Monitor Lizard Deadly Art

My name's Steve Backshall and this is Deadly Art.

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

In this show, my team of artists take my killer moments...

..and turn it into art.

'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 nose-to-nose with today's lethal beast.'

If I got bitten, it would not be a good day.

'The deadly artists make another cool, killer work of art.'

Nothing's going to get in his way!

'And we'll show you how to draw another Deadly Doodle.'

Today's Deadly Art animal is the monitor lizard.

'Monitor lizards are Jurassic, quite literally.

'Their ancestors rubbed noses with dinosaurs 100 million years ago.

'What's allowed these extraordinary creatures

'to survive on earth for so long?

'They're hard as nails, with an incredible array of weapons.

'They can climb, they can swim, they can run,

'they have very, very sharp teeth, sharp claws and a whip-like tail.'

They're scared of absolutely nothing.

'Another Deadly Art challenge for today's team. Let's meet them.'

Hey. I'm Mike. I'm a cartoon artist.

And I'm up for today's Deadly Art.

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

'Mike and Michelle represent the Deadly Art team,

'who are always up for a challenge.

'Here are the killer shots to inspire the artwork.'

They're cheeky, fearless and they've got a strong, bulky body.

And their skin, it's a lovely scaly pattern with loads of texture.

-This is going to be fun.

-You know it!

'Time for some more Deadly Art.'

Thanks, Michelle.

Our monitor lizard is going to be huge.

So you need to cut it out of loads of sections of polystyrene.

So we've got our monitor lizard cut out in a template,

now I just need to attach it.

That's the head and body. Check out this tail.

Look how long he's going to be!

'While Mike and Michelle get on, let's take a look at the time

'I travelled to Australia with the Deadly 60 crew.

'I was about to come face-to-face

'with their fiercest reptile.'

It was thought until very recently there was only

a couple of lizards in the world that were truly venomous.

But it turns out that this guy here

has truly venomous spit.

And, er...if I got bitten,

it would not be a good day for me.

I can almost smell your breath from here, mate.

He can smell yours as well, Steve.

He's just snuffling around with his tongue in the leaf litter.

His tongue just flicked all up my arm.

Around here, reptiles really are the top predators.

The crocodiles, monitor lizards,

they kind of take the place of the lions of the African plains.

He's a living dinosaur.

With a venomous bite, a whip for a tail

and tearing talons.

'Incredible! Let's head back to the Deadly Art studio

'to see how the Big Art is getting on. Lots of stones?'

When all our pebbles are put together,

they look like the scaly skin of our lizard.

We want to capture that in a mould. This takes a while to set.

Once it has done, you can pull the silicone away from the pebbles

and you're left with an amazing textured mould.

Once this is all pulled off,

the finished result looks like this.

It's fantastic!

Next up, I need to brush a layer of latex over the top of this mould.

Once the latex has set, we'll be able t pull it away

and we'll be left with a beautiful pebbly skin.

'Wow! What a great technique

'to create rough, scaly monitor lizard skin.'

I've made a start cutting out our monitor lizard.

I'm using hot wire to cut all around our template.

Once the pieces are cut out,

we can put them together and shape them.

'It's so cool seeing polystyrene models shaped with hot wires.

'But our artists are professionals. Don't try anything

'you see them do in the Big Art challenges.

'Well, it's all on track,

'so Mike's going to show you a Deadly Doodle.'

I'm going to show you how to draw this deadly monitor lizard.

As always, you start with simple shapes.

We're going to start with a circle for the head.

Then I'm going to draw his mouth.

I'm just going to make a cone coming off the head.

For the body, we want him looking like he's lying really flat.

So we're going to draw a diamond coming out...

from the back of his head.

Now for the legs. So there's one leg that's tucked up behind his head.

Draw a circle for his paw.

There's one out to the side. A big paw there.

There's one tucked up over here

and there's another one coming down.

And it also has a big paw.

Now, for the tail, I'm going to start at this back leg...

and come in a really big, curving line.

Like a big road, it's going to start small

and get bigger as it comes back around.

OK. That's your pencil sketch.

Grab a black marker and start with all the details.

Work from the tail forward.

Go back over the tail,

wrap it around to the leg.

The top of the tail, keep going over your line,

but this time, go back over,

all the way down for your belly.

Draw in that back leg, move over to this back leg

and go back over that oval.

Draw the back side of his belly here,

then draw in his big paws on the back.

Monitor lizards have massive claws at the end of their paws.

So we'll colour those in as we go.

Now we're going to go back over this oval for the front leg.

And this time, draw your paw even bigger because it's closer to us.

Look at those sharp claws.

We'll draw in part of his neck.

