When I was at the Kubert School, 
one of my least favorite classes was caricature. I just didn't think that I was very good at it. I did get good enough that, in a bout of cosmic irony, my first job out of art school was doing caricatures at the Geauga Lake Amusement Park. And doing live caricatures at parties and events has been a chunk of my income ever since.
This was a third-year assignment in caricature class. We had to take a famous person and merge them with an object. I don't remember my other classmates' concepts, but mine was to take James Taylor and blend him with a musical note.
I picked Sweet Baby James for a few reasons. I really like his music, and had just seen him in concert in New York City at the Paramount Theatre (and he rocked!) so he was on my mind. But, in those pre-internet days, getting visual reference was always a 
hassle. You had to buy these things called magazines and books, rather than Google image search a name.
Stone knives and bearskins, I tell you.
And since I was a fan of James, I had a few CDs that I could use as reference.
This is one of the rare pieces from art school that holds up well. I really like the inking on the face, and the sharp lines on his bottom jaw that really get the angles on his face. The dimensional musical notes are pretty good, I think the font works well, and the rainbow music staff adds some needed color. The only thing that bothers me is the 4/4 signature that's a little off. Odd that the lettering, always my strong suit, would be the weak thing on this one.
And if you ever get a chance to see James Taylor in concert, especially if it's an outdoor venue like Blossom Music Center here in Ohio (about which he supposedly wrote "Got your baby/Got your blanket/Got your bucket of beer" in That's Why I'm Here) do go. He's just amazing.
