‘A New Day’ is a wordless picture book about a form of environmental pollution that we all experience and witness on practically a daily basis, littering.

 

I have recently moved to a small town on the edge of the South Downs, an area of outstanding natural beauty in the UK and on my walks into the surrounding countryside I have increasingly noticed litter in the environment, bottles tossed into drainage ditches, drinks cans discarded in woods, litter thrown from car windows into hedgerows. It both infuriates and intrigues me and throws up so many questions ‘How could anybody do this? What are they thinking when they do it and do they not consider the effects of their actions?’

 

When creating the artwork for the story I wanted the litter to stand out and jar with its surroundings as it does in nature. I settled on collaged cuttings from supermarket brochures for rendering the litter elements and linked the litter to the perpetrator of the littering through the use of colour. My choice of a limited colour palette for the rest of the artwork also helps with the visual story telling.

 

My hope is that both children and adults of all ages can connect with this wordless, slightly surreal story that ultimately has a hopeful ending.