Computer Chess and the Future of Artificial Intelligence

Computer Chess

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.

Computer Chess

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.

Computer Chess

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.

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Cosines & Tangents

Cosines & Tangents

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.

Cosines & Tangents

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Winning Against Cancer

Winning Against Cancer

I was asked by Karen at Readers Digest to produce three half page illustrations and a spread for their December 2022/January 2023 issue. They were needed for a big feature in their Health section on how recent treatment breakthroughs are helping to win the war on cancer. Main themes revolved revolved around prevention of the disease through to the various treatments available.

Winning Against Cancer

I was asked to create illustrations for each section which were to be general in the imagery used rather than anything too specific. Also as this was an optimistic piece it was preferred if this was reflected in the chosen colour palette. The finished illustrations were very well received.

Winning Against Cancer

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On The Fly

Fruit Fly

Kathryn at John Hopkins University Arts & Sciences magazine asked me to create a cover and interior illustrations for a major story on humanity's debt to the lowly fruit fly. The article explores how scientists use fruit flies in their research which could potentially help cure human disease.

It was requested that the cover image and interior spread should be related in both look and feel so I maintained the same scientific elements and took different views of the human character. One of the influences coming into play for the main image was Da Vinci's Vetruvian Man although it was scaled back so as not to be too obvious.

Fruit Fly

Fruit Fly


The colour palette evolved via experimentation during the working process. Once I had the combination of turquoise and olive green then everything else fell into place.
The finished illustrations were very well received and the magazine published on November 15th.

Fruit Fly sketch

These are the initial two approved sketches.

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It Takes A Team

Fruit Fly

I was contacted by Case Western Reserve University to illustrate a story about how a scientific team had made the discovery of a gene that could stop the growth of tumours in the colon. Going further, could the enzyme this gene produced not only stop cancer but also prevent the disease?

I was given a free hand in how I might interpret the story although was asked to focus on the partnership of the people who brought the ideas to fruition while maintaining the investigative and medical aspects of the article. In terms of colour I was looking for something different rather than the blues and reds often seen in medical illustration.

Fruit Fly

Fruit Fly

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