Rebecca Junkin

Roy

2012-01-01T20:30:00.004-05:00

Wow, I haven't posted forever. I have lots of things to post...just haven't gotten around to it. I have a real studio now, so that's exciting. Here is a recent watercolour based on a photo. I used Photoshop to clean it up a bit.

Drawing from a Still Life

2011-04-26T22:37:00.002-04:00

Grandpa

2011-03-20T23:29:00.004-04:00

My Grandpa passed away recently and I did this portrait (watercolour on gesso) of him with his classic gin and tonic in one of the old glasses with stars and moons on them. Love you Grandpa.

Life Drawing

2011-03-20T23:22:00.003-04:00

These are a couple of drawings I did for a charity show and sale. They are scanned from printed-out scans in a booklet, so apologies if the quality is not 100% (I didn't get to keep any originals). Originally they were done with ball-point pen. I like drawing from life with pens because it makes me concentrate that much harder.

New Stuff

2011-01-16T16:48:00.002-05:00

Watercolour on gessoed paper, 8.5"x11"

Watercolour on gessoed wood, 9.5"x6.5"

Detail

This one is acrylic on canvas, and isn't new, but I hadn't documented it until now and wanted to share it. I did it a couple years ago.

Soon I would like to try some larger scale watercolour paintings on paper or wood.

Some Drawings...

2010-10-31T20:52:00.002-04:00

...I did last spring. The top one is of my brother, and the lower one is of a boy from Bolivia.

New Painting

2010-10-18T15:32:00.002-04:00

I'm doing a large painting of this scene which can be found on Highway 104 just after exit 5. I'm not sure what these towers are for, but they've always intrigued me. This is watercolour on gessoed paper and the large painting will be acrylic. I just did this to get an idea of the direction I want to take.

Now that I've moved and have settled in, I will be updating this blog more frequently!

Kirk Douglas

2010-06-14T16:07:00.006-04:00

I love Kirk Douglas and I wanted to do a painting of him.. I found a photo of KD pointing at his own name on a movie poster for The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (which we saw recently, it was good) and I thought he had such a wierd expression on his face, which is already pretty epic anyway, and started thinking about other things I could show him pointing at. In retrospect I kind of wish I'd made them the same size, but oh well.

2010-04-28T18:19:00.000-04:00

This is another portrait I did on gessoed Arches paper recently. I'm pleased with it, but not with this scan. I'll switch it for a photo soon.

More Recent Works

2010-04-14T20:19:00.002-04:00

These are all watercolour portraits done on Arches cold pressed gessoed paper.

Getting more into portraits lately...

2010-04-07T17:36:00.003-04:00

Here is one I did recently as a gift. Babies are hard to draw. They kind of all look "the same" in certain ways, so you have to be careful to make it look like the baby, not just a baby. I'm thinking of different ways I can do more portraits without just painting people I know, which seems like the easy way out, and also not very interesting (to others). I'll be posting up some more soon...

Also, I've been checking out the nature-inspired watercolours of Walton Ford. Google him and check out his many amazing works, most of which are apparently done on giant pieces of WC paper. Below are a few examples:

It's inspiring to see what can be done with watercolour.

Woot!

2010-03-08T14:29:00.002-05:00

My long awaited website is up! Much thanks to the lovely and talented Alison Knott for pulling it together for me.

More Watercolour

2010-02-22T16:11:00.003-05:00

I remembered the gesso this time!

It's 8.5 x 11 inches.

On the Hill

2010-01-24T13:24:00.002-05:00

This is a watercolour I did in the last few days. I wish I could get a better photo. Maybe on a cloudy day. The next one I do will be a scan-able size. I meant to do this on gessoed paper but forgot to gesso it and did the drawing before I realized. Oh well. I am sticking to watercolour from now on and hope to improve. A friend and I are doing weekly life drawing sessions, which should be helpful. She has also designed me a website! There will be a link to that soon.

The Nevster

2010-01-18T15:12:00.004-05:00

This was a Christmas gift for my brother. I scanned it before I fixed a few things, such as his black gums - oops.

It's acrylic on canvas, 4"x6"

Orange you glad I'm back?

2009-11-15T13:52:00.003-05:00

Getting ready to start on a series of new paintings. Here's a recent collage.

Skull Table

2009-07-22T13:41:00.002-04:00

I'm currently working on this occasional table with neanderthal skulls on it. It's watercolour on gesso. I'll post the finished product when it's done and assembled. I thought a smaller project like this would be less overwhelming than the headboard I was working on, and also it's a medium I much prefer to acrylics.

Aaaaand as Promised...

2009-07-13T10:40:00.003-04:00

...The no-frills version.

The jacket was really hard. It was impossible - at least, for me at this time - to do justice to the crazy colours of his reflective jacket without using neon watercolour or acrylic, neither of which I had. PS was helpful, though.

Frigging Around with Photoshop

2009-07-06T22:39:00.002-04:00

Here's the cheesy results of my latest foray into photoshop...I learned how to do things such as starry nights (scrapped), lens flare, gradients, and fog. It's a watercolour painting I did and scanned. I'm going to post a simpler version with a white background, soon.

Traffic Boxes

2009-05-24T15:54:00.004-04:00

I'm one of the artists selected this year to participate in the HRM Traffic Box Program. I'll be painting one of the boxes at an intersection in Burnside. I'll be starting sometime around mid-June. This is my first outdoor mural. Here is a sketch of what I'm planning on doing. I am using custom stencils as I did in a previous commission, for a graphic, retro kids' book look.

And here is a collage I did during "art night." It's called Susan Boyle Room.

More Work from Face Value

2009-05-18T17:08:00.005-04:00

Here is some more work from Alison and I's April show at Utility, Face Value. I did about 75 of these portraits which are all watercolour and pencil on gessoed bible tracts. The quotes are attributed to the person in the portrait. Each name leads to that person's Wiki entry. These are some of my favourites...

Simone Weil

Harriet Beecher Stowe

I really enjoyed using this method of working on top of gesso with watercolour. It's an odd process that takes a little getting used to. Basically the gesso is obviously less porous than paper, and while the pigment does sink in a bit, it takes longer, and in the meantime you can kind of push it around with your brush, or even remove it, also with the brush. I think I got really good results and would like to experiment more with it in the future.

Fun Furniture

2009-04-13T21:45:00.004-04:00

Alison and I's show was successful and it's nice to have it over with. I totally didn't promote it at all on this blog because that's just how well organized I am. But I'll post some photos from the opening in a (near) future post. Anyway it's nice to have that over with. My current project, among other things, is painting this headboard for a child. What child, you ask? Whichever child's parents purchase it from me on Kijiji. I suppose, alternately, some adult who's super-into fairies might buy it. The headboard is a leftover from my previous roommates Chris and Amy (thanks guys!). Anyway the basic idea is to paint a mural on the headboard (and any other furniture I can get my hands on) and see if there is a market for this, when I'm not doing wall murals and other stuff.

Here is the headboard:

And here is what I have done so far, in the middle of the back of the shelf:

I was thinking about doing the headboard in a neat fantasy forest theme with a unicorn and wizard or whatever; eventually I got the idea to draw these two fairies having a sloppy tea party on some of those red and white mushrooms. I tried to steer away from making it too sexy/druggy/scary. I DID however want the fairies to look a little "off," like they are missing a chromosome or something. What the hell, they are fairies after all.

They'll be surrounded by large flowers, grasses, etc., a la Honey I Shrunk The Kids. I'll probably throw in some crazy bugs and stuff too. Almost the whole thing will be covered. I might even install a reading light concealed in the ceiling of the shelf. I'm excited to finish it and see if there is a market for this type of stuff. I also want to do custom furniture that's a bit more sophisticated, with custom stencils and whatnot.

Kitty Mural!

2009-04-09T18:00:00.005-04:00

This mural was painted for a Dartmouth Vet Hospital. The room is used as a showroom for kittens that can be adopted. The room is visible through a large plate glass window to your immediate right as you enter the building. It felt like a pretty epic project even though it was a tiny room. It was fun.

The view upon entering; sorry about the flash :(

Ceiling & back wall

Lower part of back wall

Leopard and hummingbird

Flower box (made of masonite and board; to cover internet box) and frog

Another frog and beetle

Praying mantis

Lizard

Exterior window and line of leaf-cutter ants; front door can be seen on right through plate glass window

Frog and wall/ceiling "bamboo"

Blue Morpho butterfly

My Hero

2009-03-05T22:37:00.002-05:00

Did it today and yesterday with watercolour and pencil with a little bit of acrylic.

