Each of these images, 2 1/2” x 4” actual size, was used as a chapter illustration in the young-adult novel The Telling Pool (Harry N. Abrams, 2005). With a linoleum cutter I carved the designs into soft-polymer blocks, which are of a material similar to that used for some erasers. Four of those blocks are pictured above. The carved blocks were inked with a brayer (small roller) and then printed by hand, and the resulting prints were scanned and incorporated into the finished book. I chose this image-making approach because it echoes the 2000-year-old technique of woodcut printing, which was commonly used in Medieval England, the novel’s setting. For a more detailed description of the technique, click here