SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

The harsh fluorescence from the hanging lights overhead illuminates row upon row of well-worn volumes in the vast library. You creep between the stacks, your feet and the hardwearing carpet acting like a whispered conversation. The air is thick with the scent of old books and the promise of secrets.

Ahead, one of the oppressive lights between two towering stacks flickers off. That’s your signal. You hurry your pace, but not enough to attract attention. As you reach the meeting point, your contact steps out from the shadows. Leaning in close, his breath ruffles your hair as he whispers, “Welcome to this week’s SLDS challenge.”.

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 Highlights: Dangerous Liaison in a Warzone

Before we begin this week’s challenge, let’s celebrate the amazing entries from last week’s challenge, A Dangerous Liaison in a Warzone. Your stunning artwork blew me away.

Check out my favourites:

Kevin’s Pinpoint Accuracy

Check out Kevin’s post for his beautiful bonus image!

Jez’s Epic Warzones

Check out Jez’s post for more warzone epicness.

Claire’s Love Amid Chaos

Check out Claire’s post for more Love Amid Chaos.

This Week’s Challenge: A Whispered Conversation in a Library

Ah, the library. It’s an innocent enough place on the surface. But is the student at the desk really a student, or are they working surveillance? How about the older man, periodically peeking through the stacks as he absently leafs through the book in his hand? In the world of spies, a simple whispered conversation is far from innocent.

Let’s Capture our Whispered Conversation

I’ve decided to go super simple for this prompt. A nice contemporary setting and our characters are two spies meeting in the stacks.

PROMPT: Create a wide-format image of a contemporary library with numerous stacks. A man holds a book, pretending to read as a woman on the other side of the stack talks quietly to him. The interaction is intense due to the danger of them talking to each other. If either of their spy agencies found out, they’d be killed.

I like the setting, but with the distance between the two characters and their positioning, it doesn’t hit right. It seems more like she’s judging him. Let’s tweak the prompt.

PROMPT: Can you show them both standing but on opposite sides of the stacks?

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere! But I’m rethinking the setting. An older library might give the scene a bit more atmosphere.

Olde Worlde Whispered Conversation

PROMPT: Can you make it an older library whilst keeping the time contemporary?

Yes! The change gave me the atmosphere I wanted, but the characters are out in the open, and something’s missing…

Let’s Turn Up the Heat

PROMPT: Can you put them at the end of the stack again, and let’s add some sexual tension?

This is it! The body language and facial expressions are perfect ? Ideally, the library would have retained the old-world charm and shadows, but I know better than to prod for more at this point.

Over to You

Now it’s your turn to bring this week’s prompt to life. Imagine the whispered conversations and secret exchanges happening between the stacks. Capture the tension, the mystery, and maybe even a hint of romance in your artwork. (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