Digital Sketch Tour: Mechanical Monsters

Let's get inspired by works of art from the 2020 Adelaide Biennial, and mix up mechanical details to construct our own robotic monsters. Machinery can be confusing to draw, so it helps to break it down into bits and pieces.

Warm-up activity: Machinery from Memory

Divide a piece of paper into 4 sections. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Fill each square with a quick drawing of something that is part of a car.

Warm-up activity: Machinery from Observation

Divide another piece of paper into 4 sections. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Look at the detailed close-up photo below of Michael Candy's robot, Cryptid and draw a different detail in each square.

Robot Drawing: Cryptid by Michael Candy

Choose one of the photos of Cryptid below, and draw one part of the machinery in detail.

Robot Drawing: Reclining StickMan by Stelarc

Pause at an interesting moment and draw one or two details.

Drawing from Untitled (Death Song) by Megan Cope

Find two objects or shapes to draw in Megan Cope's sound installation.

Drawing from Tales of Enchantment by Judith Wright

Divide another piece of paper into 4 sections. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Look at the photo of Judith Wright's installation Tales of Enchantment and draw a different detail in each square.

Build your Mechanical Monster!

Gather all your drawings. Mix and match your bits and pieces to build a monstrous robot! You can do this by cutting and pasting your drawings, or copying elements onto a new page.