Spooktober 2025: Grief

This morning before work, I created the image above. It’s of Willem Shaxbeard, my fictional version of The Bard himself. The image was inspired in equal parts by the Chandos portrait and by the the second trailer for the film Hamnet, which I’ve watched several times over the past 24 hours since it came out.

The movie deals with the Shakespeares grieving over the loss of their son Hamnet and it stars Paul Mescal as Will. Interestingly enough, my wife is watching another thing starring Paul Mescal as I write this and it’s also about grief.