Modern Shakespeare

As soon as I learned that our class was to create modern book covers for Shakespearean plays, I grew instantly excited. I knew that my scrapbooking skills would come in handy, as well as help me create effective book covers. I gravitated towards the two Shakespearean plays that I had already read (Othello and King Lear) and chose Taming of the Shrew because of the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. A silly reason, I know, but I at least had an idea of the plot of the play.

Once I decided upon which plays to create the covers for, I started sketching out some ideas for the covers using the symbolism embedded in the stories. My favorite quote from Othello is the quote on the back of the cover. I wanted to take the imagery associated with that quote and use that for the front cover. The play of Othello centers on the character Othello and how his love turns to jealousy very quickly and ends in violence for all included. With Taming of the Shrew, I played around with ideas of a woman in chains or marriage, and eventually thought of drawing an actual shrew and having a chained tied to it to symbolize the constricting bonds of marriage in the play. For King Lear, I took the idea of King Lear splitting his kingdom into three, and how that was supposed to be the best solution for the kingdom.

At this point in time, I didn't realize how small one half of an inch was...Needless to say the spines were changed around a bit...