Polar Bears and Plastic: The Process

Polar Bears and Plastic: The Process

By Venetia Satow

I designed the pages on a document on a computer to arrange the layouts and then wrote the text.

I wanted a cohesive look for the whole book and wanted to find backgrounds that would pull it together and be similar in different colours. I tried painting backgrounds with watercolour but this often made the paper wrinkle and it made it difficult to draw on top of it. I experimented using food dyes and water to dye thin sheets of card and this gave a more uniform and subtle look.

I then started drawing but felt like the simplicity of the drawings - in a style which I hope will appeal to younger readers - made the pages seem very flat. So, I started cutting out the drawings individually and sticking them on the card which gave some perspective and when scanned there were little shadows too which I liked. I also started adding cut out pictures - for example on the rubbish dump page - I wanted to make it very clear all the things we throw away and thought this would be more shocking if they were photographs of the objects. I also like the look of newspaper and the fact that I am using recycled objects in my work too.

Once I had completed all the drawings and added collage on some pages I chose a font similar to a child's handwriting to make it more familiar to them. I chose a style for the drawings that hopefully copies something a young child would attempt and feel some familiarity with.

The issues the book tries to address are serious but I wanted to try and break it down to a!"!year old's level and make it the topics more accessible.