HOME | DD
Ellygator — HP Tarot - Queen of Swords
Published: 2007-12-16 17:52:59 +0000 UTC; Views: 28292; Favourites: 316; Downloads: 5005
Redirect to original
Description
(2007) 5 1/2" x 10 1/2" Pencil on Paper. Processed and framed in Photoshop.Here's Bellatrix as the Queen of Swords. This definitely was a no-brainer.
Traditional interpretation has the Queen as a dark-haired and independent woman who is able to stand up for herself, is fiercely competitive, knows and trusts her strengths and may be stubborn and intimidating. She has suffered much, but may also have a bit of a cruel streak herself. She relies more on her brain than on her heart.
A bit about this card: as you can see, my Bellatrix may have borrowed movie-Bella's dress which was pretty cool, but not her face. I really like and admire Helena Bonham-Carter and love her in other movies, but her crazy, chipped-porcelain-doll persona with the frizzy hair was completely wrong for the way I imagined Bellatrix from the books.
"My" Bella has straight, raven-black hair, a high-backed blade-sharp nose, gaunt and aristocratic features and there's more of pure cruelty than demetia in her face. She is in control, she knows what she's doing and she enjoys every minute of it.
The pose with the dagger is based on stock by
Related content
Comments: 160
Thank you! Yeah, that's my opinion, too. In fact, before they cast HBC, I kind of imagined her to look like the actress Claudia Black, who seems to have the right kind of hair and high-backed aquiline nose to make a convincing Bella....
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yeah, I think Claudia Black could have been a good choice.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you! I am glad you like my version of Bella!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Absolutely loving this 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you! I think she makes a good Queen of Swords.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You are very welcome! She really does
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Your perception of Bella is different but good. That's how I imagine here, before Azkaban.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you! I really managed to put my vision of her on paper.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
yes, you definitely did..
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Like your Version of Bellatrix much more than the original Bella! Especially the aristrocatic Features.
Great work
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you! Before they cast Helena Bonham-Carter I had somehow seen Bellatrix to look more like Claudia Black, and she is still one of the few movie figures where my own imagination of her proves stronger than the cast person's looks. (Some nother ones are Lockheart, Moody and I suspect Slughorn...)
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I really like the way you drew Bellatrix. I completely agree with you about Helena Bonham Carter, too. Love her--hate her rendition of Bellatrix. You summed it up quite well when you made the point about pure cruelty vs. dementia.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you so much - I am very glad you like my version of her.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I really like Bellatrix in this way, she's like I imagined her in the books...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you! It's not a comment against Helena, I just felt she wasn't cast so well for this role because of her looks...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You're welcome
Me too, I don't have anything against her, but I didn't imagined Bellatrix like her ^-^ (especially the hair)
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you, so glad you like her.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you! I really still have that vision of Claudia Black playing her. Helena Bonham-Carter has just that cracked porcelain doll charm about her that is wonderful, but just doesn't strike me right for Bella.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
i understand....helena looks too innocent, not as bitter, i believe
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I admire your tarot series so much. It's so well drawn and well thought out. I've considered doing a tarot set myself in the past and have not yet started one, because I know that I would lose interest half-way through and never finish the thing. It takes a lot of determination to see a huge project like this through - so really well done for this.
Also, I have a huge soft-spot for Bellatrix, and I tend to agree with you about her looks. I think you've drawn her beautifully here.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks so much! I think I'll be okay with keeping up interest so far, only the pip cards may eventually turn a little tedious - I'm not planning on full scenes for them but just the suit symbols in different configurations that emphasize the meaning of the card. That may get a little old after a while. I'll try and really use it as a chance to connect with as many meanings and interpretations of the pips as I can...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
It's a good exercise to learn as well, and you're doing really brilliantly at it. Good luck with those pip cards.
