Black-and-White Picture Books
I came to the conclusion that woodblock printing wasn’t good for picture books, but I couldn’t let myself give up there. On the way back home, Lutz and I discussed what went wrong.
“They say that failure is the mother of success, so working out what went wrong should be a step towards succeeding next time.”
“Yeah, makes sense. Why do you think things went bad?” asked Lutz while nodding, and I got to thinking. Three issues sprung to mind immediately.
“First of all, I think the art was too complicated for carving. Wilma’s detailed illustrations were a bad match for woodcuts that have to be carved out with precision.”
It would be unreasonable to make Wilma redraw the same art for each picture book, so I would need to either find a method of printing that didn’t involve woodcuts or alternatively have Wilma adopt a more simplistic style. However, Wilma had never seen art outside of what adorned the temple halls. I couldn’t expect her to be able to just up and change her style on the spot. At the very least, I would need an example she could mimic and learn from.
“My mirrored writing wasn’t the best, either. I’ll need to be more careful when writing. I think a little more focus should fix it? Maybe I could have someone with me to double-check what I’m doing.”
“Meh, at that point, wouldn’t it be better to just make separate blocks for the art and writing? That way the art block’ll be fine even if you get the letters wrong.”
“Lutz, you’re a genius!” I had kind of visualized the writing and the art together since it was a picture book for kids learning to read, but I had more options than that. For instance, I could have art on the left page with text on the right page, or art on the top of a page with writing on the bottom of a page.
“Last is the carving. There were a lot of mistakes that stood out in the art.” Mistakes like the lines of the art going off course or a letter being missing stood out a lot once the page was printed. But my assertion made Lutz pout a bit.
“That’s ’cause we didn’t have the tools to carve properly. My brothers aren’t bad carvers or anything.”
“You don’t have the tools for carving...? Aren’t you from a family of carpenters?” I asked, recalling what I knew about Lutz’s family. He shrugged.
“My family’s got tons of big tools for cutting up wood since we’re heavy in construction. But we don’t have tools for really precise carving. We normally don’t need them.”
Now that he mentioned it, the tools Deid usually used for work and the ones he needed to maintain his home wouldn’t be the kinds of tools necessary for precise carving. My dad had a lot of tools for big projects, but when it came to carving he only had knives at best.
“That art’s just too detailed to carve with knives.”
“Wha? They carved that woodcut with knives?” One could say the woodcut was very well done for something carved with knives. Really, I should have prepared carving tools for them before giving them the job. “I’ll have to remember to give them tools when I ask them to carve something from now on. Could you tell them I’m sorry, and thank you?”
“Yeah, sure. But how did all this turn into a kid’s bible, anyway?” asked Lutz, so I thought back to how making a picture book for the baby turned into making a children’s bible.
“I guess because Wilma can only draw religious art?”
“So it doesn’t have to be a bible? Remember, this is for a baby.” I had to leave the art to Wilma since everyone hated on my drawings, and since Wilma only drew religious art, I changed the picture book to a children’s bible to match.
...Wait. Now that he mentions it, won’t a children’s bible be kinda useless for a baby? I realized the horrible truth. Books for babies and books for children were a lot different. I couldn’t just bundle them all together as “books for young people.”
“Okay! I’ll make a black-and-white picture book for the baby first. The children’s bible can come later!”
“We’ve only got paper and ink, so anything you make’s gonna be a black-and-white picture book.”
“That’s true, but this is a little different.” I needed to go back to the drawing board and think about what kind of picture book I would want to give the baby. I thought back to what I’d learned in books about babies and in infant health class.
First of all, it was thought that newborn babies had blurry vision. Eyesight was tightly connected to the development of the brain, and they grew by seeing a variety of different things each day. They would grow to distinguish bright colors like red by the time they were three to four months old, and their eyes would start to track movement.
They had about the same eyesight as an adult about a year after their birth, but before that outlines tended to be a little blurry and they struggled to distinguish more faint colors. That meant a book for babies below the age of one would want to have high-contrast and easy to understand shapes. For colors, it was easiest for them to recognize white, black, and red, whereas for shapes it was easiest for them to recognize distinct ones like circles, triangles, and squares. That was why books for zero- to two-year-old babies had simple lines, bright colors, and simple text that repeated itself.
I thought back on picture books for babies I had seen and remembered a black-and-white one with nothing but shapes and their names. Even I could manage to draw something like that.
“Lutz, I’m staying home today to make a picture book for the baby!”
