I have become very fond of the checkered pattern.  It just makes things look so old fashioned though that could just be me.  Anyways I've been busting my ass to finish not just one but two damn illustrations centered around a cause panel (Melkor's) and the reaction panel (the Valar) for that Angbang illustration series that I really need to name.  I want it to center around the theme of 'song' since it began with a song and it will (likely) end with a song. Someone give me some ideas because all mine seem hokey as hell. >.>    Time to dawn my narrator voice I suppose to clarify what's going on here.

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With Melkor's unexpected and undesired return the other Valar hold council in an effort to wrack their brains on how to defeat him.  After much debate it is decided if the Void cannot hold Melkor then they will have to rely on simply binding him again with Angainor and ensure he never leaves the confines of the chain again.   Using the remains of the chain that was found outside the Doors of Night, Aulë sets about mending the chain and refortifying it while the others try to devise a plan to actually get the chain back on its intended target. 
Tulkas unlike his fellow Valar is very impatient in this matter.  He has never liked Melkor has never understood why Manwë has granted the snake of a Valar so many undeserved pardons and is eager to get his hands back around the traitorous man's neck to prove a point.  Against Manwë and the other Valar's wishes he takes the newly forged chain and goes to challenge Melkor alone with every intention of dragging him back kicking and screaming with Angainor wrapped tightly around his neck.
Hours pass, then a handful of days.  Tulkas does not return... but Melkor does and he has a "gift" to return to the Valar.  Tulkas, or his head rather.

Nessa falls to her knees and cries at the sight of her husband's head. 
Varda immediately tries to console the distraught woman.
Yvanna tries to contain her horror behind her hands.
Manwë is shocked of the depths of Melkor's darkness.
Aulë's pain is two-fold: He is grieved to know Tulkas died by Melkor's hand and he's upset to see Mairon still standing at Melkor's side like some dog that obeys it's master's every corrupt command.  His disappointment is obvious.
And Mairon is uncomfortable.

He didn't want to see the other Valar to begin with, never before and especially not now when he couldn't even begin to defend himself against them in his barely-more-than-a-wraith state.  But of all the Valar he especially did not want to see Aulë and yet here is is forced to face and take note of the ever-present palpable disappointment that is draped over his former master like a thick cloak.  Tulkas' death hardly upset Mairon.  He feels the hot-headed man deserved it for daring to challenge his master.  Mairon himself has killed and delighted in the screams of humans or elves in similar scenarios in the past... but this isn't either of those creatures.  This is Nessa. This was personal.  This was the cheerful and affectionate woman that used to find him at Aulë 's forge and, despite his aloof nature, insist he come sing for her while she danced. 

Those one time pleasant memories are now forever tarnished by the sound of Nessa's heart wrenching wails and for once Mairon find's himself shaken by Melkor's destructive actions.

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Poor Nessa.   Sorry girl, I didn't mean to kill your man.  But little else sends a statement quite like killing off one's greatest enemy.  And just because  Aulë' is, like, the Leonardo DaVinci of the forge-master world.  Just look at that renaissance man hat. I love it, no one else has to but I do. Aaaaand there I go again changing the design of Mairon's outfit.  Unsurprising.  I really just wanted to draw a freckled back....or make him look like a concubine.  Either or.   Real artists design outfits first then draw, I just go "fuck it" and draw stuff whatever way I want no matter what I drew before.  At this point I'm about to say it's part of my artistic MO - organic outfits.
And I should probably point out all those "tassels" on Melkor are in fact hair because nothing says "I'm a bad guy" like scalping your enemies and wearing their hair as trinkets.

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Ultimately this is some sort of angbang art series that follows a silly story idea I've had mulling around in my head for a while. Previous pictures in the series here:

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