Don't Dream of this Jeannie

Julia Minamata site/blog

Here's an illo I did for the Weekly Alibi for Tom Nayder. It's about New Mexico's governor Susana Martinez and some controversy that got kicked up after she halted some environmental reforms that were already passed. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center is suing the newly minted gov because they say her actions were illegal.

According to the article Tom sent me, Gov. Martinez doesn't believe in a link between human activity and global warming. She got hundreds of thousands of dollars from the oil and gas industries during her campaign, which may have something to do with this, yes? Maybe?

On a happier note, anyone else remember that wacky 1960s sitcom "I Dream of Jeannie"? Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman? How much fun was that show? I can still hear the theme music in my head. For this piece I thought it might be fun to draw the governor as a genie (Jeannie?) because POOF! She became governor and then POOF! She puts those new environmental rules on ice. Genies work fast, and in mysterious ways.

She is also coming out of a smokestack to indicate her supposed ties with big oil and gas, with a big, scary, lightning-filled cloud coming out of the other smokestacks to represent how environmentalists may feel about her time in office.

On a stylistic note, I decided to try an illustration where I don't use my usual dark lines to separate the shapes. I like the effect, I may try it more in the future!

Ooh, and I almost forgot -- I use Photoshop to decide what the colours are going to be for a piece, but then I get my inks out and try to recreate those colours on paper. Then, I scan the piece in and that's the final illustration. About 95% of the time I do not alter my colours in Photoshop after I've made my silkscreen print, beyond corrections to ensure it'll show up well in a magazine. Occasionally I'll have such an epic colour fail and a looming deadline that I have to perform some Photoshop magic to make the piece look good.

This is one of those pieces. I'm usually pleased with my colour choices, but this illustration just wasn't cooperating. It was defeating me! Here is what the printed colours were (*wince):



Okay, not so bad. But Jeannie should be pink. It's like a law of nature.

More colour ideas:






And here's the sketch!