Lynx 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 I'm picking 25 of my favourites.

I'm challenging my team of deadly artists to recreate a killer moment.

You'll get to make some art yourself

and in the final show my team and I will choose

which animals will make it into my Deadly Art gallery.

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

On today's Deadly Art

I meet a totally fierce feline.

That was extraordinary!

My team of artists take on another deadly challenge.

We can make a huge comic strip.

And you can make your own art at home too.

Today's deadly animal is a magical, mystical creature

renowned for being shy and elusive.

It's one of the most perfectly adapted predators

of the northern hemisphere.

They're beautiful, silent, quick and powerful.

It's the lynx.

Lynx are solitary animals,

spending most of their time alone stalking their forest habitat.

When it comes to the chase,

they rely on stealth and ambush to catch prey as large as a reindeer.

So it's time to meet the team who are ready and waiting in the studio

for today's Deadly Art mission.

I'm Mike, a cartoon artist. There's nothing I like more

than turning my drawings into stencils and making them deadly.

I'm Deevina. I'm a graphic artist

and I use a computer to create things like this.

And in just a moment, you'll join me and the Deadly 60 crew in Norway

as we come face to face with this mysterious creature.

But first, here's the killer moment I want my artists to recreate.

Lynx are Europe's largest cats

with a startling ability to leap incredibly high

straight up into the air.

So these are the three essential elements

I'd like my artists to recreate.

The first is that powerful spring over two metres into the air.

Their muscular frame and strong hind legs

enable them to catch passing birds by surprise.

Incredible ears. What makes the lynx different from other big cats

are these long, black ear tufts.

These act like antennae, intensifying its hearing,

so its able to hear a rabbit nibbling grass

up to 65 metres away.

Like all cats, the lynx has a beautiful fur coat,

which can be incredibly thick if they need to keep warm in the snow.

Mike and Deevina, over to you.

Those markings are beautiful.

Yeah, that sandy fur has a really thick texture.

We can't forget the essential elements -

we need to have our lynx leaping,

-swiping at her prey.

-Let's make it action-packed.

We could make a comic strip.

No, no! We could make a huge comic strip! Let's do it!

As a cartoon artist, Mike knows what he's talking about.

All right, every comic strip has panels, so let's start with that.

I'm going to draw a big box. Let's break it up into, say,

three cells and we'll leave this for our action sequence at the end.

-Let's add in some captions.

-What about a forest scene?

Let's get some green bold colours.

This is really taking shape and, as we know,

every comic has to tell a story.

What about if the lynx stalked its prey,

chased its prey and captured it for that killer moment?

Yeah, that's perfect. In this final sequence here,

I was thinking I'd draw this big paw

and have this huge star burst coming out

as if it's just caught its prey. What do you think?

-Great! Let's get the materials.

-OK.

That'll be a killer comic strip.

The lynx is a dazzling animal

that lives in both warm and cold countries

and I got the chance to meet one in snowy Norway.

First up, I'll need a ladder.

Lynx are awesome climbers.

Their retractable claws work like crampons,

taking them up almost vertical trees.

A little bit of...meat,

just up there.

OK.

The presence of food switches on their hunting instincts.

She's thinking about it!

Go on, girl!

Ooh, there! Yes!

Whoa!

The last...swipe of the paw

was just so fast!

Magnificent.

Join me later, when we'll see more of the lynx's leaping ability.

How are Mike and Deevina getting on?

I've made this frame for our huge light box.

Our comic strip is constructed with clear acrylic sheets

and we'll have layers of detail in stages

and at the end we'll shine a light right through it

to really bring it to life.

We need to characters and action,

but I'll start with the background layer.

The lynx isn't only found in the snow.

Our cat will be based in a vivid green forest.

Now all we have to do is stick them down.

Mike has to be really precise placing that sticky vinyl.

That's why he's the artist and not me.

And to prove that, here he is with a Deadly Doodle for you to try.

I'm going to show you how to draw a simple lynx head.

It's always about basic shapes, but this time it's very simple.

Let's start with a big hill in the middle of our paper.

Two big triangles for the ears and a cup shape for the mouth.

Add a triangle for the nose

and two big triangles for the eyes.

That's your pencil sketch done. Told you it was simple.

Pick up our black marker and add the details.

Start with the ear.

I'm going to give it a bit more shape this time.

Add in a tuft of hair at the top

and give it a flap.

Same on the other side.

Leaf shape for the ear, tuft of hair at the top

and a little flap.

Ears done. We'll move on to the hair.

Start with the top of his head, simple zigzag shapes.

Lynx have jagged fur all around their face

so we'll add that in.

