Study in Black || ONC 2026

LONDON, 1848. Apprentice to the elusive portrait artist Henry Glass, Saskia van Asch spends her days in the studio sketching studies of vain aristocrats. Dreadfully boring, she might complain, but the monotony suits her just fine.

And then the mysterious Lady Helen Blackwood commissions a portrait. Saskia takes an immediate dislike to the new sitter, with her evasiveness and quirky mannerisms, not to mention the odd hours she forces Saskia to keep. But the more time she spends with Lady Blackwood, mapping out all the details of her portrait and her life, the more her misgivings transform into a fascination that she finds hard to resist. But giving in to its pull might mean that she has everything to lose.

Because Saskia is hiding a secret of her own.

--

Main prompt:

117. You're a portrait artist for high-profile clients, but one night a pale, uneasy stranger arrives, asking for a painting. They haven't seen their own face in a century.

Secondary prompt:

78. You begin to realise that nothing is quite what it seems.