Aesops Fable: The Milk Maid

Recently, I illustrated a very classic Aesops Fable, "The Tale of the Milkmaid." It's also known as "The Milkmaid and Her Pail," or simply, "The Milkmaid."

Growing up, I always heard my folks say, "Don't count your chickens until they're hatched." The milkmaid is really me in my more clueless state in my teens and early twenties. Sometimes that little milkmaid still comes out to haunt me.

Here it is, illustrated:

End paper

cover

Pages 2 & 3

Page 4 & 5 spread

Pages 6 & 7

P. 8

End paper

"A Farmer's daughter was carrying her Pail of milk from the field to the farmhouse, when she fell into a daydream.

She imagined, the money for which this milk will be sold will buy at least three hundred eggs which will produce two hundred and fifty chickens.

I’ll sell them and get enough money to buy a beautiful new gown. I’ll look so glamorous that everyone will want me. I’ll be rich and famous!

But as she ran to escape from her imaginary throng of suitors, she tripped and fell. The pail of milk crashed to the ground with all her dreams.

Moral of the story:

Don't count your chickens before they are hatched!"

I made the drawings with my favorite pencils: Tombow Mono pencils on cold press paper. 

      Just last month, I re-cast the chicks again for a new illustration project I just finished for Dickson Louie, a professor for UC Davis. He needed me to create a spot illustration for a textbook on technology that was a lot of fun to work on. This new project deserves its own post - coming very soon. The book gets published later this month.

Here is a preview with my chicks (they're cute, why not bring them back?):