I started off thinking about how Stratford-upon-Avon and London are actually quite far apart, especially without modern transport. Shakespeare would have left his wife and kids at home to seek fame and fortune in London. Research suggests he frequented taverns (and brothels). He is said to have been inspired by the lives of people around him, and cross-dressing came up a lot in his work - all actors being men, it obviously amused Shakespeare to have men dressed as women dressing as men - and some of his plotlines involve people jumping into bed with each other outside of wedlock (big taboo). He mentions in some of his sonnets that he's been 'here and there' and the infamously mysterious Dark Lady is - let's face it - probably not his wife, who he'd married in a hurry back in his hometown when she was already pregnant.


In these sonnets, Shakespeare plays the contrast between light and dark and the word 'fair' meaning light in colour, or beautiful. It almost suggests some kind of divide, like going over to the dark side. So I thought about presenting that visually, with his family and home and religion on one side and the dark lady and all the temptations of London life on the other.
Left: Pregnant Anne H with speech bubble with a wedding ring - asking for marriage Right: Shakespeare going from light - dark. I also tried getting rid of the Shakespeare figure and putting just the wife and kid vs the temptation of the exotic dark lady.

Left: Anne H v Dark Lady. I might play around with making the marriage request even more subtle, like having her looking pregnant and holding her hand out indicating a ring finger with no ring. Right: The famous 2nd best bed which he left to Anne H when he died. People reckon that was the bed the couple would have shared. I've done just one pillow propped up to suggest maybe she slept in it alone - while Shakespeare was off having fun in London.
Left: Piecing together a jigsaw puzzle of Shakespeare. Maybe some pieces in the wrong place or different images to mean false assumptions Right: little guy searching a big book for clues about Shakespeare's life
These rumours of Shakespeare's sex life made me realise how we don't actually know any of it for sure - and I felt a bit sorry for the guy. I read an article about how trying too hard to read between the lines and find hidden giveaways about his life within his work ruins the work itself. I thought this gives more opportunity for visual metaphor. 

Looking too closely ruining work - Left: hands 'tearing apart' Shakespeare's work Right: magnifying glass burning pages.
False accusations and people making unfair assumptions - Left: hands forcing together Shakespeare and the Dark Lady (and they're looking uncomfortable cos it didn't really happen) Right: big hand comes from sky and points accusing finger at Shakespeare
 These allow me to be more playful with character, as expression and body language communicate most of the message, whilst keeping the metaphorical - giant hands seem to turn up a lot in editorial illustration.
I liked how Sebastien Thibault used the well-known image of Hokusai's wave to symbolise nature in his wave/factory smoke image. The idea of looking too closely at literature and trying to find out more than what's on the surface reminded me of Rembrandt's dissection class painting, and I thought I could recreate that in a much simpler way, using the lighting and composition to let the viewer make the connection, but instead of cutting into the flesh the teacher is cutting into a page of Shakespeare's book.
Left: Shakespeare being well known internationally shown by a globe instead of a skull. Globe is also the name of Shakespeare's theatre Right: I thought about Shakespeare trying to please the new king after Queen Elizabeth I died. Scottish king James I was said to have disliked long boring history plays, but he was really into witches and so to stay in favour Shakespeare had to try a different tactic and write short plays about Scotland and witches, ie. Macbeth. I wanted to use the image of a playing card with the Queen and the stuff she liked on one side and James and the stuff he liked on the other.