Welcome to Hickstead, home to both Seven Oak Stables, and Blue Acre - two rival stables. Both offer opportunities for their clients to reach the highest level of excellence. Each stable differs from the other, so choose wisely and never forget, loyalty is everything... Meanwhile as the stables battle it out, there's trouble brewing at the university. Be careful, if you don't pick a side you may get caught in the cross-fire...
This is an chilled out rpg with a super friendly and relaxed atmosphere! Remember to sign up with your characters full name in all caps and don't forget to do your claims! Thank you and Welcome, we've been established since 10th March 2009 but unfortunately have had to close guest view of our boards due to multiple sites ripping off our hard work, such a shame! Come chat to us in Discord before joining if you like!.
Adalia wasn't sure what had made her sign up for the life model classes - she'd already done several in her years as a student, but that had been some time ago and she felt she needed to get some practice back in for drawing people. She supposed she hadn't needed to pick a naked life drawing session, but where was the fun in drawing people if you didn't get to see the whole form, right? Besides, there was going to be some draping of fabric over parts of the body, to work on the drawing of textures. The class wasn't too expensive, and it was nice and local, held at the university, so it wasn't far to go - and the teacher was meant to be really good. So, it was an obvious choice really.
Adalia had brought her own easel, though they had some ready for students to borrow if they needed: art supplies were expensive, and not everyone could afford it all. They did provide the paper to sketch on which was handy - and cheaper than a canvas, but it made sense given that these were just sketches today and nothing concrete. As the model came out - a guy, count her lucky stars, and not too bad on the eyes either - Adalia couldn't help but press her lips together to suppress a smile. No need to be creepy. "Now all I need is a glass of wine," She couldn't help commenting quietly, getting herself set up in the circle of easels.
Emma had decided to try taking a class or two at the local university. She hadn’t met many people in town yet and wanted to find a way to maybe meet some people closer to her age who might also enjoy the occasional activity. She had helped her mom in the theater and music departments growing up - but she had little experience in the visual arts. Which is exactly why she decided to go in that direction. She had taken some basic classes in high school (no one wanted to take class with their mom so visual arts was the way to go). She had enjoyed drawing and painting. While she was better than your average six-year-old, she definitely wasn’t the next Van Gogh. When she saw the description for the class, Emma decided to give in to her naturally adventurous side and take the class.
Emma slipped into class quietly. She’d slipped her tote over her shoulder, not realizing it wasn’t her old school bag but her horse tack-to-go bag instead - oops. It wouldn’t help her much here so she hoped the teacher would have everything needed available. Sure enough, she borrowed an easel and made her way to an open spot, slipping the paper into place. “Now all I need is a glass of wine.” Emma head the girl next to her whisper. She glanced at where the girl was looking at, and sure enough Emma knew exactly what she meant. Emma smirked as she set her bag down and shimmied herself into place before leaning over and whispering, “Make it a whole bottle and I’ll join you with a view like that.”
Adalia finished setting herself up, just about - she tended to fuss a little when setting up, feeling jittery until she started painting. It was that odd itchy feeling she got when she wanted to paint or draw, but didn't know where to start and ended up faffing with her hand wandering around the page but unable to make a mark. She guessed it was equivalent to people not knowing where to start cleaning in a room full of mess. She riffled around in her bag for her favourite pencils and her other sketching tools, her eyes following the movements of the real life model as they began to arrange themselves in the way they wanted to sit for their first pose. Apparently he would move a couple of times so they could attempt different angles. Adalia wasn't sure if that was a good or dangerous thing with the view she had already been given.
She glanced up and smiled as someone started setting up next to her. She knew the art world could be a little bit uptight at times, depending on the circles you travelled. Adalia was freelance and aside from joining the odd class, she didn't have much interaction with other artists. Sometimes she regretted that, wanting to make more friends in a similar line of work to her, but sometimes when she'd reached out in the past, they hadn't had the same free spirited and chilled out nature as her, not understanding why she didn't take art 'seriously' because her work and her style was different, or they didn't think she took it 'seriously'.
“Make it a whole bottle and I’ll join you with a view like that.” Adalia blushed a little, not having realise she would have been heard and glanced up again, slightly embarrassed. "I'm sure that could probably be arranged. You distract them, I'll whip out to the corner shop and be back in five." She joked, checking she'd set everything up now before taking a step back and relaxing. "I'm Adalia, by the way. Have you done one of these before?"
After making the comment about joining the girl, Emma grinned a silly happy grin at the girl and continued to set herself up. She hoped and prayed this girl would appreciate her comment, not think her weird or be stuck up or anything like that. Emma was horrible at reading social clues sometimes. She just loved people and tended to think everyone else was just as happy as she tried to be. She’d recently learned the hard way that life wasn’t always breezy or happy - sometimes life was just plain unfair and cruel.
"I'm sure that could probably be arranged. You distract them, I'll whip out to the corner shop and be back in five." Emma giggled at her response. “Deal,” she whispered and pretended to look around the room in a sneaky manner before laughing and getting settled in. "I'm Adalia, by the way. Have you done one of these before?"
Emma shook her head no before she answered, her southern drawl sticking out like a sore thumb as she blushed a little. “No, I definitely haven’t done one of THESE… I mean, my goodness, though, if my high school had offered one I definitely would’ve taken it. Of course, who wouldn’t have? I bet it would have been packed and everyone would’ve done their best to get an A. I mean, granted, when your mom is the music and drama teacher at your high school, not getting an A is rough. I mean, she wasn’t like harsh on us but if our grades were low she did everything imaginable to help us succeed. It was nice but sometimes overwhelming.” Emma shook her head, a smile on her face. “Oh! And, Adalia, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Emma Marie Brown, or just Emma, or Em, Emby, Brownie… whatever floats your boat.” Emma stuck her hand out and gave the girl her signature bright smile.
Adalia caught the grin from Emma and allowed herself to grin too - clearly the other woman thought it was funny enough and wasn't about to shush her. She'd been to a couple of places where the other students hadn't wanted to talk or share funny quips, they just wanted to watch the teacher and get on with things. She understood that, she was also there to learn, but she also found it boring - not reaching out to anyone else, making connections or anything.
Adalia's smile widened at the giggle - it was an infectious sound. “Deal,” Adalia joined in with the laughter as she watched Emma glance around in a suspicious manner, before they both looked back to their respective work. The model came out then and Adalia gave a faint blush, hearing a couple of other people make a noise. Their teacher told them to be quiet and start looking at the lines, and so Adalia picked up a piece of charcoal to get marking. Once she was in the zone and sketching, it wasn't actually quite as odd that the model was clothes-less, and she had to applaud their confidence; it wasn't something she'd be able to do, no matter how happy she was in her body.
“No, I definitely haven’t done one of THESE… I mean, my goodness, though, if my high school had offered one I definitely would’ve taken it. Of course, who wouldn’t have? I bet it would have been packed and everyone would’ve done their best to get an A. I mean, granted, when your mom is the music and drama teacher at your high school, not getting an A is rough. I mean, she wasn’t like harsh on us but if our grades were low she did everything imaginable to help us succeed. It was nice but sometimes overwhelming.” Adalia paused and looked over to her new friend, giving a little chuckle, "yeah I bet if they'd been doing this kind of art in school, everyone would have signed up for it for GCSE," She said with a slight shake of her head. "That does sound overwhelming, I bet you're glad you're past that point at least," She sympathised, although lucky for her, she had never had particularly pushy parents.
“Oh! And, Adalia, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Emma Marie Brown, or just Emma, or Em, Emby, Brownie… whatever floats your boat.” Adalia smiled back and reached out to shake her hand, the girl clearly liked to chat but Adalia liked that - she thought it was nice that people liked to chat, and she was one of them herself. "I'll start with Emma, and we'll see how it goes? Or maybe I'll come up with something new," She joked, giving her a quick wink before taking another few moments to sketch out an arm and terrible fingers.
