SLDS: Undercover Glamour Edition

Welcome to another Spies, Lies & Digital Skies (SLDS) art challenge. Every week, I post a prompt for you to create a spy and romance-themed image. You can use PhotoShop, ArtRage, Procreate, DALL-E, MidJourney, you name it to create your masterpiece.

Last Week’s High-Speed Art Adventures

Last week’s prompt, ‘High-speed chase through a bustling city,’ was a tricky one. But, yet again, Jez and Kevin were up to the challenge. Thank you both for joining me as we all go mad trying to get the images in our heads out into the world.

Jez’s Time-Traveling Chase

Jez took us on a high-speed journey through Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkirk, and through time! He used Hot Mods to alter his image of Glasgow and prompted the image generator to create a vintage chase scene. The horses are a perfect addition!

My favourite has to be this futuristic one of Falkirk, complete with Kelpie in the background! Check his site to see more of his images.

Kevin’s Annoyingly Perfect Escape

Kevin’s entry this week is annoying! He managed to get the sense of speed I spent forever and a day getting sort of close to… I console myself with the fact that the prompt annoyed him just as much as it did me 😂 I love his final image. The whole scene fits the prompt to a T.

This second image is excellent. It’s clear that the woman is being chased by the car. Visit Kevin’s site to see more of his amazing images!

This Week’s Mission: Glamour Undercover

This week’s prompt invites us to an “Undercover mission at a glamorous event.” When I saw this prompt, I thought it’d be easy… Oh, boy, was I wrong!

My Creative Journey: Spies at a Gala

Like last time, I went straight to DALL-E to work with text to create my images. I had several scenarios in mind and no images to work from.

So, my first attempt was to have a female agent take out a target with an injection of something lethal.

Attempt 1: The Lethal Injection Misadventure

Here’s the prompt:

PROMPT: Create a wide-format image. Imagine a grand awards ceremony. There are numerous tables, with beautifully attired people sitting around them, their attention on the stage before them. A woman in a black evening gown injects something into the neck of the man beside her.

The woman seems to be injecting the guy’s cheek… either that, or he’s sucking on it like a straw. 🤣 After several attempts that got me no closer to the image I wanted, I decided to change things up a bit.

Attempt 2: Perfume Ad or Covert Op?

PROMPT: Create a wide-format image. Imagine a grand awards ceremony. There are numerous tables, with beautifully attired people sitting around them, their attention on the stage before them. A woman in a black evening gown is a spy on an undercover mission to kill her companion–which she does in the image.

It looks okay, but it feels like a perfume advert. 😁 Hmm, let’s try a different scenario.

Attempt 3: Poisonous Intentions at the Gala

PROMPT: Create a wide-format image of a glamorous gala. Among the beautifully dressed attendees are three undercover spies. The spies disguised as waiters and waitresses, one of them carries a tray of drinks and pours a vial of poison into a drink–unnoticed by the table of guests next to him. 

Yeah, that ski mask gives him away, doesn’t it? I tried several times to get rid of it, but DALL-E wasn’t having it.

Attempt 4: The Silenced Gun Dilemma

So, I gave the prompt a wee tweak:

PROMPT: Create a wide-format image of a glamorous gala. Among the beautifully dressed attendees are three undercover agents. The agents are dressed in white and look like waiters and waitresses; one of them carries a cloth over her arm. Beneath the cloth is a gun. Only the silencer is visible. She stands behind a man who has a bloom of red forming on the front of his dress shirt.

Yeah. That prompt was a bust, too. No matter how I reworded it, it never worked.

From Novel to Art: Adam’s Undercover Auction

Getting nowhere close to what I was looking for, I decided to steal from my first draft of Running the Asset and distilled part of a scene into a slightly weird prompt: 

PROMPT: Create a wide-format image of a glamorous arms auction event on a megayacht. A man (Adam) with damp hair joins the auction-goers. He is spotted by someone (Christian) who knows him. Adam is on an undercover mission. Christian is a bad guy who doesn’t know Adam’s real identity. Adam lures Christian out to the deck and kills him. 

I kind of like it, but knowing how the scene looks in my mind, it falls short.

Final Attempt: Adam’s Night of Opulence and Danger

In one final attempt, I put a bit more effort into stealing from Running the Asset and, after much hair-pulling, came up with this prompt.

PROMPT: Create a wide-format image of a tense, cinematic moment on a luxury megayacht during a covert operation at night. The scene is set on the deck of the yacht with the ocean and the night sky in the background. A man in a crease-resistant suit moves discreetly across the deck, blending in with the party. He has a faint scar and appears vigilant, scanning the surroundings while trying to remain unnoticed among elegantly dressed guests who are in various states of inebriation. The atmosphere is charged with a mix of opulence and underlying danger. The yacht’s lavish decorations and lighting contrast with the dark, ominous ocean waters.

I love this image of Adam as he makes his way to rescue Elle. It captures his intensity perfectly!

Join the Undercover Glamour Edition Challenge

Are you up for the challenge? Even if you’ve never tried AI prompting before, give it a shot–DALL-E is free to use. Check out last week’s post for some helpful hints and tips to get you started on your text-to-image prompt engineering. Go on! Join us and have fun creating your images.

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What did you think of this week’s challenge? Drop a comment below or share your own interpretations on social media. Can’t wait to see your masterpieces!

Till next time, stay awesome,

Susan x

How to Participate:

1. Create and Share: Craft an artwork depicting “Undercover mission at a glamorous event.” Use any digital tool that inspires you.
2. Share Your Creation: Post your artwork on your blog and link back to this post, or share it on Instagram/Twitter using the hashtag #SLDSart and tagging me @susbraithwaite. Make sure to do so before next Friday!
3. Engage and Inspire: Join our community of artists and spies. Your work might just be featured in our next intelligence brief (blog post) and possibly in my monthly newsletter.

This challenge is open to artists of all skill levels, from new, fresh, out-the-pack recruits to seasoned agents. Dive into the shadowy world of espionage and let your creativity unfold.