Wrinkle-lipped Bats Deadly Art

My name's Steve Backshall. 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 moments...

..and turn it into art.

And we'll reveal another unique creation.

Along the way, you'll get to pick up tips, tricks 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'm hanging out with a colony of predators.

I think...I'm about to go. Argh!

My team of artists recreate another killer piece of art.

Steve in a cave, eye-to-eye with a bat.

That is what Deadly Art is all about.

And we'll show you another Deadly Doodle.

Imagine two-million winged,

deadly animals coming towards you in a flying storm cloud.

Meet the wrinkle-lipped bat and their colony of thousands.

There are many species of bats found around the world.

But the thing that makes this species so incredible

is the sight of them leaving their roost to hunt en masse.

Between them, these bats could eat up to 30,000 kilograms

of insects in just one night of foraging.

That's the equivalent weight of five fully-grown elephants.

Time to meet our art team ready for today's Deadly Art challenge.

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

I'm all about getting stuck in.

I'm Nicola, and I'm the power-tool queen.

They are representing the Deadly Art team,

who are always up for a challenge.

And here are today's killer shots to inspire the artwork.

Bats are the only mammal that can truly fly

and they are extraordinarily agile when they're on the wing.

This enables them to catch flying insects in mid air.

When they're en masse, they're one of the most impressive sights.

And in just a moment, you'll see me dangling with them.

And that's part of today's killer moment, too.

The wrinkle-lipped bat is so unusual.

There's something about bats hanging in a cave that is really creepy.

Make sure we incorporate that feeling into the artwork.

Steve was hanging in there with them.

-If we include him, that'll make for a really cool image.

-Let's do it.

Time for some more Deadly Art.

We're going to create a massive picture

using spray paint and stencils.

We'll have Steve hanging in the cave with bats flying all around him.

We've created a photo montage of Steve hanging with the bats

and I'm just tracing over it with this acetate,

picking out all these essential elements.

-This will be the foundation for our massive artwork.

-Cheers, Nicola.

With Nicola's tracing projected on here,

we can start drawing around the picture and create our stencils.

-There you go.

-Cheers.

I can't wait to see the colony of bats represented in a piece of art.

And this is that very moment

where I descended deep into Gomantong Cave in Borneo.

When they're not flying, bats generally rest high up

and hanging down.

When they want to fly again, they let go and accelerate quickly,

allowing them to get into their flying position easily.

Now, I'm a mammal, just like a bat.

So let's see how long I can hang on for.

I can't quite believe I'm doing this!

Right, OK.

So I'm hanging on using muscle power.

Beneath me at the moment,

well, it's about 90 metres down to the floor of the cave,

which is a long way.

I've been hanging on for...not long.

Probably...15-20 seconds.

And already...the steel wire's cutting into my fingers.

Bit frightened about quite how far down it is at the moment.

Argh!

Now, bats can do this for a very, very long time.

They don't use their muscles like I'm dong.

Instead, they switch on their talons or their claws.

Bats' ligaments and muscles work differently to ours.

If you relax your hand, it will fall open.

When a bat relaxes its claws, it does the opposite and clenches up.

So even when asleep, they're in no danger of letting go.

And they can hang on for hours.

Whilst me, on the other hand...

I think I'm about to go. Argh!

Whoa!

Whoo!

That is a very long way down.

Imagine being able to hang upside down for hours on end. Incredible!

How are Nicola and Michelle getting on with their big bat art?

We've got our tracing drawn out on a massive scale.

And now it's time to work on the stencils.

I've got the bat's head. You might notice Steve's face is missing.

And that's because I've got Steve right here.

It's stuck to a piece of card so it's nice and sturdy

for when we spray-paint it later.

First, it's all about cutting out the shapes.

Don't try any of the techniques you see in our big art.

But for now, it's Doodle time with Nicola.

This is the Deadly Doodle of the wrinkle-lipped bat.

We'll start with his head.

On an angle, draw an oval shape

with a slightly smaller one inside.

Two leaf shapes for the ears

and a heart shape for the nose.

And two smaller circles for the eyes.

Its body is an upside-down house shape.

Two straight lines with a point reconnecting to the body.

His feet are two U shapes right down there at the bottom.

And now we're onto the wings. Draw two lines

coming out of the top of his head

with a small circle on the outside of each one.

Now we need an arch over the top for his wing.

Using four rigid lines,

create that arch on both sides.

Add three arches from the end of the wing.

One, two, three. Same on both sides.

And then we just need some guidelines for those fingers.

We join this point to this circle with some rigid lines.

And this top one just disappears off into the wing.

We're ready for the marker pen.

Redefine those lines on both sides

and then draw a line down the centre

with some texture on the inside of his ear.

