For one of my classes this semester, I was tasked with creating a poster to advertise a Shakespeare play that can connect with modern day audiences. This poster was to be done traditionally, which at first seemed scary to me as I do basically all my projects digitally. However, I remembered how much I enjoyed stippling in my drawing class, so I thought it would be fun to give it another try and use the technique in my assignment. I have not read a ton of Shakespeare at all to be honest, but I do remember enjoying Macbeth in high school and decided that was what I would base my poster on. I had a lot of cool concepts in mind and had trouble choosing one, but my professor was able to help me settle on one and I think it was the best choice as I love how it is coming out so far.

This poster is still a work in progress as it is pretty big and stippling takes absolutely forever to do. Despite this I really enjoy the technique as it is extremely forgiving if you mess up, you can just dot it over and blend it in, and the end result always comes out so cool. I really admire the texture that all of the little dots give to the paper as well, and I feel it is fitting for this style. I started with a light sketch of Macbeth and his sword so that I was able to erase it easily. I then began the grueling stippling process and started filling in Macbeth’s hand to get a feel for the process as I did not want to commit to the face just yet. I will add the finished poster as an update when I get it finished, and I would love to hear any thought or comments you may have!!

Update: Here’s the finished poster!!