinartdude. I then began to get a big following and several requests to see more.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
There have definitely been some bad pancakes along the way and some unfortunate flips that broke the pancake after spending a lot of time on detailed drawing. Pancake art is such a challenging thing to learn because everything is backwards and you add layer upon layer, which means you cannot go back and fix anything once it’s covered with batter. I don’t even know what the final pancake is going to look like before I flip it! So, there is definitely a level of excitement/anxiety every time I get ready for the flip! It takes a lot of practice, but even if I make a mistake, I know that the pancake will still taste the same either way. But I am always trying to improve and get better.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I do a few different things when it comes to pancake art. I create commissioned pancake art videos for companies, sports teams, bands, news outlets and individuals to name a few for them to post to their social media. People love to see designs and characters come to life through my time-lapse videos. Pancake art is such a unique form of art that people don’t normally see!
I have worked with Country Music Television to create several pancake portraits of famous country music singers. The bands Blink-182 and Linkin Park also reached out to me to create pancakes for them as well which was so fun to be a part of!
In addition to commissioned pancake art, several of the pancakes that I make and post on my social media are for fun and a way for me to continue to express my creativity. I have made several Dallas sports pancakes that were shared by the Dallas Mavericks, Dallas Stars, Mark Cuban, Mike Modano, and the NHL! The NHL even contacted and interviewed me for a news article that was published on NHL.com, which was such a cool experience because I have been a huge hockey fan since I was little.
A lot of my other pancake art videos also got the attention of Katie Couric and Hoda Kotb as they shared my pancake creations with their social media following. Several local Dallas news and radio stations also did television and radio interviews with me about my pancake art which was a lot of fun! My daughter loved being on TV during one of my interviews!
Besides the video content that I create, I also do pancake art parties and events. One really fun live event that I did was for the Dallas Mavericks right in front of American Airlines Center before a game for their City Edition Party. I had my own “Flippin Art Dude” booth and got to create Mavs pancake art for all the fans! Live events are a lot of fun because I get to see peoples’ reactions when I flip their requested pancake.
One thing that I am most proud of is how I can create a design from scratch and turn it into a fun experience, especially with my family. Whether it be my time-lapse videos or making pancake art live, it is something that is so much fun and where anything can be created. Sharing that with my family definitely makes this pancake art journey worthwhile.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
About 4 months after I started making pancake art, I was contacted by Dancakes, a professional pancake art company. I was shocked to see that they reached out to me because their pancake art videos were the ones that I first started watching that sparked my interest in pancake art! They were so impressed with my pancake art that I had been posting on social media that they asked me if I wanted to join their team as a Dancakes artist. I still have my FlippinArtDude brand that I manage myself through video content and local live events/parties, but I also work live events with Dancakes all over the country. They flew me out to St. Louis where they are based to meet the team (5 artists and a Manager), and they are all such amazing/talented people. So, whenever I am not working my full-time job in Finance and working my FlippinArtDude side-gig locally, I am traveling around with Dancakes creating even more fun pancake art!
Contact Info:
- Email: flippinartdude@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flippinartdude
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flippinartdude
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/flippinartdude?lang=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4qnG1gukJcXvCYSBLGsfCQ
