Ellie Campbell's Hand-Painted Rotoscope Animations Transform Club Nights into Wonky Art

Ellie Campbell, a mixed-media artist from Weston-super-Mare, creates hand-painted rotoscope animations that reimagine everyday scenes, particularly club nights, with exaggerated, textured visuals. Her degree-show project, Dance, comprises 1,195 hand-printed frames and captures the loose, blurry feeling of a night out. Campbell, who recently completed a Fine Art degree at Loughborough University, describes her work as "textured, trippy and unapologetically human." She cites cartoons and the labour-intensive nature of animation as key influences, and her process involves researching footage, printing frames onto contact sheets, and painting each frame by hand at 25 frames per second (or 20 when time is tight). She often introduces playful elements like googly eyes and ridiculous in-between frames. Notable works include Dance 17, which she says evokes the "nostalgic, upbeat and wild" clubbing experience, and Dance 8, featuring exaggerated movements. Campbell's installations have combined painted animation with TouchDesigner. She aims to immerse viewers and provoke emotional responses, with reactions ranging from admiration for the time spent to comparisons to an acid trip. Her work reflects her upbringing in a small seaside town and the influence of visiting Dismaland.