As many of my students know, I was, a long time ago, before I became a teacher, a professional artist. I am therefore going to be transparent about my own efforts at representing Shakespeare through visual art. I will update this post as I progress with my painting.

The first step is to map out the painting. So you can appreciate my own starting point, I am sharing my initial sketches of Shakespeare, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. You can click on the images to see a bigger version.

If it helps you in your own artistic endeavours, feel free to copy or riff off these images.

When I start painting, I will update this post and share my progress here.

Update: I have started painting my portrait of Shakespeare. Here is the first stage…

And here is my portrait painting nearly complete:

Here is the finished painting:

Here is my video showing the process of painting The Tempest:

And here is my finished painting inspired by The Tempest:

Finally, here is my painting process inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

And the finished painting:

4