Children in Need Special Deadly Art

I'm Steve Backshall, and this is Deadly Art.

I'm lucky enough to travel the world tracking deadly animals.

But in this show, my team of artists take my killer moment...

..and turn it into art.

Today, we're looking back at the time when the team created

polar bear artwork for the Children In Need Christmas card.

Along the way, you can pick up some tips and trick and techniques

so you can make some art yourself.

This is no ordinary art show. This is Deadly Art!

Coming up on Deadly Art...

I'll show you another exciting Deadly 60 trip when I travelled

8,000 km to encounter the beautiful but lethal polar bear.

What a magnificent creature.

The Deadly Art team gets to grips with another amazing art creation.

Hello, everyone.

And I'll be visiting the Deadly Art studio too,

even drawing a deadly doodle.

-A wry smile.

-I'm not sure that polar bears smile!

-It's a doodle!

Fair enough!

Despite being one of the largest predators,

these magnificent creatures are adored the world over.

It's the polar bear.

They're the world's largest bear, and can weigh 1,000 kilograms.

That's as much as a small car.

Their huge feet can be 30 centimetres across.

That's about the same size as a large pizza.

And true to their reputation, polar bears love to have fun,

and they get involved in play fighting at any age.

So using this play fighting as their inspiration, let's meet our artists.

As ever, they're ready and waiting in the Deadly Art studio.

I'm Michelle, and I just love working with different materials.

I'm all about getting stuck in!

Hey, I'm Mike. I'm a cartoon artist, and I'm up for today's Deadly Art!

I'm Jo, I'm a painter... ..Sculptor and a general mess maker!

Michelle, Mike and Jo will be representing the Deadly Art team,

who are always up for a challenge.

Polar bears are amazing! Let's focus on their play fighting.

We don't want to make our Christmas card too fierce.

-It has to be popular.

-Yeah, we want it to stand out.

But guys, this is Deadly Art!

You've got to see some teeth and show some claws.

I'm thinking a huge canvas with a 3D element,

-and I know just the thing, all right?

-OK.

-I'm going to start drawing the bears.

-Cool!

Mike's using his cartoon drawing skills, and gets to work.

-Legs, and we want big feet!

-OK, yeah.

This is a block of polystyrene,

I'm going to use it to carve out the 3D polar bear.

Now I'm going to take Mike's drawing of a polar bear

and trace it onto this acetate sheet.

I love how fast Mike, Michelle and Jo are working.

We'll have some cracking polar bear artwork in no time!

-All right!

-Yes!

-Let's get drawing!

Our Deadly Art polar bears are going to be huge!

Now, when I was on a quest to find one...

Polar bear tracks everywhere!

..the Deadly 60 team and I travelled right up into the Arctic Circle.

Look at these!

They're quite small! It looks like a young adult!

It's really something to think that we're sharing the ice

with one of the world's most terrifying predators!

The tracks have led us to the coast,

and now all that lies ahead of us are ever-shifting frozen seas.

It would be extremely dangerous to venture out there.

Looks like this polar bear has given us the slip.

These bones are all that remains of a mighty whale.

Hopefully that will bring the bears in.

It's certainly attracted some other animals.

Just sat, almost totally oblivious,

no more than 10 metres in front of me, is an Arctic fox.

And there must be five or six of them on the bones around us.

These are really important animals for us,

because Arctic foxes around here actually get a good deal of

their diet by following polar bears around and picking off their scraps.

So if there are Arctic foxes around, and they are everywhere,

then we stand a really good chance of finding our polar bears.

We know the bears are out there somewhere,

but seeing them is another matter.

Stick around to see if we manage to find a polar bear, but now,

let's get back to our awesome artwork.

I've marked out the polar bears on our canvas,

and now I'm just finishing off the red sky for the horizon.

We've got a great idea for the rest of the sky,

and you'll see that later.

We'll use a hot wire to burn through the polystyrene

to cut out the initial shape.

This is Deadly, so as you can see, we're all kitted up.

Deadly Art is all about showing you how art is created,

but our team are professionals.

Don't ever attempt anything you see in the big art stages.

This is Deadly Art at its most extreme.

Oh, that is very cool!

Now, let's return to our Arctic trip.

It may have been freezing,

but our search for the polar bear was getting warmer.

It's a bear! No more than 150 metres off from the shore.

So exciting! I can just feel my heart start beating!

Out there, about a mile off in the distance, is our first polar bear.

He's just sort of ambling about at the moment.

But even from this distance, you can see how powerful he is.

It's minus 20.

The crew and I are kitted out in layers and layers of warm clothes.

Even the camera's got a jacket on! And we can just about work,

but this animal is totally at home in this frozen wasteland.

These frozen seas are absolutely essential

to the polar bear's success.

