Pop fandom can act as an incredible spur to creativity. Fan artists of hugely different levels of expertise will patiently sit and make countless devotional images of their favourite performers until they get one good enough to post online.
And if they get it right enough, they could even end up designing some artwork for the stars themselves, as happened to 17-year-old fan @pezthirlou_ when her illustration of Little Mix .
This collection could have been made a million different ways, such is the breadth of high quality fan art on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and across other social media platforms. But here's a Top 10 of arresting images made by fans that cast fresh light on the stars they depict.
Harry Styles by @artizblue
As befits pop's grandest dandy, Harry Styles fans like to play dress-up with him when they're thinking up ideas for new drawings, spending as much time on his ornate clobber as he does. He suits the art history approach in this drawing particularly well, being rendered in goache with a mouthful of blossoms.
And Charlotte is by no means the only fan artist with an eye on rendering Harry in exotic art supplies. There's also at least one doing the rounds. And it's surely only a matter of time before a marble statue appears.
Justin Bieber by @bellapriemaleza
Taking up the floral theme where Harry left off, we have a more emotional piece entirely. A good deal of Justin Bieber's most artistic admirers like to render him in as close to photographic detail as possible, maybe taking a picture in which he looks particularly handsome and working their artistic magic on that.
What @bellapriemaleza has done is introduce a note of personal turmoil. Well, with all those tears and flowers it's less a note and more the full symphony, but it's the anguish and tears on Justin's face that set this one apart.
The Weeknd by @destinationcreationstudios
It's not entirely clear who @destinationcreationstudios is the bigger fan of, The Weeknd or Michael Jackson. Certainly having Michael's head appearing under The Weeknd's skin is a bold way to underline a commonly-repeated point that the latter is clearly heavily influenced by the former.
But it's a point The Weeknd has never tried to deny in any case. He told the Los Angeles Times in 2016: "I want to make it very clear that I’m not trying to be Michael. He’s everything to me, so you’re going to hear it in my music."
Taylor Swift by @prin.artist
And while we're talking about masks and identity, this neat cartoon of Taylor Swift unpicks the idea that she's come a long way from her early days as a wholesome country artist and may feel a little lost in transition. That said, the idea that change and growth can be as disorienting as they are exciting is one that most people can grasp without having to be a pop singer, especially if they're relatively young.
The smart use of the 1989 polaroid, and the marked contrast between Country Taylor's golden curls and Shake It Off Taylor's sleek bob and poloneck prove that this is the work of a true fan, someone who has spent a lot of time thinking what it must be like to be her.
Post Malone by @aaronlopezart
Post Malone must have one of the most artistically satisfying faces in popular music right now. Apart from the facial tattoos, big eyes and the wispy beard, his teeth and broad smile beg to be captured by an artist's nimble pen.
Most of the fan art tends to render him as either a bit of a rogue or slightly woozy (for various reasons), but in this one, Aaron Lopez digs behind the confident slacker exterior to find the scared little soccer-loving kid beneath. It's possibly not the defining image he may have chosen for himself, but as all good portraits should, this points to the hidden depths in its subject's character.
Sam Smith by @victorialevinsofficial
It's not often Sam Smith appears as a glamorous, chameleonic figure in the David Bowie sense. He's passionate and emotive, yes, he scrubs up well when the occasion demands, but he's not really one for colourful makeup. Which makes this reinterpretation by Victoria Levins all the more remarkable.
For once, we see him as a kind of glowing alien star with a rockabilly quiff. His cheeks may radiate hot feeling, but there's cold blue around his eyes that reminds us that under that statuesque exterior, he's the same Sam Smith as always, the one with all the heartache.
Lady Gaga by @unicorncorpse
The great masters of art never had the chance to add animation to their work using gifs, and that seems a shame when you see what vibrant use motion can be put to in the service of pop fandom. Here we see a psychedelic celebration of Lady Gaga's breakthrough album, The Fame, in which the background jigs about disconcertingly while the various Gaga faces remain solemn and still.
And while it's been said that the sign of a great portrait is when the eyes seem to follow you round the room, in this case the glitchy, glitter-blink motion of Gaga's robo-peepers suggests someone has taken this idea a little too literally.
Ariana Grande by @e_draws_2205
It's fair to say that while Ariana Grande's career has never been better, she's been through the mill over the past couple of years. Her personal life has become public property, especially after her breakups with Mac Miller and then Pete Davidson, and this all came hard on the heels of the devastating trauma of the Manchester attack.
Small wonder @e_draws_2205 has chosen to render the cover of her 2018 album Sweetener - which should really be the other way up, by rights - as if seen reflected in a cracked mirror. As a metaphor for someone attempting to keep herself together while enduring shattering events, it's exceptionally apt.
Ed Sheeran by @alulawings
To end things on a far sweeter note, this is as pure an expression of fannish glee as the internet can provide. A cartoon Ed Sheeran, fresh from delivering the world-beating Divide album, stands with his cat and a big beam on his face while @alulawings makes a sweet joke about people listening to it, using the album's title as a pun.
And to further underline the point, she added the explanation "I just had to draw this because I'm absolutely loving Divide! It's such a good album." Which means this was drawn in a moment of rewarded expectation - the excitement of a new album spiced up with the knowledge that it is not a disappointment, which is surely the best state any fan could hope to find themselves in.
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