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Malla13 — Lamia
Published: 2007-08-19 07:56:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 4613; Favourites: 85; Downloads: 50
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STARDUST. OMG.It was definitely one of my favorite books of all time (hearts for Neil Gaiman!) but the MOVIE rocks so much. Seriously, I've already seen it twice. If you haven't seen it yet and you're even a casual fan of fantasy GO TO THE THEATER RIGHT NOW. It's one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Something for everyone. Great acting. Gah. Loved it.
Okay, sorry, enough raving. My favorite character by far in the book was the Witch Queen, Lamia. I've always admired the evil women in stories. Sure, they usually meet a horrible end, but they enjoy themselves while they're alive and wicked.
Anyway, I adored Lamia and seriously felt bad for her at points. Michelle Pfeiffer has always been one of my favorite actresses, but she NAILED the part of Lamia in Stardust. So, I had to paint her.This was a quicky, really. Here's the reference shot from a still of the film: [link] . I liked the long view, even though I'm crap with landscapes (as you can clearly see XD). The background is basically a lot of smudged oils (I didn't even bother with the building...sheesh I'm lazy) and Lamia was mostly airbrush tools and blenders. I'm not too sure about the lighting on her skin. I was trying to go for something slightly brighter and more dramatic than the reference, and I probably shouldn't have. XD Oh well. At least she looks a tad bit creepier this way.
A few days, Painter IX.
Character (c) Neil Gaiman, Michelle Pfieffer, Paramount Pictures, and...whoever else has their name on that copyright.
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Comments: 66
I love this mage, there really should be more fanart of her on DA since shes such a memorable character from an awesome film.
I love how you did her fire/magic, and all the skintones = )
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Wow great job, I wanted to go see this in the movies but forgot about it ... then one day last month i was watching it ih a hospital and was hooked.... such a great movie
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Thank you.
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Hello, this deviation has been featured here: [link]
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Hey, thats amazing!!
I love stardust, i have a club!!
If you wanna join or affliate, your more than welcome to!!
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Ooh, I just might!
Thanks for the comment.
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You should. 
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I'm so jealous! How can you get such an accurate likeness? I didn't like Lamia until the end of the book, when I felt really sorry for her.
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It's not that accurate. XD I messed up on her nose. When I have a screenshot to work from I use grids to get the composition right. I always adore the bad guys just a little bit.
Thanks for the fave.
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i just love this film. i didnt know it was a book first. is it an actual book or a graphic novel, cause i know Neil Gaiman does graphic novels, i didnt know he did books. but anyway, i love this picture. your shading around the eyes really brings out the maniacal-ness that Lamia has.
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Thank you. It was a book first, but I believe they made an illustrated version before the movie came out. Gaiman's novels are fantastic - I really recommend American Gods.
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Wow, stunning picture. Lamia's one of my two fave characters ;D
That film was just so brilliant. I saw the adverts, and went to see it not really expecting much. I was just completely blown away. I then forced my friend to go see it with me a second time XD
Gah, the film doesn't come out on DVD here until Feb
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The visuals in the film were very impressive. It's really very bright color-wise. The green land, the red ruby, Yvain's blue dress, it was all so pretty! Quite an enjoyable story as well. I still laugh at some things even though now I can see the setup coming. Glad you liked the painting.
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Heh, when I went to see the film a second time I kept laughing beforehand. Yeah, I loved how vivid it all was, and the CGI was really well done. It just really draws you in and makes you go O_O Beautiful soundtrack as well.
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Woah! Damn good job! You have captured Michelle Pfeiffer's beauty
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I loved the movie and must read the book!!!! THis artwork is amazing and Lamia is my fav. character along with Shakespear! ARRR!! Hehe!!!
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Oh, the movie was so so so good.
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waaa!! my mom doesn't like the fact i want to buy photoshop!!
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Why not? That's a little strange. Is it because it's expensive?
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naa.. no.. mom thinks it's hard to learn
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It confuses me, but then I'm a Corel Painter girl. ^-^ Any program is hard at first. They're super fun to play with, though!
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that witch is so awesome in that movie. She kicks ass!!!
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I know, she was awesome.
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she is just so cool in every way. some day i want to marry a woman like her....ok so maybe not
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I TOTALLY LOVE YOU !!! 
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Wow, comment, fave, and watch? I feel special!
Thank you very much! ^_^
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hey.. ah you're welcome
it was really good
X.