It's out there that it finds the majority of its prey.

Particularly in the winter, when all this is frozen over.

The seals that it feeds on go through a large amount

of their life cycle out here. They have their pups out here,

and that's where the polar bear is at its lethal best.

What a magnificent creature.

And back to our magnificent artwork!

-All right!

-That's great.

-This bear is completely made from polystyrene.

-But for this bear,

the head is cut out of polystyrene, and the body

is painted on the canvas, which makes it look further away.

Ur-rgh! Ra-a-ar! BEARS ROAR

I'm just drawing out our glacier.

We're going to position our polar bears so it looks like

-they're standing on the edge of the ice.

-And on this canvas,

we'll use perspective to draw the rest of the glacier,

so when you view the bears from here, it looks like there's

a great, big hole in the floor, with a drop...down into the depths.

I'm going to carve into these, to give them more shape and detail.

Now this is really deadly!

It looks fun, but don't try this at home!

This is our vanishing point. It's the secret of perspective.

And by drawing lines going away from it, we can make it

look like there's a crack in the ice with a huge drop below!

Cool.

Mike and Michelle are using a special device

that snaps out their perspective lines with chalk.

This glacier, drawn on the floor, will really

show off the polar bears to a much greater effect

when we reveal the final artwork later in the studio.

And now it's time for you to get involved!

Here's Jo with a Deadly Doodle.

As always, starting off with some simple shapes,

The first one...is a large oval in the middle of the page.

Then another oval that overlaps that. This will be his body.

A circle for his head, and a smaller circle which will be his nose.

Now, we'll put them all together and start giving it some shape.

Starting off with the nose and working backwards, along it,

and then backwards down for the mouth.

And bringing this line up, over to where his ears come out.

Over the top and then there's his other ear.

And this line, jagged down to his first leg.

Now coming out from where his eyebrow is, I'm going to

put in his back, which comes down to his back leg and his back paw.

And then we can bring his legs in.

And then his first paw is down here.

And all the time going over those simple shapes

that we already created.

Now for the details. I'm going to give him an eye up here.

And his other eye goes along the top of that circle.

Some shading in his ears.

Lastly, those deadly claws!

Now just like on our big art,

I'm going to have my polar bear stood on the edge of a high glacier.

Which is just a curvy line going off into the distance.

And then some lines coming off it to give it some perspective.

And now we need to get rid of those guidelines.

I'm just going to rub them out.

So, there's our polar bear!

Looking good, Jo! I'll be giving it a go myself in a bit.

Well, polar bear art work is really coming on!

So both our polar bears are in position.

Now, for the tricky bit.

Adding in all those fine details with the paint.

I've been painting in our perspective lines to create

the edges of the cracks in the ice.

It looks weird from where I am, but from the vanishing point...

it looks like I'm on the edge of a massive abyss!

Oh, wow! That really works!

The fine detail on the polystyrene polar bears makes them realistic,

but as it's a special Deadly Art, I just have to get involved.

-Hello, everyone!

-Hey!

It's Deadly Doodle time. Backshall style.

Grab your pencil if you want to try it again with me!

So, here's my polar bear that I did earlier. Now it's your turn, Steve.

Well, I really can't draw, so if I can do it, ANYONE can.

OK, we'll start off with some basic shapes.

-The first one is an oval.

-OK.

Then a slightly smaller oval coming out of that.

And then a circle at the top here for its head.

And a smaller circle for its nose.

Now we're going to turn it into a bear.

A wry smile.

-I'm not sure that polar bears actually smile.

-It's a doodle.

-Fair enough.

-The chin.

You're going to draw in the line into the paw.

The paws are absolutely enormous!

Huge, like the size of a dinner plate.

Now it's time to colour in the polar bear,

and you can do yours at home, too.

Shading in is the best bit.

Nearly finished. All it needs is the Steve snake signature.

There you go. That's my Deadly Doodle

-for the back of the Christmas card.

-Nice one.

We're making a Christmas card, so we've got to add some sparkle.

In Alaska, where the polar bears live

is a phenomenon called the Northern Lights.

That's right. It lights up the whole of the sky, like this.

So, we're going to use the spots from Pudsey's bandana

as our Northern Lights, to add some more colour.

-Let's do it.

-Yep!

I'm really enjoying my visit to the Deadly Art studio.

I get to do a bit of spray painting, too!

The Deadly Art team were given the challenge to create an amazing

work of art based on these great shots of the polar bear.

So, are you ready?

Let's see the finished work of art.

Oh, that is SO impressive!

Using a painted canvas, with 3D polar bears placed on top,

gives it an extra depth.

They captured the two adults play fighting really well.

And the 3D ice glacier on the floor has made the canvas even more

Nice work, guys! I think it's beautiful!

We'll see you soon for more Deadly Art!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd