NICKI IS THE BESTEST

FINALLY I finished this beast.

NICKI, IF YOU EVER SEE THIS, YOU DESERVE ALL THE GOOD ATTENTION YOU'RE GETTING! And I am extremely honored if you like this little homage of mine to you.

(I'm going to attempt to send this link to her via Twitter - crossing my fingers!)

I've been wanting to do fanart of Nicki Minaj ever since I discovered her. How can anyone NOT? She's the most entertaining personality in rap these days - every time I listen to one of her verses, I discover a new lyric that either amuses me, or makes me go "Hey, that's pretty good!". (That's pretty much my relationship with music in general - and it can be relatable to discovering something new about a painting.)

She has her own wacky image that to me, as an aspiring comic book artist, is very intriguing and fun. And something I cannot resist drawing.

Don't write her off as just a 'featuring' artist to a lot of songs - on November 23rd, her debut album will be released. And I, for one, cannot wait.

I have a rather lengthy explanation of what looks I chose for this picture. LOL:
CENTER; This is from a men's magazine of her on a green motorcycle...or something. Because...I love stripes, I could not resist. And she looked really really good.
BOTTOM-LEFT; IDK where this is from, but this is a reflection of two of her nicknames: Nicki the Ninja, and Nicki the Harajuku Barbie. Though...everytime I think of Harajuku, I think of the actual meaning and Gwen Stefani. Time to add Nicki to that thought!
MID-LEFT; This is from a super pretty shot of Nicki and I just couldn't resist showing something not as flashy and bright - but just simply pretty. And in this picture, I kinda feel like this girl is the princess and...
TOP-LEFT; ...this is the Nickizilla. Hahaha! Anyways - this look is from the music video for the remix of Yo Gotti's "5 Star" with Gucci Mane, Trina, and, of course, Nicki. The video had a lot of star transitions - so not only is that in the toptopleft corner, but in her eyes. Plus a sparkle.
TOP-RIGHT; The lyrics in the background are from Nicki's verse in "5 Star" - those are the ones I remember the most - literally when I hear her coming in, I am totally in sync with her for just those lyrics.
→ And the Nicki in the heels is based of an illustration for "Your Love" - I don't know if that's the current cover or the one with a photo of Nicki. Anyways - I used the former for this. Slaying the Nickizilla with her mic? Hell yeah.
MID-RIGHT; Nicki a la "My Chick Bad" music video. (The song is by Ludacris, btw.) The metallic things pushing into her cheek are the fingers of her Freddy Krueger claw. And she has a straight jacket on - kind of. Because of the whole psycho thing, I decided to make her eyes hot pink and crazy-looking. Whenever I watch that video, I wait for Nicki, tbh.
UNDER MAIN-NICKI'S RIGHT ARM; Another nickname of her's is the Barbie. And she has a Barbie chain - so I tried to duplicate that font. It was kind of difficult.

YEAH. AKA I PUT A LOT OF THOUGHT INTO THIS. PLUS I LISTENED TO NICKI'S MIXTAPES (3 of them) + HER COLLABS ALL THROUGHOUT THIS PROCESS. Dead serious.

100% Photoshop CS3