this is really awesome hun! I love all the little details on her dress, and her facial expression is perfect! I also think the person lying on the ground to her left is well done, especially the hands.

Great job!

Thanks!
Comments make my day, and this one makes me all warm and fluffy inside. Since the expression was something that really took a lot of time--- I wanted to get a look of almost smug amusement, coupled with a sense of sheer nastiness.

The psychologist in me loves Bellatrix for many and varied reasons, and her craziness is a big player.
I wanted to get the feeling that she was once beautiful, really, really lovely--but craziness and Azkaban did her no favours.
[I spent a lot of time staring in the mirror sucking in my cheeks to get the cheekbones right. XD]

PS. I admit it, I googlesearched references for the dress. It's loosely based off of a Victorian mourning dress. I thought it apt.

it's always nice to see people who research and reference things for their art. And I love that you studied yourself in the mirror, it really worked well I think. ^_^ Again, great job!

Hee, glad to know it worked.
And yeah. I'm obsessive about that. I mean... when I first started, I remembered that in the movies [not the most canonically accurate of sources, I know], they used modified fencing poses for the Wizard's Duel in CoS.
So naturally, first step was to research fencing styles and poses, and thus came the initial reference for Bellatrix's pose.
And then I remembered she was said to have heavy lidded eyes, so that was fun, and then it just looked wierd to have a pretty person with these heavy, bedroom eyes. So the style went from pretty to 'striking', and then striking, when haggard and underfed, and yes, nutters, became gaunt.
Which meant sitting there in front of my mirror, slurping in my cheekbones like some deep sea fish.

My family must have died laughing.
The clothes were fun--I had way too much amusement doing the little buttons and wings and fiddly bits. And her hand was just fun.
I'm getting past my fear of hands, so this was a good way to get around it. "Here, you MUST draw a hand". XD

The background isn't ideal, but at least I don't have this burning desire to erase it anymore. I'll elaborate a bit more in the coloured version.

But just out of curiosity-- is there anything that could have been changed or altered to improve the image? I'm all for critiques. XD

The only things I would say that need to kind of be tweaked are her wand, its at an awkward angle for how she would be holding it, it doesn't seem like it's coming from the end of her wrist but somehow her hand is growing out of the side of her arm to hold the wand in that manner, and the space where her breast meets her ribcage I think needs a little more curvature, or definition to separate the two, but that is all I can really see that you might want to change.

I am so excited to see this coloured! And man does this make me want to draw HP fanart now.

Yeah, I noticed the wand almost immediatly, and unfortunately, its one of those things I SAW, spazzed about [and my!, was the swearing via msn. XD] and could do nothing to fix. Like I said, I reffed the general pose off a fencer---and didn't leave myself NEARLY enough room to do anything.
And by that time, I'd gotten the face and the form downpat, and wasn't nearly brave enough to erase and attempt a re-draw.

And yeah, her breast and ribcage, again, wonky. Its too high up, at some godawful angle---ah well. For future reference, eh? XD Somehow, I just cant wrap my head around Bellatrix being 'flat'. Just doesn't seem... possible.

And hee! I just finished the lineart, so the colouring is well on its way. [the sheer hours I've poured into this picture... I NEVER work this intensively at anything. Its -insane-.]

Ooooh! Do it! Do it! Its so much FUN! [I NEVER draw fanart, and this has just been a HOOT. XD]

Yeah, I can't picture Bellatrix as being 'flat' either. I think she would have been beautiful in her time, evil but beautiful.

haha. I should. I think you have convinced me to do some HP fanart.

I am of the firm belief that if you're going to be evil, you'd best look good doing it.
I mean.. come on. If Voldemort had been forced to sit through some Media Studies courses, he'd've won the damn war already.
XD

The first thing they tell you:
Appearance is Everything.

People are so conditioned to trust/envy/aspire to be pretty people that when you put a pretty figure-head in front of them, they all but fall over themselves to sign up.
You have Moldy Voldy holding the recruitment papers, on the other hand, and people'll be backpedalling so fast.
Thus, Voldemort should -totally- have had one of the Black sisters be the whole Death Eater Spokeswitch.
[Sorry, but if Bella came up to me and was like, "yeah, I'm dangerously attractive and seductively sensuous--and oh yes, you just need to sign your name on this little dotted line, and take a creepy tattoo--but then we can hang out" I'd be like, "ALRIGHT, CHIEF, WHERE DO I SIGN!?" ]

AND HEEEEE, FANARTSES!

Awesome, it's great to see you upload stuff more than once a year. XD I love the facial expression!