“Alright. I’ll contact the temple and come help out once I’ve checked up on the Myne Workshop. When you start making something you’re always a danger to yourself and others, Myne. Gotta keep an eye on you.” Lutz shook his head with exasperation and, unable to argue, I immediately changed the topic.
“Okay, I want some thick paper for this. Could you bring about ten finished pieces from the workshop for me to purchase?” Although I was the forewoman of the Myne Workshop, I needed to buy the paper from Lutz to keep the workshop’s financial records in order.
And so, Lutz came to my house the next day after third bell.
“Oof, this place is a mess. Effa’s gonna be ticked.”
Soot pens, my notepad made of failed paper, and slate pens were scattered over the table. If Mom were here she would definitely tell me to clean up, but with her and Tuuli at work, there was no one to get mad at me.
I was sketching designs on my slate to brainstorm what I wanted to draw in the picture book. Once I decided on something, I flipped to a new page on my notepad and drew it with a soot pen. It was easier to get an idea of what the black-and-white art would look like on paper. Dad had a tool for drawing straight lines in his toolbox, so I took that out and was using it to help me draw. I drew a triangle, then a square, then stopped when it was time to draw a circle. I wanted a compass for it.
“Lutz, do you have a (compass) at your place? Something that looks like this and makes pretty circles by, um...” I drew a compass on the slate and used two fingers to demonstrate how it worked, earning a nod from Lutz.
“Oh, a compass? I feel like we used to have one, but not anymore.”
“Darn. No helping that. Guess I’ll try substituting it with some other stuff.”
I got some of the thread stored nearby and wrapped it around the end of the soot pen. This would be easier if I had a pointed pin, but I didn’t, so I wrapped the thread around a nail I found in the toolbox instead. I held down the flat end of the nail with my left finger, pulled the soot pen away until the thread was taut, then moved it around in a circle. Everything would be fine as long as I didn’t move the nail.
“Woah, nice.” Most people didn’t need to draw perfect circles, and those who did for work just used compasses. Lutz had never seen my thread method before and sounded impressed. It wasn’t common for someone to compliment me. Feeling a bit proud I drew various other circles, only to find that tiny circles were hard to get right. I would definitely want a template ruler or stencil templates for drawing a bunch of shapes.
“Lutz, do you know if anywhere sells (template rulers) or (stencil templates)?”
“You lost me.”
“...Something like this. A sheet of thin metal or (plastic) that has holes cut out of it to reflect shapes of varying sizes.” They were really convenient for drawing the same pattern or shape over and over since you just had to trace along the edges. If compasses existed, stencil templates had to exist too. But Lutz just shook his head in confusion even after I drew one for him. He had apparently never seen one before.
“How do you use those things?”
“Umm, you trace a pen along the edges to draw whichever of the shapes you want.”
“...Couldn’t you make one of these from thick paper?”
“Wow! Lutz, you’re a genius!” I started using a thick piece of paper Lutz brought for the picture book to instead make a stencil template. I drew circles, triangles, and so on with gradually increasing size. Then all I had to do was cut them out to complete the template. It was only after Lutz and I finished drawing the shapes together that I realized how difficult cutting them would be. We literally didn’t have the tools for it.
“This is too small for a knife to cut!” exclaimed Lutz. Looking at the knives we had and the size of the shapes on the paper, I had to slump my shoulders. We could manage to cut out the big circle, and most of the straight lines would be fine. But the small circles were out of the question.
“This will just be a repeat of the woodcut without proper tools. Let’s have Johann make a (precision knife) for us.”
“What’re those?”
“Small, thin knives kinda like pens.” It would be best to really iron out what I wanted since I would be ordering one from Johann.
Lutz and I changed into our apprentice clothes and went to the smithy with our guild cards and a neatly written supply order on volrin paper. Craftsman’s alley was on the south side of town, so Johann’s smithy wasn’t too far from my place.
“Hello.”
“Heya, welcome.” The foreman must have just been dealing with customers, as when we walked in he was sitting at the table with a bunch of boards in front of him. He shot me a grin, reminding me of when I ordered the styluses. “You’re that little girl from before. Got another order?”
“Yes. Is Johann here?”
“Yeah, take a seat. I’ll call him right over.” He stacked the boards and carried them to the back while yelling at Johann that he had a customer. His deep voice echoed through the workshop and Johann came rushing out in no time, his orange hair bundled up.
“Sir! Oh, it’s the Gilberta Company. Hello.”