Draw another front leg.

A big paw again.

Monitor lizards are really strong, so I'll give him muscles on this arm.

Colour in your claws again.

Deadly!

Now for the head. Start with the neck.

Wrap that around to the mouth.

Come around again for the other side.

Now we'll draw in that forked tongue just sticking out to the side.

Now for those menacing eyes.

Mark out where they go.

Just like that.

Draw them like that to make them look deadly.

Two C shapes inside.

Then give him some angry eyebrows.

Split his head down the middle.

To make him even more deadly, add some wrinkles around his eyes.

Oh, yeah! Add in that nose.

And two nostrils.

One very deadly monitor lizard.

'A full-on, realistic monitor lizard.

'How did some of you get on drawing this doodle?

'We went to Glasgow on a Deadly Day Out.

'Here's all the action from the Deadly Art tent.'

ALL: Deadly!

Here is my Deadly Doodle of a monitor lizard.

I'm not normally very good at drawing.

I think it's turned out really well.

I'm David and this is my Deadly Doodle!

First of all, I thought it was going to be pretty tricky,

but when I got to the marker, it got easier and easier.

'Loving your lizards!

'Now let's get back to the Deadly Art studio.'

We've used smaller bits of poly on this awesome monitor lizard

to make up the legs and feet. I've got the last foot here.

Just needs a final bit of sanding, then I'll pop it in position.

The skin's looking good over here.

When the latex is set, it just peels away from our mould.

Have a look at that. Beautiful pebbly skin.

The great thing about a mould is we can make loads!

I'll take these over and start layering them onto our lizard.

-'Love that bubbly texture!'

-Those look amazing!

-It looks great, doesn't it?

-I'll pop the tail in, then give you a hand.

'Let's leave Mike cracking on with this fantastic Big Art.

'Michelle has a great DIY you'll want to try for yourself.'

Because I'm making the skin on our giant lizard,

I'm going to show you how to make that lovely scaly skin

on your very own monitor lizard.

The Doodle has been transferred onto a large piece of foam board.

First, make yourself a textured roller out of corrugated cardboard.

It's really simple to make.

All you need to do is grab yourself the inside of a tape roll

and cut out of cardboard two circular shapes.

To get them the right size,

just draw around the inside of your tape roll.

These circles just fit on either side,

and then you need to get a long strip of corrugated cardboard

to fix around the outside, like that.

I'll show you how to use this later.

First, we need to add colour to our lizard.

I'm using yellow, but you could use any colour you like.

Lizards have wonderful markings, so with my yellow paint,

I'm going to do some stripes going all the way across the body.

'You must have adult supervision and wear protective gear

'if you're using spray paint.'

So now I've got my yellow as an undercoat,

I'm going to go over it in black paint and then roll through it.

Now, a tip is to take it section by section.

Once you've painted a section,

you need to go over it with your roller straightaway.

It's almost like a tractor wheel.

As you can see, I'm just following the lines all the way up.

You've got the yellow undercoat popping out against the black.

'Keep the wheels steady and apply carefully.

'Great textures!'

Once all your rolling's done, fill in the claws in black.

So now I want to add some more detail to the lizard's face.

For this, we've scored around the eyes,

and all I'm going to do is pop them out with a scalpel.

But you could also use scissors.

'You must get an adult to do this bit.

'Scalpels are dangerous.'

To make the eyes look more deadly, I'm colouring the iris red.

Now it's starting to look really deadly.

And the pupil black.

Check that out! I'm using the same technique for the nostrils.

Finally, we can't forget the lizard's tongue.

I've cut out a piece of foam and all I'm going to do

is stick it underneath.

And there you have it.

Your very own deadly monitor lizard.

'A great technique with corrugated cardboard. Give that one a go.

'Back to the Big Art.

'And our big monitor lizard is looking fantastic.'

The skin has been applied. Now it's all about the painting.

Shading's really important

when it comes to making our monitor lizard look more realistic.

We're doing lighter colours for the underbelly

and working to darker shades on the top, which I'm doing now.

'That's it. All the stages are complete.'

There's a realism to our lizard.

Those textural tones make it come alive.

We made a real confident lizard. He's on the prowl.

Nothing's going to touch him. Nothing's going to get in his way.

'It's nearly time 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. Look at that!

'It just looks like a massive monitor lizard

'has wandered right into the Deadly Art studio.

'It has the long, whip-like tail at the back

'and the long tongue at the front.

'I love how wrinkly the skin is around the joints,

'and the claws are huge!

'Polystyrene as the texture is perfect for the skin

'of this fabulous scaly reptile.

'Nice work, team!'

What an incredible creation!

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