These are the test books for ways to format text and images for a limited edition of the Lost Time book I have been working on. I wanted to get it all figured out this past week and have everything laid out in the computer. The thought process was to get the images the right colors and size needed to decipher the details. Then where does the text go? Over the image? On the left blank page? Under the image? It is funny how often my mind changes. But not so funny as the printer continues to suck up the ink as I deliberate. My quite large Epson Stylus Photo R3000 has informed me, just at the moment I thought I would use it, that the ink is low. A quick check on the website for purchasing more ink and the cost of $283 seems a bit much right now. Maybe I will wait for a sale.
The other problem was that the larger Epson printer originally saw more dull greys, so I corrected the images yet again only to have them look too yellow. It seems the smaller office type Epson was more in sinc with what I had in mind. Of course the problem here is that it only takes 8.5″ x 11″ paper and the images need to be a minimum of 5″ to be legible.
The book above on the left is six inches across and only has the images from the printer glued to plain paper to see how it looks. The one on the right is five inches and turned landscape wise to let me put additional background pages next to each one with image and text on the right.
But I don’t like trying to read the text within the image. Especially since I went back through all the images in my photo program and had them all made fainter to get rid of the yellowness, feel a bit more mysterious and match up with the graphite used in each one. It is so strange that to see something in my head is one thing but I need to complete the entire process to actually see that it won’t happen quite the way I envisioned it. Lots of ink and paper lost, well sort of lost, in this process. Although I like the soft cover on this second prototype for some reason I thought maybe I should start again making the book larger with images only on the right with the text under the image and a blank white page to the left. This required using a piece of card stock weight paper 8.5″ x 11″ for each page and having a folded and glued foredge. Of course each image needed a decent margin around it making the new book size 7″ tall and 7.5″ across. Here is that process.
Each page folded and one half inch glued to the back plain paper. All in a card stock that I liked the feel of. So much about book arts is how does the page feel? Does the “feel” of the page match the way the images and text “feel”? These images invite touch and “strolling” of fingers through them.
I decided that there should be a concertina spine section to glue the open pages to each side of a fold. Then of course thought stitching these folds into place would be better than gluing them. This would let them “breathe” more when turned.
Next was getting each lined up with the one below as they are glued into place.
I chose a lighter weight paper for the concertina fold section that was 100% cotton fiber office paper. It held a crease nicely and was easy to pierce and stitch using only four holes.
The messy part for me was making the cover and getting it close enough. Actually I had to tear it apart twice before getting something acceptable. I wanted it hardbound using two colors of lokta paper that referenced the interior illustrations. Getting the three pieces (front, back and spine) that had all been covered individually the right distance apart was challenging. Hanging the text block did not work the first time because I had overestimated the width of the spine and it, well, just looked bad.
I redid it smaller after pulling it away from the covers and tried getting the text block attached. That took two times and adding more paper to the little I had left for the purpose of attaching to the covers. I did not like the gap that appeared between the end papers and first and last pages so I re cut them larger to cover the gap. See below.
I put some end tapes top and bottom to help fill the gap and edge of the concertina between the text and spine.
Here it is finished.
A bit boring is my conclusion. The cover does not do it for me. Too plain. And way too much work to insert a title or image to make it more interesting. If I want to make a small edition in the hopes of selling some, I need to maybe go back to the smaller book with the soft cover. So this morning it is back to the printer (even the smaller Epson is now telling me that “magenta” is low) and back to the layout problems.
What I did learn is that the page on the left is better off blank, the text needs to be below the image, and the image needs to be smaller…..just a bit. The most important thing I have learned is that I need to make more of the dreaded blank journals to improve my hardbound binding skills.
This next week I am taking a wood engraving class. Five days of hearing the scritch, scritch of small shavings being taken away from the end grain. By tomorrow I should have had this Lost Time book decided and perhaps printed out. And then have selected my subject matter for carving this next week. And that means detailed drawings before heading into class if I am going to get much accomplished.
I will show my efforts here next week.
