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One late afternoon, just before dusk, I was walking across Tooting Common. I was struck by this mysterious image when approaching the lake....

I had this image idea and used AI software in order to best realise it. A captured photo on old Polaroid SX70 film. The title had been bouncing around in my mind although has nothing to do with the book by Thomas Pynchon or record by Laurie Anderson.

This is an illustration made for Case Western Reserve University. A wraparound cover image for Think magazine. The story revolves around Anirban Sen Gupta’s quest to develop synthetic, life-saving blood. A project he has been working on for years, securing grants, including a $2.75m award this year from the U.S. Department of Defense. He’s also a key member of a University of Maryland team that recently was awarded a $46.4 million federal grant to develop a freeze-dried blood substitute that, if successful, has the potential to save thousands of wounded soldiers’ lives - and civilian lives, as well.



Above, the finished illustration.



The printed version, Fall/Winter 2024 issue.

This was a challenging job in a number of respects. A lot of content was required and mostly of a very technical nature. This involved liaising with Sen Gupta who supplied various references to the cellular structures and nanoparticles involved in the project. With so many elements to be included I was keen to avoid a multi-coloured look so settled on a limited palette which suggested both medicine and the future of biological development.



Above are the original concept drawings. Instead of focussing on creation, as in the first two drawings, it was decided instead to feature Sen Gupta himself, the project leader. Bottom right is the approved concept sketch.



For accuracy, photos were taken of Sen Gupta. My objective was to simplify his features while still maintaining a good likeness. Above are some of the process stages.

I was recently asked by The Milken Review if I would be interested in producing a piece titled, "Computer Chess and the Future of Artificial Intelligence" - a story about chess and how AI is now dominant within the game.

To make the images more relevant I was asked if I could collaborate with AI to create the art. The irony of which was quite appealing. The brief was essentially to depict the opposing forces of artificial intelligence vs that of humanity within a chess/board setting.



Interesting process! To those unfamiliar with using AI to make pictures, let me just say that the technology has now reached the point of being extraordinary good at producing high quality imagery with minimal input from the user. What it is not so good at however is delivering anything with the more specific requirements of a conceptual image. Accordingly many images were generated before I could find anything that I considered even partially usable.



The creation process itself is actually very nuanced, much more involved than the current media view would have you believe, and I often found myself thinking how much more straightforward it would be to simply make my own illustrations! Having said all that, the tech did come up with things I would never have thought of and opened up different approaches to how the images could work. Eventually the illustrations developed almost collage-like so these end results are actually a blend of many generations - specifically a blend of the man-made in tandem with the machine-made.

Imagining a new approach to the cover design of mathematics textbooks. I used AI to create the academics desktop and to insert my cover image onto the book pile.

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