From the start I have to decide on three things:

1. What  shape should the page be? How high or wide  should it  be?  I have generally liked a more horizontal shape, such as 9″ high by 11″ wide.
2. What type-face or letter style looks best? Usually this is up to the art director and the publisher but on this book I want it to have an old look similar to medieval calligraphy. I also know that different fonts (letter styles) change the size and shape of blocks of text. This book has a fair amount of text for a picture book and I am planning to enclose a lot of the text  in decorative borders, so we will have to pick out the letter style before I do  finished  sketches.
3. What size should the letters be? The spreads that have the most text will help me pick the best size for the letters. One doesn’t usually change the size of the text from page to page .

Usually I let the art director see my pacing of the text in a thumbnail dummy, which is a very small sketch version of the book . The rough drawings give the art director the idea for each page. These thumbnail drawings with text allow the art director an early opportunity to comment and direct the progress of my work before I spend a lot of time doing more finished drawings. At this stage I also include a few more finished sketches that show more clearly the style and look of the art. I pick a few pages and work them up in color.