Ah, my hero.  Janis Joplin, Queen of the Blues, and to some, Queen of Rock 'n Roll in general.  Despite having died about two decades before I was even born, she is a hero figure for me.  She inspired me to take voice lessons and now I'm adept at anything from opera to blues to jazz.  She would talk about how in her teenage years she never really fit in, and neither did I, so I was drawn to her songs' messages.  I was down a lot, feeling the weight of the world way too heavy for little me.  Her music taught me to put my thoughts into words better and speak them with conviction and passion, which is notable because I was so shy!

This was a project for a Color Theory class.  First I made the greyscale illustration in Adobe Illustrator with an iconic photo of Janis as a reference.  I didn't follow it exactly, making my own pattern particularly in the hair and feather boa.  

Then I turned it into color!