SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

Ever think something’s going to be a piece of cake… and then five minutes in BAM, you realise that things might not be as easy as you thought? Yeah, that was me this morning with this week’s Spies, Lies & Digital Skies (SLDS) art challenge. Buckle up. This one’s a doozy!

For the uninitiated, here’s a quick explainer of SLDS: Each week, I share a prompt for artists of all skill levels (and non-artists like me) to create a spy and/or romance-themed image. You can use PhotoShop, ArtRage, Procreate, DALL-E, MidJourney, Microsoft Edge’s CoPilot, you name it, to conjure up your masterpiece.

Last Week’s Highlights

Thanks to Kevin and Jez for participating in last week’s challenge, and a special thanks and welcome to Marie! They all took the prompt of ‘a tense standoff at a border crossing‘ and created some exceptional artwork. Check out the highlights below!

Marie’s Eerily Realistic Scenes

Marie introduced us to two new AIs I hadn’t heard of before. And I have to say, their results are shockingly realistic. Check out Marie’s post to see more of her amazing images! Marie created her artwork using Night Café Studio and Lexica.

There’s a definite atmosphere that things could kick off big time in this image. Not somewhere I’d like to get caught in the middle of, that’s for sure!

Kevin’s Split-Second Timing

Kevin initially misread the prompt and spent some time coming up with some spectacular images of an escape at the border that you really need to check out…

As soon as he realised his mistake, he got to work on the standoff at the border. A few tweaks later, he came up with an image that could have been taken a few seconds before the mayhem in my final image. I love the coiled tension in this one!

Jez Goes Extra

That heading isn’t an error. Jez went extra everything. He played around with time periods and cultures, mixed and matched them, and a whole host of wildly imaginative styles. Do yourself a favour and check out his gallery for the prompt.

It was tough to pick a favourite, but this image really works for me. The snow, the air support, the vehicles fighting for traction.

This Week’s Challenge: Disguised Rendezvous in a Foreign City

I thought this would be an easy one, but how the hell do you show that someone is disguised in a still image? My go-to for brainstorming is to whack all the boring ideas on paper until I come up with something interesting.

Let’s Get Creating

I decided to start with the most interesting one to me which was the fake priest idea.

PROMPT: Imagine a scene set along one of the exterior walls of an ornate church in Marseilles. A ‘priest’ and a ‘nun’ are standing very close together—too close, just out of view of any passersby. But there’s a hint that the priest and nun are merely using the outfits as disguises. They are, in fact, operatives of a spy agency and lovers. Their meeting is a romantic one, but that doesn’t mean that they can let their guard down.

It wasn’t quite what I was looking for. So, let’s tweak it.

PROMPT: I like the closeness, but can you hint more at the longing and the fact that these two aren’t as they appear? Possibly add a real nun passing by with a disapproving look on her face.

I don’t know what it is that’s not working for me.

A Few Trials and Errors

It’s incredible how quickly you realise that a prompt will be an absolute arsepiece! To save us a whole lot of time, here’s a sped-up version of the prompts and the results that wouldn’t work.

The Disguised Mother and The Dragonov

PROMPT: Create an image of a woman smiling as she chats with a man. She has a buggy with her, and instead of a baby inside, there is a disassembled Dragonov. The scene is set in the Vieux Port area of Marseille. The Dragonov should be broken down so that it can fit inside the buggy without being obvious…

Totally not obvious ?

Mission Impossible… Mask

PROMPT: Create an image of a man who is slightly taken aback as he sees a woman removing the hyper-realistic full-head mask of the old man she was pretending to be. They are on a side street in Noale, Venice.

Eh, kinda, though the woman is still disguised as the old man. The idea works brilliantly in movies but, unfortunately, not in stills.

Horsing Around

PROMPT: Create an image of two men. One of them is in a pantomime horse disguise. They are sitting outside an eatery in Bonn, Germany.

Not exactly what I was looking for, but it was as close as DALL-E wanted to play with it today.

My Final Attempt

Right, let’s embrace some over-the-top disguise shit! I’m going all in on the moustache-twirling mixed with a Clark Kent type of disguise.

PROMPT: Create an image of a meeting between two spies (a male and a female), each wearing whimsical disguises. The woman has a bushy fake moustache and thick-rimmed glasses. The scene takes place in a market in Marrakech.

---

It’s not perfect, but I love the bushyness of that stache! ?

So, do you have some ideas of how you’d tackle the ‘disguised rendezvous in a foreign city’ prompt? If you do, take a crack at creating your art, post it on your blog and drop a link to your response post in the comments. (See top of post for “How to join in”)

Till next time, stay awesome,

Susan x