SLDS: A Forest Ambush

In the hush of twilight, the forest breathes around you. Shadows grow and merge, shrouding the serene landscape in a blanket of mystery. In the distance, the subtle crunch of leaves breaks the silence—a sound that could easily go unnoticed. But not by you.

Is it merely wildlife scurrying in the underbrush or something more sinister? A hidden adversary lying in wait? Or is it this week’s theme for our Spies, Lies & Digital Skies art challenge: “Ambush in a Shadowy Forest.”

What is SLDS?: SLDS is a weekly prompt challenge that encourages artists of all levels, including non-artists, to create an image with a spy and romance theme. You can use various tools such as Photoshop, ArtRage, Procreate, DALL-E, MidJourney, Microsoft Edge’s CoPilot, or any other software that you prefer to create your artwork.

Celebrating Last Week’s Entries: A Spy’s Hidden Safe House

If you love the idea of a defendable, secure home tucked away from prying eyes, you’ll adore last week’s entries. Special thanks to Kevin, Claire, Jez, and Marie for their creative takes on the “A spy’s hidden safe house” prompt. Your perfect hideouts have added new layers (or should that be lairs) to our spy collective!💐💖

Check out my favourites from last week…

Going Off-Grid with Kevin

Check out Kevin’s post for more off-grid awesomeness!

Going Underground with Claire

Check out Claire’s post for more on her superb secret lair.

Going into the Woods with Jez

Check out Jez’s post for more amazing safe houses.

Going Literal with Marie

Check out Marie’s post for more spectacular “safe” safe houses!

This Week’s Challenge: Ambush in a Shadowy Forest

This week, we pivot away from the safety of secluded safe houses to the nerve-racking scenario of an ambush in a shadowy forest. Oh, yay, there’s nothing quite like an ambush to get the heart racing, is there? The thrill of the unknown—are you the hunter or the hunted? Let the suspense of an unseen assailant or your unwitting target inspire your artwork as we dive into our imagination’s darker, uncharted territories.

Create With Me: Let’s Set Up an Ambush in a Forest!

The moment I read the prompt, a memory of a mini-scene stirred in my mind. A few years back, I’d written something for Genre Scribes, my old sprint writing challenge series, that perfectly fit this prompt.

Inspiration for an Ambush

The scene may have been blasted out in under five minutes, but it has stuck in my mind for the five years since I wrote it. Let’s hope it serves me well as I tweak it into a prompt for DALL-E 🫣

Life dripped from the treetops down to the forest floor. A cacophony of life hummed all around Cammy’s hideout in the tree hollow. A bird overhead whistled a frantic tune—a warning call.

Silence.

The air changed, a stillness that had the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. Something was coming. Someone was coming. She readied her father’s old Colt 1911 as quietly as she could.

Crack.

Cammy’s heart raced. He was close now. A flash of black moved through the trees toward her.

Do or die, Cammy.

She tugged the fishing line hard, triggering the branches she’d set up to tumble. The man slid to a stop, distracted by the sudden noise. She eased out of her hidey-hole and took aim at the man who’d been sent to kill her. The man who’d destroyed her heart.

Let’s Get Prompting!

I’m going to start out lazy and simply copy/paste the scene into DALL-E to see what happens. I don’t have much hope that it will work out that great, but who knows—it could turn out brilliantly!

I’m impressed! It looks far better than I’d hoped. It’s pretty sinister, which is awesome, but way too dark, and the woman is out of proportion.

Attempt Number Two

Laziness gave me a great base to work with, but as I’m still on heavy painkillers at the moment… I don’t relish the thought of multiple rounds of arguments with the AI 😆

The best plan here is to pull out the key imagery that tells an interesting story. Here goes! 🤞

PROMPT: Please create a wide-format, high-angle image of the following: a forest at dusk. The trees cast long shadows in a small clearing. A woman, scared but determined, peeks out from a hollow in the ground. Gun drawn, aiming at a shadowy figure of a man. The man has a gun, too. He holds it casually at his side as he unwittingly approaches the hidden woman.

Okay. The first of DALL-E’s images, well, totally misses the mark! 😂 I suppose the woman has been ambushed rather than the other way around. I’m intrigued by the other figure walking in the background.

Luckily, DALL-E produces two images for the same prompt.

Oh, I love this image. It’s not exactly what I asked for, but it’s so close, and it tells an intriguing story.

Over to You

Now it’s your turn. Take the leap and join our wee art community. Let your imagination take you on an adventure into an ambush in a shadowy forest. Share your interpretation of the prompt in the comments, or better yet, bring your vision to life and share it with us! (See the beginning of the post for “How to join in”).

Hit the follow button and join us next week to see where our creative journey takes us.

Till next time, stay awesome,

Susan x