Lady Saints of Rock #4: St. Joan Jett

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the baddest of them all? Our gal Joanie, of course! 

We might never know the answer to WWJJD, but we can still sing her praises and offer her humble icons of her youth — with a little trademark JJ snarl and attitude, that is. 

Joan Jett is basically the Madonna of rock and roll, and therefore a tall order when it came to whipping up a Lady Saint image of Her Holiness and Reigning Queen of Badassery. I started, stopped, and restarted this project about a dozen times, changing my mind and fussing over every little detail. But at some point, you really do have to ask yourself What Would Joan Jett Do? (Readers of Bust Magazine know this question well.) And Joanie over here wouldn't stand in her own way when it came to creating something cool, even if it was pretty risky. 

I wanted to give this piece as much of a gritty, punk-rock feel as I could muster while a) using vectors and b) making it flow with the "saints" theme. Even though I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out, I may continue making some nice, blobby, Xeroxed-flyer versions just for fun. In my research, I came across some amazing images of JJ and the Runaways looking like sexy, stone-cold killers, and I think their presence in lo-fi rock magazines (alongside the likes of bands that, in reality, may have been a little edgier) has something to do with that. 

This is my first totally black and white Lady Saint, and I have to say, I love working without color. As much fun as it is to make color the center of things, I think it's equally important to just cut it out and focus on the line work. I'm gradually, delicately working my way towards more and more simple compositions, and moving away from color is helping me reframe the way I'm strategizing each piece. (Though admittedly, I'm in Athens at the moment and very much enjoying the Byzantine art, so it may be a long road to total simplicity...)

I hope you enjoy St. Joan Jett as much as I do. Now go forth and rock out!