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You're welcome. That's a great painting. It's got a depth to it that I only dream of accomplishing right now. And even though it doesn't perfectly match Pfeiffer's face, it captures completely what she brought to the character, and that's a lot harder to do. Kudos!
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Well, it's a nice picture, but I have to disagree. I loved the book and hated the movie; I found it stereotypical, corny, overdone, and with 'black and white' characters. Stereotypical in the sense of the witches; there just had to be one skinny and ugly, one fat and ugly, and one pretty one whereas in the book their mirror images were clearly all beautiful. Corny in the whole happily ever after everything's perfect sort of way. Overdone with Michelle Pfeiffer acting too overtly sexual, two characters who were supposed to have dark hair being blonde, and the spats between Tristran and Mr. Monday. As for black and white, Neil Gaiman's characters are most often in the gray area, even the witch and the star reach a sort of understanding, and Victoria, while snobbish, isn't a bad person. In the movie, the witches had to be pure evil and die, and Victoria had to be a total bitch. And let's not forget Tristran's mother...SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE VIOLET EYES AND CAT EARS!!!!!!!! Sorry...you can hide my comment if you want...I'm just ranting...Anyway it is a really nice picture, especially the green fire, and the hair is really well-done.
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When I know a film is coming out and I haven't read the book I try and see the film first, so I'm appreciating it as a film, not an on-screen version of the book.
I'll use Harry Potter as an example;
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone is, to be honest, a pretty rubbish film. It's tried to stay true to the book, but changed stuff to fit it into a resonable length.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is, however, a fairly decent film. It's not just the book made into a film, you can actually feel the director's influence very strongly while watching.
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My point is that; Stardust (the film) is very different to Stardust (the book). Many storylines have been changed, and the overall atmosphere is, I think, quite different- but it still works, and it works well.
The film takes a much lighter tone; with the perfect last line 'and they lived happily ever after'- while the book is overall much darker. It has, if you think about it, a fairly tragic ending.
I don't think it matters much about the small details changed. I think it's (no offence) taking it a bit far to pick out all the tiny incorrect details, such as Una's ears, and the colour of Lamia's hair. These points aren't key to the story. I personally thought Lamia was fantastic in the film. While being wonderfully evil, she managed to make you smile, and in my case, snort.
Just like how I very much liked that Septimus had been given a sense of humor in the film.
I enjoyed both very much, but I did prefer the film. The light-hearted-ness (and general cheesyness - which worked very well, I thought.) along with the stunning visuals and enchanting soundtrack just drew me in and made the experience... well, magical.
(Sorry, went a bit rambly/ranty there. And got a bit too... complimentry adjective-ey) X3
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Perhaps I'm nit-picking when it comes to the details, but I've seen other adaptations to books that were wonderful, even without being very true to the book. V for Vendetta is a case in point. I saw the movie first and my boyfriend read the graphic novel first. We both enjoyed the movie immensely and agreed that it was better than the graphic novel. The graphic novel Persepolis and Persepolis 2 were also made into a film and while I read the novels first, I quite enjoyed the film and I honestly couldn't tell you which one I prefer. Recently, one of the best books I've read, The Golden Compass, was made into a film. I don't give it full marks, but it certainly wasn't a flop. I saw The Clan of the Cave Bear movie and thought it was okay - not very good - but okay, but then I read the book and now I can't watch the movie. My grandparents who have read Harry Potter, LOTR, and The Chronicles of Narnia loved all the film adaptations, and most of those stayed pretty true to the books. The point is that I have a certain standard for books and movies and if they don't meet my standard, I can't fully enjoy them if at all.
Now, I've seen light-hearted, funny, brain-candy movies. I've seen a lot of them. I've also done research on mythologies and folklore (just for fun), and I know that the stories are much darker than represented in movies and children's books today. What drew me to Neil Gaiman in the first place was that he didn't sugar up the stories, and while deviating from them a little, he kept the overall darkness.
I loved the book Stardust. As I've said before, the characters were not black and white! Victoria was snobbish, but not cruel, and her character was redeemed in the end. The witch queen, while at first a stereotype, was also redeemed. Yvaine took pity on her and the witch was grateful. Sorry to get on the topic of religion here, but I found the movie to be extremely offensive.
As for the movie's perfect ending, I always feel cheated when movies or books end exaggeratedly happily because that's not how it is in real life. When I'm watching or reading something I like to feel pulled in, as if I'm right in the story, but I don't get that if the story is cheap. Now, I do like comedy, but comedy isn't story-driven so it doesn't matter if you're pulled in or not, as long as you're laughing; Stardust was supposed to be story-driven. I also like new ideas, and Stardust the movie took all the newness of the book and made as close to the Disney stories as possible.
I apologize for the length of this. When I have an opinion on something I feel it's necessary to allow others of different opinion to know why I have mine and expect the same. The above reasons are why I hated the film adaption of Stardust, why I will always hate it, and why I will never enjoy a film that doesn't do justice (this doesn't mean it has to be exactly the same) to the book.
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Firstly;
V for Vendetta- very overdone in some places (er, actually... the whole film) but definitely one of my favourite films. I've watched it more times than I care to count.
Northern Lights is one of my favourite books too. In fact, I have decided not to go and see the film, because I think that the whole deep meaning of the book that really reached me will have been blurred over. Large scale films are there to get a widest audience possible, and normally (not always) have a very shallow meaning.
I'm prefer the LOTR films to the books. I think the books, while being incredibly well planned, and good stories, are not written in a very good way. I'm a fan of comedy, but I think that the books weren't written seriously enough, and rambled way too much.
I don't like the Narnia books or films.
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Now, focusing on Stardust;
I think that both the book and the film stick to the theme of an fairytale for older readers. Fairytales are, as I think you vaguely mentioned, quite dark stories, but have been 'sugared up' to make them more suitable for children. Stardust the book is certainly a fairytale without the sugar coating.
The fact that the film has a light sprinkling is most likely due to the fact that it aims to reach as wide an audience as possible. There are different levels within the film, making it as enjoyable for my grandparents as it was for my five-year old sister who I went to see it with.
With Victoria; I agree that it may have been better to make her more like she was in the book. However, with Lamia; I think the idea was to make it fit in more with classic fairytales, where the evil character is defeated. I didn't like her being redeemed in the book; I like my spoon-fed classic stoylines in that case. The same reason why I liked the happily-ever-after ending.
Disney... the classic Disney films are quite dark. I think that they're good films for children to watch; for example, the Lion King was the first thing that really showed me the concept of death and how to deal with it. And I still enjoy watching them; they're classic, enjoyable, well-made films. What I don't like is Disney channel, and all the rubbish that has no meaning, and only gets children to spend hours in front of the television.
That is most certainately not what Stardust is.
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A question- (I won't pressure you to answer)- what offends you religiously about the film?
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Fair enough, however I do believe that Stardust the movie is exactly what you find on the Disney channel but if you're able to find more meaning in the movie, all power to you. What offended me religiously is that my religion is the Old Religion (proper name) more commonly called Witchcraft. I might have been turned off to Stardust the novel if I didn't already trust Neil Gaiman, but he delivered: in the book the witch queen does not break her oath to Ditchwater Sal; when she says she won't harm Ditchwater Sal she does come back later and kill her, and of course she's redeemed in the end. So many people have been killed for choosing that religion or even for being suspected of choosing that religion. Even now if someone chooses it, they risk being ostracized by their family. However, it's finally being recognized the Old Religion is indeed just that, so the stereotypical evil witch is outdated. Witches are to religion what women are to gender, and what dark-skinned people are to 'race' (I hate using that word when speaking of humans; after all we are all part of human race), and what large people are to the current beauty standard. And as with all of those, that attitude needs to stop. By the way, I agree with you that several of the Disney films were worthwhile, though they butchered Greek mythology in Hercules and SnowWhite in SnowWhite and the Seven Dwarfs couldn't possibly have been more stupid.
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The Witch Queen didn't break her oath in the movie, either. Lamia told Sal "And I swear by the ordinances of the Sisterhood to which we BOTH belong, that I mean you no harm this day." And that day, she didn't harm her. And if you think about it, she promised vengeance if she ever saw Sal after that. "Pray you never meet me again, Ditchwater Sal." Well, she certainly delivered on that promise.
I like the fact that the witch was redeemed in the book, as well. But I also like the movie. Your comments are well thought out, by the way.
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I must have missed the "this day" part, but I still think it was unnecessary; it also takes away Lady Una's rise of strength that she was given in the book when SHE told Ditchwater Sal/Madame Semele that she would no longer be her slave and would not be insulted. I was not impressed by the movie, but then there are people I consider to be quite intelligent who aren't impressed by some movies and books I consider brilliant, so there we are 
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I think that stereotypical witches in stories, like in Stardust, aren't trying to really make a religious (or anti-religious) reference. However, I can understand that it would offend you.
It's true that society's stereotypes are often unfair and discriminating. At one time, yes, witches were used as the evil old women as a direct stab at the religion they did not agree with. However, I think the meaning of why witches are normally used as such characters has become... meaningless. No one really thinks about the witches in stories as real people. It's like with Bonfire night; people used to celebrate it as an anti-catholic celebration, but now the whole meaning seems to be to eat toffee and set off fireworks.
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Hercules I count as one of the Disney films like Tarzan, and the sequels. The Disney films I think are more meaningful are ones like Lion King, Beauty & The Beast and Aladdin. Snow White- I agree that she is an incredible annoying character. Although I think that Mulan fits into the Hercules and Tarzan category, I still really love that film.
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I agree with that to a point, however it seems that every new person I meet who finds out what my religion is believes exactly how we're portrayed in such movies, and then I have to explain to them (which can get lengthy, depending on the person) what the truth is. I don't necessarily mind explaining it to them, but I shouldn't have to do it as often as I do, yet I will continue to have to as long as media portrays us that way.
As for not seeing Witches in stories as real people, I can think of several Christians and Muslims - and there are likely many Jews, Buddhists, Taoists, etc. who would feel the same - who would be livid if we didn't think of characters that belong to their religions as real people. That's the point of story-telling; to suspend disbelief, to make the audience empathize with the characters. Time and again there are movies that tell how Christians were treated by the Romans, how the Jews were treated by the Nazis and we empathize with them.
When is it our turn? Why must we continually be demonized when there is no evidence that any Witch has ever harmed someone (in fact, a true Witch can't harm anyone as a rule or s/he isn't a Witch), and yet those who claim to follow other religions have killed so many and freely admitted to it, calling it an act in their God's name?
There's no excuse as far as I'm concerned. To me it's no different than making a movie where a black person is portrayed as black people were in the past (as rapists, as dirty, as stupid, as ugly, etc.).
It might not have been so bad if the Witch was totally evil and defeated in the book (in which case I wouldn't have liked either book or movie), but it's insulting when some justice is done to Witches in the book and then absolutely none in the movie.
I actually liked the first Tarzan movie, but the sequels - as with most Disney sequels - were ridiculous. Mulan is easily my favourite Disney animated movie.
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I suppose you have a good point there. I don't really think about being insulted by how someone like me is portrayed in a film, as I am white and have no religion. Unless it's one of those times when the heroine/princess is really passive, or if it's extremely pro-christianity. But even then, it's much to vague to make me feel very insulted. I can understand what you mean, but I haven't really been in the same situation.
But I must say; people actually believe stereotypes of witches? I've never met anyone of your religion, but I can easily understand the basics of what it is about.
I suppose that the media is entirely to blame for that. The media is to blame for most stereotypes. At this point, I agree that it is not right to use witches as the evil characters, if people believe it.
I really like Mulan. It's definitely one of my three faves (along with Beauty & the Beast and Lion King)
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Unfortunately, yes, they do. You wouldn't believe what some people think about others. My mom, for example, believes that people from the Middle East (all of whom she calls Pakis) have cockroaches crawling on them
Mulan, I'm sure, is the reason why most of the protagonists I invent for my stories have black hair. An homage I suppose. She was my first real female hero.
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Actually, if all of their reflections were supposed to be beautiful, they must have cut that part out of the movie. I watched the trailer on youtube, and at 1:14, all of their reflections ARE beautiful. Check it out if you don't believe me.
[link]
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They definitely cut that part out. In the movie, one was bug-eyed and too skinny, and the other was rotund, and Michelle Pfeiffer was the only beautiful one and even she didn't look so great with all that eye make-up.
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Why would I hide your opinions? Meh, maybe it's just been a while since I've read the book. I usually purposely do NOT reread things before I go to the theater, if for no other reason than out of respect for my fellow movie watchers who probably don't want some crazy girl raving at the screen! And honestly Victoria came off as a bitch to me in the book as well, but maybe that's just my harsh opinion of most silly girls coming through. I do agree about how annoying it was to see dark-haired characters as blonds (where's the love for us dark haired girls, hollywood?).
Thanks for the comment.
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