Nicki Minaj Cupcakes - IF - "Stir"

Rapper/Singer (well, I don't know what she is because her songs go from singing to rapping to some sort of collection of schizophrenic babbling....all on one track) Nicki Minaj is part of the inspiration for this particular picture that I drew for the current Illustration Friday topic of "Stir" earlier today. Funny enough, I'm not a fan of Nicki Minaj's music but do like her fashion choices sometimes and I like cake....so I combined the two, sort of.



My initial interpretation for "Stir" had to do with cake or some form of baking for the most part but it changed while "Bottoms Up" by Trey Songz was playing in the background during some tasks that I was working on. His song features Nicki Minaj and sometime last year, I read a little blurb bashing a colorful ensemble that she wore to Lil' Wayne's jail release party (side note: yes, it's is outrageous.....I was thinking the same thing too...."who in the world throws a party for being released from jail"?) and a writer or editor from Yahoo OMG said that the looked like a cartoon character and labeled her outfit a fashion faux pas.

While I don't have her album nor listen to any of her songs, I liked this outfit that she wore and disagree with the appearance being in the "worst dressed" or "what were they thinking" section of celebrities. So, I put some potholders on her so she could stir some homemade chocolate icing while whipping up a batch of fresh vanilla cupcakes. In an attempt to reduce negative space, I added some decorative wallpaper with a music note to symbolize her real job of stirring up the tracks and radio airwaves.

I usually work in colored pencils and sometimes markers and recently started painting with ink but used some old Crayola crayons that I've had for years for this picture because they were easier to access than my color pencils.

This was a frustrating experience because I had so much on my mind and so many other things that I needed to do and lack a sizeable workspace to draw but I managed to work through it, even after the big accident where my whole box of like 96 crayons went flying all over the place.



I used the Following crayons to get this Nicki Minaj outfit:

Crayola Robin's egg blue for the hair along with a combination of razzle dazzle rose and shocking pink for the jumper. I believe that the shocking pink crayon was a must-have item for this picture, given that Nicki Minaj has a rather shocking reputation.

Since New Years 2011, my Illustration Friday challenges have been delayed for way too long due to work and life's usual challenges. While it did not come out the way that I imagined, I am glad to have at least completed a drawing that helps toward my progress for getting my mojo back. Now, I plan to get up to speed by not only doing the IF challenges going forward but also completing all of the challenges that were going on between January and this week.

Wish Me Luck!