Old Sultan

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

A farmer had a faithful dog named Sultan, who had grown old and lost all his teeth, and could no longer hold onto anything. One day the farmer was standing with his wife before the house door, and said, "Tomorrow I intend to shoot Old Sultan. He is no longer of any use."

His wife, who felt pity for the faithful animal, answered, "He has served us so long, and been so faithful, that we might well give him his keep."

"What?" said the man. "You are not very bright. He doesn't have a tooth left in his mouth, and no thief is afraid of him. He can go now. If he has served us, he has eaten well for it."

The poor dog, who was lying stretched out in the sun not far off, heard everything, and was sorry that tomorrow was to be his last day. He had a good friend, the wolf, and he crept out in the evening into the forest to him, and complained of the fate that awaited him. ....

Read the whole story here:http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm048.html

I decided to go with the out of copyright Grimm's fairy tale story Old Sultan. I didn't feel confident in my ability to write my own short story, which is a weakness that I need to improve on. I was looking for a long time though and researching lots of different stories until I found this one. I felt and instant connection with the story and knew I could create illustrations for it.

The story is about an old dog. A farmers dog that us unwanted and unloved by his owner. A story of betrayal and loyalty with these themes running throughout. I love all the different characters from the wolf, to the farmer. i think I could really create something brilliant here and connect with the story. the hard part now is finding the style I want to create the book in.