Big zigzag lines this time.

Curving down, add that back to our mouth.

Go back over our pencil lines.

This time, add a big box on the inside.

Draw in those big, sharp teeth.

Two at the top and two smaller ones at the bottom.

Just shade in the mouth a little bit.

Now for the nose.

Go back over your triangle

and just shade in the bottom half.

Two lines to connect your nose to your eye.

Now we can start on those menacing eyes.

Go back over your pencil line,

but on the top, add in a big, thick black line.

For the eye, add a simple curved line and give him that cat's eye.

Draw a few markings around his eyes.

They kind of look like eyelashes.

Add in some details

for his nose,

two lines to emphasise the top of his mouth.

You can't forget his huge whiskers.

Big long lines here.

And there you have

your simple lynx doodle.

Great lynx, Mike!

Now over to Deevina, who's finished her light box

and has placed the background image.

We've added the next layer of our acrylic sheet and, as you can see,

this forms great borders for our comic strip.

These three panels tell the story of our lynx about to catch his prey,

building up to that killer moment.

But our story is missing the main character - our lynx.

So for that we've got more vinyl sheeting.

All that's left to do is to draw our lynx

in the three stages of our story.

Now we need to cut out the shapes and add in the detail.

Now it's on to the next stage,

All comic books have bold designs and so does our lynx.

One of our essential elements is those distinctive markings.

With the yellow lynx cut out and in position,

Mike adds more vinyl shapes and colours to add shade and definition.

Now back to snowy Norway where I get closer to our lynx.

They are awesome!

One of the lynx's deadly abilities

is their capacity to spring straight up in the air from the ground,

potentially to catch a flying bird.

And I'm going to try and show you that now.

Unfortunately this one here has just got an elevated position,

which is a little bit...freaky.

I'm hoping she'll come down,

but not towards me.

OK, all right. I'm going up.

OK.

I'm hoping that's about the right height.

That's probably just over two metres.

OK. All three of them are watching.

Are we going to see it?

Oh!

That was extraordinary!

From a complete standing start,

two metres straight up into the air.

The lynx -

prowling, pouncing predator of the frozen north.

Definitely deadly!

And here's a DIY you can definitely try at home.

OK, I've got this piece of cardboard

and I've drawn the simple outline of my lynx's head.

Now, using all different kinds of tape,

I'm going to make a beautiful lynx art piece.

I'm going to start with some black electrical tape.

I'm going to outline where the mouth goes.

This DIY is based on the doodle Mike drew earlier.

Fill it all in.

A simple triangle shape for the nose

and the same again - two triangles for the eyes.

OK, that's the main features finished

and now for all the fur.

Some nice brown packaging tape will make it look all scruffy.

I'm just taping it down within the outline that we did earlier.

The idea here is to be as messy as possible.

You want lots of wrinkles to give the texture in the fur.

It doesn't matter which way you go or how you fill it in

as long as you get that nice layered texture.

If you have to turn a corner, just pinch your tape and keep sticking.

OK, that's all the undercoat finished.

For the eyes, I'm using two bits of sponge that I've cut out.

I'm going to tape them down.

That black outline really works to make them look menacing.

Now, we're going for the shading under the ears.

Mike's using a dark brown insulating tape.

For the deadly teeth, I'm using some masking tape.

Take a nice long strip...

..and simply just roll it up.

Keep rolling it around.

There's one tooth done. Stick it in place.

And now with some black electrical tape, we'll add in the cat's eye.

Simple triangle in the middle...

..of our sponge.

-And here's your deadly lynx DIY!

-Great job!

Earlier, we saw Mike adding the details to the lynx comic strip.

-Deevina's got the next addition.

-I've printed out these captions.

The big art is complete,

but have Mike and Deevina risen to the challenge?

We've captured the essential elements. The ears are unique.

I'm loving the tufts at the end. I think it works really well.

The lynx has a beautiful fur coat. The way we used those shades

has highlighted those magnificent markings.

I'm loving the comic book vibe.

Me too. And of course, the final element - our lynx leaping

after its prey, that all-important killer moment. Nice work!

High five!

So, it's time for the big reveal.

This is the killer moment I challenged my artists to recreate.

So let's take a look at our finished art.

Oh, that is beautiful!

The graphic art is truly striking, and it definitely includes

all my essential elements. I love these three comic strip pictures.

It's a clever way of representing the three stages of hunting.

Their ears are really distinctive with their pointed ends,

and I love the magnificent markings on the fur.

Art just doesn't get any deadlier than this.

That's a top Deadly rating from me.

But will it make it into my Deadly gallery? Maybe.

See you next time for more Deadly Art.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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