An arch across the top of his head,

then complete the rest of his head from the bottom of the ear

all the way around to the bottom of the other ear.

At the bottom of his face, add on an elongated U shape for his chin

with a few little hairs.

Above that chin, you need to raise the line slightly

and come back down again to create his lip.

I'll add a thicker line there to show off the inside.

And then most importantly,

a wiggly line all the way over the top of his lip,

and then on to the nose.

First, fill in the top, the bridge of his nose,

and then the underneath and then give him two nostrils.

Now we're onto the eyes.

Go around those circles until you get a small circle in the centre.

Fill in the top of the head and the bottom of the wing.

Take that head all the way round, underneath the chin.

And the second part of his body is just redefining those lines,

but being a little bit more organic.

For his feet, draw the sides in first of all

and then four quick lines up through the centre to create his toes.

Just need to do the wings.

Follow these lines all the way up and around that circle.

Back down until you meet the ear again.

Then, on to the rest of his wing,

fill in the lines you've already done,

and then very carefully,

double up on them to create those spindly fingers.

Almost done.

All we need to do now is fill in those arches to complete the wing.

And there he is. Rub out the lines and he's finished.

There we go. Your very deadly wrinkle-lipped bat.

That bat looks so realistic.

Here's how some of you got on with this doodle

when the Deadly artists went to Glasgow on a Deadly Day Out.

ALL: Deadly!

-I'm Brian.

-I'm Jack.

-BOTH: And this is our Deadly Doodle.

I'm pleased with my Doodle. It's quite good and it was a challenge.

My name is Jamie and this is my Deadly Doodle.

My favourite bits are the wings.

They've got a lot of detail on.

I never would have been able to draw them.

Your bats were cool. Keep practising your doodles.

Let's get back to the Deadly Art studio and our big art.

All our stencils are cut out, and this is the fun bit.

It's time to start spray-painting.

Michelle and Nicola are professionals

and are wearing protective masks when they use their spray paints.

-Looks great!

-I'm looking forward to seeing the big art bat colony.

But first, it's time for Michelle with a Deadly DIY.

I'm going to show you how to create

this beautiful piece of bat artwork using stencils.

I'm starting off with a large piece of blue card

which will act as the sky.

To set the scene a bit more,

I've cut out a large circle from some white paper

and I'm going to stick this on for the moon.

To give it a bit more depth and texture,

I'm going to use some dark paint.

Just put a bit on here.

And with a sponge, I'm going to dab on it like this.

This really helps to make it look a bit more realistic.

OK, that's the moon sorted, now on to the bat stencil.

This is really simple to make.

I've got a piece of card here and on it, with my pen,

I'm just drawing a large M shape.

And at the bottom of the M shape,

I'm just joining it all up with some curvy lines.

So now, with a scalpel, I'm just cutting around it.

I'm following the lines I've drawn with my scalpel.

Now, scalpels are very dangerous,

so make sure you get an adult to help you.

Very carefully going around, just scoring along that final line.

And then the inside will pop out really easily.

There you have your bat stencil.

Now, I want my bats to be flying across the moon,

then sweeping around as if they're coming towards me.

So for that effect, you need three different-sized stencils.

We've got a small one for the bats that are the furthest away,

and then a medium-sized one as the colony of bats gets closer,

and then you end up with your large one when they're in front of you.

I'm going to start with the small bats.

As you can see, we've got four of them.

And it just makes it quicker as you're going along.

Michelle is using blue paint for her small bats,

brown paint for the medium-sized bats

and a darker brown for the large ones.

Great. And for the final bat, I've grabbed Nicola's doodle from earlier.

It's been coloured in and now I'm going to stick it right at the front.

And there you have an amazing Deadly bat DIY.

That's totally brilliant! Give it a go.

Back to our bonkers bat cave artwork.

It looks like they've reached the finish line.

Because we used stencils, we've got a sharp, bold, graphic image.

And it really works.

And we've got Steve in a cave, eye-to-eye with a bat.

That is what Deadly Art is all about.

Let's stop hanging around and get ready for the big reveal.

I asked the Deadly Art team to recreate these killer shots

and turn them into art.

So let's take a look at the finished result.

Oh, the air is thick with bats!

I love the different-coloured silhouettes.

And you can see the strain as I hang there in the darkness.

And my toes dangling tantalisingly over eternal darkness.

Terrifying!

Those stencils sum up how the bats pour out of that cave.

They just seem to go on for ever.

That one big bat with its burning red eye

and those huge fangs looks terrifying!

Art doesn't get any deadlier than this.

That was a truly sublime work of art.

Make sure you try the Doodle and the DIY

and we'll see you next time for more Deadly Art.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd