I like Morgoth, but honestly, the guy had a severe case of ADD, so I've always been of the opinion that, while Morgoth thought them up, the one to completely fashion the orcs from elves was Sauron. So, er... yeah. Be gentle with me. The whole thing belongs to Tolkien, not me, of course.

Artistry

A painter has but one brush, while an artist has many. One, the length of a hand, sharp and shimmering like tarnished ice; this is for detailed work. Another soft but barbed, nine long leather-hairs straining for the floor; this is for the broader strokes. One simple coil of thick hide, and one of white painter's steel; these are for the shadows, and the long, wicked needle for the highlights.

There is a brush that crushes and one that simply breaks. I have no colours in my palette, but I have many tools, all neatly arrayed before me (by my own hand, of course; only an artist's hand with an artist's tools - one does not let farmers fiddle with a forge either).

Every canvas is different and demand different brushes in different sequences, so that each new piece of art - though unremarkable, to the untrained eye - is a masterpiece in its own right. Every loving stroke of my brushes, each strain of mind and white purity removed from the canvas, brings this dark art to the surface more clearly.

Split the perfect nose marring my raw material, and all ready colour is applied. Sew shut the furiously blinking eyes, distracting from my painstakingly applied textures - and I work hard on those - and then reopen them, savouring the terrifying new depths lent to the art. And when each line is drawn, each stroke applied, the time for nurture has come, and as the now impure material - rendered masterpiece- realises it consumes canvas on which others failed (not me; I do not fail in my art), the last marring streak of purity is erased forever.

It is perfect in its blackened state, and with enough masterpieces, the world would surely succumb in awe-struck terror.

Ai, ai, master. Look what a painting I have wrought for you. A gallery in Angband, a becoming portfolio of perversion, should you allow it. Is it not artistry?

end