Rachael Abbott: Polaroid Print Animation

For her latest series, linocut printmaker and animator, Rachael Abbott, took inspiration from the process of analogue photography. Since she began creating lino animations, Rachael has experimented with different forms of movement. The majority of her work has previously focused on travel, and moving an object across the screen, however she wanted to learn more about angles and the evolution of objects through this project. As an art student, Rachael used to enjoy life drawing classes at her local arts centre in Warrington. It was these classes that helped her better understand animation, due to her learning about angles and movement.Unlike digital animation, lino animation requires a lot more patience; “I see this form as animation as being very serendipitous as you have to wait until the very last moment to see if it actually all fits together and works” describes the artist. Rachael finds that there are always minor adjustments that need to be made, but a lot of it comes down to planning in advance, and using Procreate to map out each sequence. After creating her first animation of a slinky, she had no idea what to expect, and saw it as a happy accident when she finally pressed play and watched the slinky move across the screen. “I think after that moment it became a lot easier to predict how the images were going to turn out. Saying that, I do like to make each animation more difficult than the last” states Rachael.

For her latest animation Rachael used photography as a reference for each one of the frames. Using film to capture every movement was useful for the artist as she could pick the video apart and watch how the object changed, which in this case was a Polaroid camera. “It was entertaining to watch myself take a photo of my DCLR just so I could capture the film coming out, now I have random Polaroid photos of my camera I don’t know what to do with” she exclaims.

The animation was inspired by a print she created a few years ago of her much-loved camera. On the background behind the print, she states; “When I was younger we always took Polaroids and I was very jealous of my sisters Spice Girl camera, which she still owns… so when it came to buying my own it brought back that sense of nostalgia“. 

Rachael hopes to continue bringing her linocuts to life through the process of animation, and would love to collaborate with other artist to create longer animations with more of a narrative.

www.rabbottillustration.com
@rabbott_illustration

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