Muraling

2009-02-21T07:13:00.008-05:00

I'm working on a mural in a vet hospital in Dartmouth. It's challenging but fun. Here you can see the first completed wall of the small room I'm painting. It's a jungle theme, with two facing walls of "bamboo" - this wall has a door and the opposite wall has a big oval window. The third wall will be a view into a jungle, with a young jaguar in a tree. I'm also painting the ceiling. The view here is through a large plate glass window. I'm using acrylic.

Since I've been considering mural painting for a career, I notice murals much more, when I'm traveling. Here are some Dartmouth Murals:

Alderney Drive, across from the Ferry Terminal, by Peter Bresnen. I like this one because the slope of the hill looks like the foreground of the mural.

This is just one small part of an extensive mural in the Ferry Terminal by Zeqirja Rexhepi. A huge job!

Outside some law offices on Ochterloney Dr. By Alexander Gigeroff.

More updates to come.

Green Bay

2009-01-15T15:57:00.014-05:00

This is a recent small commissioned painting of a view of Green Bay, Nova Scotia (acrylic on canvas). My brother told me it reminded him of comic books. I feel like one of the biggest inspirations for my current style is the Tintin books I read as a child. I think it's more of an unconscious influence; it's not like I think of those books when I paint. But it's what my work most closely reminds me of sometimes.

The Devlinator

2009-01-13T13:34:00.004-05:00

Here is one of my recent paintings for Alison and I's group show at Utility which will be in March or April. It'll be the last one I'll post from this series. It's watercolour, pencil and gesso on a found object.

I Heart Murals

2009-01-10T19:02:00.011-05:00

I did a mural (pictured) in November and December, I think it was (in 2008). It was part of a hallway in a private residence. I collaborated with the clients in order to come up with a dynamic design that would hopefully appeal to both children and adults. It was all done with acrylics. I REALLY enjoyed doing it and hope to do more murals. I did a pretty big job a few years ago painting a large room for a nursery, all four walls floor to ceiling. I like the idea that a mural becomes part of the structure rather than a decorating element such as a stretched canvas that can be shunted from place to place.

Jewelry Box

2009-01-10T00:54:00.005-05:00

Yep, it's been a while. I've been doing art stuff for sure but just no time to post, it seems like the last month has been a whirlwind. Here's one thing I did which was a Christmas present of an assemblage-thingy for a friend. It's a Salvation Army frame with four cork stamps painted silver glued on the inside, and then I just took my old jewelry bits that were accumulating and stuck them on. More posts coming soon.

The Answer to Your Problems

2008-12-04T21:59:00.002-05:00

Acrylic on found object.

Dr. Mabel Mousebane

2008-11-21T12:28:00.010-05:00

This is my most recent illustration class assignment, in which we had to design a character and illustrate them from the front, back and side, and also put them in a situation. So this is the front, back and side view of my character, an eccentric inventor who is for some reason obsessed with mouse-catching and making better and better mousetraps (she doesn't like rats much either). She is shown in her workshop with an unexpected visitor. I did this with pencil, watercolour and photoshop. I feel like the different elements in the workshop could be more "contrasty" given the sharp directional light. It looks a lot better in printouts than it does in digital form.

***Edit: I just noticed that in the "side" view of my character, the handle of her wierd fencing sword/mouse-grabber is not connected to the end of the device! Oops! I'll have to fix that.

My Attempt at Making a Book

2008-11-09T22:19:00.008-05:00

I thought I'd try to make my hard copy illustration portfolio stand out by playing around with making my own. I got instructions here on how to make a ribbon-bound book. My "logo" on the front is attached to the actual cover of the book and the red rice paper is applied on top, like a frame. There are four double-sided pages not including the vellum. I guess I probably spent around $25 on materials (cardboard, ribbon, vellum, glue, binder clips, rice paper) not counting the printouts. But some of that stuff is reusable. It took a while to make the book and it was challenging, but worthwhile. I'm going to experiment with using different/cheaper materials and streamlining processes so that I can make the final product as eye-catching and durable, yet cheap and quick to make, as possible.

I Has an Eyes.

2008-11-02T16:14:00.006-05:00

I did this recently for an illustration class project involving creating a portfolio-piece promotional poster to advertise an existing event. I chose Worldcon, the largest science fiction convention in the world. I haven't included the text here. I did it with pencil and watercolour and photoshop.

Have you ever heard of such a thing as genetic evil?

