SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

The midday sun beats down over the rugged peaks of Southern California. You shield your eyes from whatever glints and sparkles into them just below the ridge. It calls to your adventurous heart. Picking up speed, careful not to slide on the loose gravel, you close in on your target. There, nestled between the rocky peaks, lies a secret—a hidden safe house.

This isn’t just any hideout; it’s a sanctuary for those who walk the fine line between the shadows and the light. Welcome to “A Spy’s Hidden Safe House,” this week’s exciting challenge in our Spies, Lies & Digital Skies art adventure.

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.

Last Week’s Standouts: Tracing a Mysterious Phone Call

The creative ingenuity of our wee community never ceases to amaze me. Last week, you brought life to the difficult-to-illustrate prompt “Tracing a Mysterious Phone Call“.

Special thanks go to Jez, Marie, and Claire for their breathtaking entries. I’m in awe of what you guys have created! Your creativity not only keeps this challenge vibrant but reminds us all of the boundless possibilities that lie within our imagination.

Check out my favourite entries from last week…

Tracing a Call with Hercule Poirot and Marie

Check out Marie’s post for more of Hercule’s journey to catch a Russian spy.

Sophisto-tech with Claire

Check out Claire’s post for more high-tech sophistication.

Art Fusion with Jez

Check out Jez’s post for more spy art fusion delights.

This Week’s Challenge: A Spy’s Hidden Safe House

Oh, I love this prompt. Don’t you? Safe houses have so many possibilities, and most fit snuggly into a single frame. This is one of those prompts you can let your imagination run wild with! Is it in the city, a village, or the desert? Is it ultra-modern, a cave, an old shack? The possibilities and iterations are endless.

Create With Me: Let’s Find a Spy’s Hidden Safe House!

When I saw this week’s prompt, I’ll be honest: I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I’ve not been well lately, and trying to get my brain to do any heavy lifting mentally hasn’t gone great.

The first thing that sprung to mind with the prompt was my outline for Bulletproof Heart, one of my future Deniable Unit novels. The hero, Ward and his boss’s daughter, Bron, are on the run and hide out in a long-forgotten DU safe house.

You might recognise Ward’s name. He’s featured in many of my Things in Scots snippets, showcasing his bedside manner, bluntness, and integrity (delayed integrity? Nah, let’s call it integrity).

Stealing from Myself

Here goes! In the past, when I knew exactly what I wanted to see from a prompt, it’s not gone well. I’ll try to be as clear as I can without adding too many details that could derail DALL-E. Fingers crossed ?

PROMPT: In wide format, please create this image: a hut in the mountains of southern California. The building sits in a small clearing on dusty brushland. The exterior is made of old planks. A motorbike stands next to the building, hidden beneath a camo tarp. The door to the building is ajar, offering a glimpse into its true nature—it’s a spy network’s hidden safe house, filled with the necessities of life, weaponry, and tech.

Oh, I like this, but it’s not quite what I had in mind. It’s not exactly big enough for two to, well, hide out and get to know each other without killing the other. It’s an enemies-to-lovers, but I can’t have them actually kill each other! ?

Take Two

PROMPT: Please make the building a wee bittie bigger.

This last one is my favourite! The building fits better with what’s in my head. I can see Ward and Bron there so easily. If my brain were fully functional, I’d have added them to the scene, but I’m happy with what I’ve got here.

Over to You

Now it’s your turn. Step beyond the veil of the everyday and into a realm where shadows dance, and legends thrive. Let your imagination run wild, and share your interpretation of the ultimate hideaway for the world’s most elusive.

What story does your “spy’s hidden safe house” tell? Let us know 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 as our creative journey takes us even further into the heart of espionage.

Till next time, stay awesome,

Susan x