“Hi. I would like you to make a (precision knife) for me. Please take a look at this.” I held out the volrin paper supply order and turned it around to show the blueprints I’d sketched out. Johann felt the paper, curious, then narrowed his eyes at the design I drew.
“We get a lot of orders for big blades, but nothing this small and narrow. What in the world do you need this for? You’re not gonna be able to cut anything with a blade this small.”
“It’s for cutting plant paper. I need a small blade to cut out tiny circles from it.”
“Hmm. This paper, huh? I’ve never touched any plant paper before.” Johann gripped the paper between his fingers, flipped it over repeatedly, and shook it in front of his eyes to get a feel for it. After letting him satisfy his curiosity, I pointed at the blueprints. I wrote a lot of detailed information about the measurements and usage since I knew Johann would want to know all of it.
“So, the handle can be made out of wood, but I would like it made so that you can swap out the blades. For safety’s sake the blade needs to fit perfectly into the handle, which is why I want to hire you for this, Johann. It’s very precise work.”
Johann asked about the blade switching while looking at the blueprint. I gave detailed answers in reply and soon enough Johann’s eyes were burning with determination. It seemed I had ignited his craftsman’s spirit.
“...Heh. Pretty interesting. It being so easy to swap blades with this design is something else.”
“I would also like either a cap to put over it or a special case to carry it. The blade will be dangerously sharp, and its thinness will make it easy to break.”
“Guess I should make a bunch of extra blades to swap out just in case.”
After settling on things, I paid the foreman the advance payment with my guild card. “Would you please deliver it to the Gilberta Company when you’re finished?” I wouldn’t be able to pay with physical money if they sent it to my place, but if it were delivered to Benno he would pay for it immediately without issue. I could then pay him in advance with my guild card, which saved me the trouble of carrying around coins.
“Lutz, Myne!” On our way home from the temple ten days after ordering the precision knife, the guard in front of the Gilberta Company called us down. Mark had told him to direct us inside to get our delivery.
“Johann arrived with this box this afternoon. He seemed very excited about it.”
Mark gave us a thin box which I immediately took home to finish the stencil template. I didn’t have a proper cutting mat for it, which meant I would have to use the table and try not to cut too deep. That would probably hurt the blade. But it was sharp and easy enough to use that I finished the stencil template without any issue.
I put the finished stencil template on top of my notepad and went to town with a soot pen, resulting in a proper black circle.
“...If I use a stencil to put ink on the picture book, won’t that make carving out a woodcut unnecessary? Wow. Am I actually a genius?” To put my idea into practice, I used the template to design art for the black-and-white picture book. I drew a large triangle, then another upside down beneath that one, and finally added a rectangle to make a tree-like shape. I drew a big circle then put two circle eyes and a triangle nose inside to make a face. Then I drew a curved hexagon with the compass to make a flower. I was having so much fun drawing that I didn’t stop until my family told me to, at which point I cut out the art.
“Look, Lutz! I finished!” I showed Lutz my finished art with excitement. Each was about the size of an A5 piece of paper, the size of the original A4 paper cut in half. Lutz furrowed his brows at the ten pieces of paper, then looked at me like he didn’t know what to say.
“Uh, Myne. Is the baby really gonna like that art?”
“O-Of course! Black-and-white art has a lot of contrast, and since these are just different shapes put together, artistic talent has nothing to do with it.”
My explanation just made Lutz look even more doubtful. “...Eeeh. Well, if you’re happy, that’s fine with me.”
Despite his suspicion, Lutz started making the picture book in the workshop that afternoon. This time he put on the black ink with the paintbrush over the stencil. The bristles would push the paper on the smaller parts of the art, so when it came to that I had him tap it with a small stick that had a cloth wrapped around one end.
“Wow, amazing! It worked!”
“...What is this, Sister Myne?”
“What’s it for?”
The children gathered around the art and peered down at it. While having a gray priest set the pages on a shelf to dry, I answered them with a smile.
“It’s for a baby’s picture book.”
“...A baby? Mmm?” None of them really seemed to get it. They tilted their heads and avoided eye contact, each one of them clearly deciding to keep to themselves rather than risk saying anything.
...None of them understood. If only the world could catch up to my genius.
I felt a little isolated, but I finished the pages for the black-and-white picture book. Ideally I would want the pages to spread out like a folding screen, which meant sticking them to boards, cutting holes in the boards, and connecting them with string.
Oh... I need to make the hide glue for this.
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