I admire your tenacity.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I agree with you (and hordes of others, it seems) about the portrayal of Bellatrix in the movies--it does not fit. But the sinister, tarnished aristocrat you have drawn here is nearly spot-on with the image I have in my mind.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you! I guess the Queens demand a seating posture, which in itself is a bit more passive. I actually chose this one, cause it felt very oncomfortable to me: the awkwardly (and dangerously) held daggar, the twisted torso, the hard, stony ground etc.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thanks so much! I loved the costume they gave her in the movie - just a nice mix between stylish, raggedy and sexy...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
She's great, especially her dress! I like your Bellatrix, though she's not like I imagined her. But your interpretation is great, too
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you! I just fell in love with the movie costume, and I am still not sure why my image of Bella was so different that the casting provided such a shock for me. I guess it sometimes happens...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You're welcome.
I think that many people are unhappy with some of the castings. For me it was Umbridge. I thought her to be a lot more ugly, more like a toad. Nevertheless, she is a good actor.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yeah, she was called "toadface" so often in the books, I had really thought she'd be slimier and fatter...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
*nods* Exactly. And the horrible big pink bow was missing, too....
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
WAO!!!!!!! XD
I like her gothic dresssssssssssss!!!!!!!!
Voldemort has drools to she. *v*'
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
Of corse. Me too because I love the gothic costume. *v*
The fans of the cople of Voldemort and Bellatrix want to see they united with that dress in a dance. XD
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you! I really loved her costume in the movie!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is also a very powerful contribution to the Tarot deck. I love the many layers of meaning you have put into creating it.
First a little about the pencil art. As always I love your shading and the way you make it look so natural in your pictures. All the small details in the way you have created Bellatrix's dress is very inspiring. I especially love the way you show off your abilities in creating shadows. A most impressive work indeed!
Now for the symbolism. I love the way you have created the Dark Mark in the background as a symbol of Bellatrix's loyalty to the Dark Lord. But though she is loyal to the death you have to look closer at what she has in her hand - a knife. The knife is a very powerful symbol. The symbol of the knife is change and it is linked with the element of Fire. This can mean that the owner of the knife is a very powerful individual who will be willing to fight to the death to defend beliefs or persons close to them. In ancient Egypt the knife was a symbol often used to destroy evildoers. Very often malevolent creatures such as scorpions and snakes were depicted cut with knives to render them powerless. A knife is also used to foretell an unpleasant situation. It can also mean a seperation or a difficult decision. For a woman, a knife symbolises a hidden agression or a phalic symbol. The knife in freudian symbolism stands for sexual passion. It also symbolises defeat whatever pursuit, whether in love or business.
When you look at the story of Bellatrix (Black) Lestrange you see that the symbolism of the knife fits in the way that Bellatrix has a lot of difficult decisions in stall for her. She is loyal to the Dark Lord, even to death. She actually loves him passionately but is let down by him, when she somehow realises that she means nothing to him, though she keeps standing by him to the end. She is also a woman of great agression to the point of insanity. She is in the end defeated, not only by the fact that she gets killed by Molly Weasley, but by her own unfaltering devotion to a man who will never be able to give her what she wants.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you! That is so spot-on for everything that made me chose Bellatrix as the Queen of Wands. It could not have been any other than her for that card for precisely the reasons you list. A couple of other things I also thought of: the night setting, the fact that she is alone among ruins and that the area she sits on seems like a dried-up well. I really wanted to show how she is imprisoned by her own perception of the world, kind of like Sirius is imprisoned in his way, though his fetters are more external than hers.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yes, Bellatrix is a very complex character and at the same time I never seem to have any trouble understanding the way she thinks or why she does the things she does. And although I can understand her feelings of loyalty towards the Dark Lord and admire her determination I also seem to think that she might just be carrying her devotion a little too far sometimes. It really makes her blind to so many things. She is unable to see that Lord Voldemort doesn't care for her the way she wants him to and although he seems to find her devotion flattering he would never be able to return the favour.
I like the way you have made her imprisoned within herself, unable to brake through the barriers of her own perception of the world. She really is a tragic character in so many ways. And yes, there are some similarities between her and Sirius, although I would have to agree with you on the fact that he is more imprisoned by external cources.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I love the dress and how you've captured the heavy folds of the fabric. Lovely.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you! It was nice to have good stock to work from...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you! I am very happy she works for you.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you! I had a lot of fun drawing her.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
| Next =>