2008-10-02T12:06:00.006-04:00

This is an illustration I just did for my class. I took as inspiration the story "The Burning Man" by Ray Bradbury. In this scene, this woman and her nephew are driving to a lake in the country on a very hot day. They pick up a man who seems to be "burning up" with heat, who jabbers on, saying increasing insane things, until the woman gets so pissed off/freaked out that she throws him out of the car. And it goes on from there. It's a great story, here's a little excerpt:

Quite suddenly they were terrified. For the man simply idled on with his talk, looking at the shimmering green fire trees that burned by on both sides, sniffing the rich hot dust that flailed up around the tin car, his voice neither high nor low, but steady and calm now in describing his life: 'Yes, sir, there's more to the world than people appreciate. If there can be seventeen-year locusts, why not seventeen-year people? Ever thought of that?'

I did this using an actual book cover as my template, so it would be folded in half, and the right half of the painting would be the front cover, with a Twilight Zone logo between the sun and the top of the car. I did this with pencil, watercolours, and photoshop.

I'm Baaaaack.

2008-07-26T10:27:00.007-04:00

So, I've been away from this blog for a bit for various reasons, but now it's back up and hopefully being updated on a regular basis, especially after my opening at the Black Duck on August 10 is over and done with. In the meantime, here are a few scans of some illustrations I did recently for a friend's poetry book. I used ink and a bit of white acrylic paint.

2008-04-03T14:25:00.003-04:00

This is 8x10 inches in acrylic on stretched canvas. I used friskets a bit.

Beary Bear

2008-03-12T16:13:00.005-04:00

This was a commission. It's acrylic on 20"x16" stretched canvas. I used a self-adhesive frisket to do the bear and the leaves/blood. It was a bit washed out from the light when I took the photo, so I adjusted the contrasts, etc. in Photoshop.

2008-03-08T18:51:00.001-05:00

I did this as a gift for a friend. It's in acrylic on 5"x6" canvas board.

Anger

2008-02-29T21:16:00.004-05:00

Jim Lahey, drunken trailer park supervisor, is giving his assistant Randy a really dirty look. How can I tell this? Well, because John Dunsworth is such a good actor. The subtle sneer on his face tells a tale of repressed rage and frustration that could only be caused by Randy's peculiar brand of logic. Another way of putting it is that it's really hard to find any hi-res TPB photos online that show much of any emotion whatsoever. But, oh well. Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been housepainting. This drawing is in my sketchbook and it's done with mechanical pencil, 7B pencil, conte, and a bit of acrylic paint.

Love

2008-02-23T00:33:00.001-05:00

I'm starting a series of drawings (!), over the next few days, of emotions, as shown in facial expressions. I'll be exploring this through the medium of Trailer Park Boys. As you can see, Bubbles loves kitties. This is in my sketchbook and it's done with 7B pencil, mechanical pencil, and watercolour pencil.

2008-02-19T14:29:00.000-05:00

This is on a 30x40 inch stretched canvas with acrylic and mixed media. I used photoshop a bit as well to bump up the contrasts. I need to get a better camera. This is another in my "series" of paintings of the area. I think I'll stick to smaller paintings for the next little while, and also do some portraits or something besides landscapes. I am having commitment/foliage issues!

2008-01-29T14:52:00.001-05:00

I won't be posting for a few days because I'm working on a longer painting. In the meantime here is an illustration I did in the last few weeks on the topic of the future of artificial intelligence. It's acrylic on unstretched canvas, scanned & photoshopped.

2008-01-28T21:10:00.000-05:00

This is acrylic on 8"x10" canvas. I'm starting a series of paintings all based on a set of photos I took last winter near Petite Riviere, NS. It was an area between two drumlins where there were two ponds, one large, one small. The small pond had trees growing out of it. It was all very stark and peaceful. I'm always drawn to being in and painting "nature" because when I'm in nature it's easy to get rid of mental clutter, which is something I think people need less of. I felt that sense of mental space in this place especially. It seemed really special for some reason.

Dane the Pain

2008-01-26T15:45:00.000-05:00

This is my brother. I did it yesterday and today. It's acrylic on a 6"x6" canvas. Sorry for the shitty quality, my camera is not so good at capturing smaller images.

***update*** I switched the older photo with a scan instead.

2008-01-24T16:31:00.001-05:00

I'll be posting something new every one or two days, ideally. I'm sure the layout will change as I continually figure out more about how to work these internets. I did this painting yesterday. It's acrylic on a 20"x28" canvas.