Maximum Sunshine

@maximum-sunshine.bsky.social

260 Followers 205 Following

Begginer artist at the fantastic age of 40 something, cancer survivor, cat and human mom, friend, lover, queer. Struggles with SAD led to me deciding to be my own fucking sunshine one day and I haven't looked back. You can consider that a promise & threat.

Minimalist sketch done in black colored pencil of a chunky kitty with a cranky or displeased facial expression.
Black color pencil sketch of a black cat laying on it's left side with 4 leggies sticking out. The cat is looking up over it's shoulder so you can see his face.
Minimalist drawing of a black cat going zoom. The use of watercolor pencil allowed for me to use water to create motion blur.
Watercolor bookmark of a blue sky with blank space clouds. 3 very simplistic black birds are flying in the sky.
Abstract watercolor painting of a very colorful sunset. Different shades of purple near the top into blues, which are the sky, then a line of yellow for the golden sun filling the horizon. A little golden yellow oil pastel is used hete in the center to represent the sun itself with a bold brightness i can't yet pull off with watercolors. Then below the yellow is orange. There is a spot or orange top near the left corner in with the purples. And where the yellow and blue meet color theory proves true i made green. Opps. But it kinda works. There are clear lines but they are blurred best i could, not well defined nor straight. These lines are very gay.
Swirls and dot line art on a white postcard colored in with watercolors using all different shades of green, blue, purple, pink, yellow, and orange. It has a very Crayola factory exploded use of color going on. There are areas i left white to make the colors pop.
My recreation of the minimalist cat art shown and described in the second photo, which was my reference. This piece is similar enough you can tell where my inspiration came from, while being far from identical. My piece also differs in that i used a black oil pastel instead of a pencil.
Michelangelo's David in mini form garden statue. Only, he's put on quite a few pounds, which makes him better if you ask me. Uh. He is family appropriate because he was designed with a leaf over his privates which the original David proudly has on display. My Chubby David is winterized with a crochet rainbow winter hat and matching scarf wrapped around his neck. These were custom made to his size by my good friend Jen, who isn't on bluesky so I can't tag her. This image is a full length of Chubby David.
Wire frame work that can be a flat spiral circle or stretched into a sphere or something approaching a sphere. In the center are two light blue translucent plastic crystals that cast light when the sun hits it just right. This is hung outside my one cat's window which the blinds are pulled up enough it casts dancing light through the window into my room.
Small set of red wind chimes hanging from a low Shepard's hook. They play a middle C-scale.
5 bird feeders, different styles with little repetition hang from a 5 hook Shepard's hook. All 5 feeders are completely full of black oil sunflower seeds. There is also a little wire tray PILED with the same seeds for easy squirrel access.
A watercolor painting of yellow tulips in a mason jar. A couple shades of yellow, one brighter and one darker were used on the blooms. The greenery uses a mix of green, brown and yellow, as the base color, with a couple drops of black added to the mix to then go back over with highlights. A very very light shade of grey with tinges of green was used to make the mason jar look like clear glass and a very washed out shade of brown was used for the water. This time i remembered the shadow. It's the same basic shade as the slightly green shade of grey for the glass.
Watercolor of a yellow buttercup. Shades of yellow brown detailing highlight the base of the flower and overlap where the petals meet, plus the pollen. The stem is a dark greem. Off the stem is another flower bud not yet open.
Light pink watercolor rose, with darker pink detailing. The stem and leaves use different shades of green showing leaf details.
Watercolor painting of delicate pink cherry blossoms. They are sticking out of a teal glass bottle of water. The leaves use a couple different shades of green to add interest. The stems are brown since cherry blossoms of course come from trees, so this is in fact a small very thin branch in the bottle.
Little grey cat with a wonky left ear wearing a chicken hat. He's slightly drugged because vet procedure but otherwise content to be held by vet staff and to tour the building and visit. He was inpatient there for 3 days a few weeks ago so he loves them and they love him.
Close up of my face highly obscured by a grey and white cat (he looks only white here, he's not) who clearly wants to be inside my skin he's cuddled so close.
Watercolor of a sunflower. The petals are various shades of yellow, the center seed area is part black part yellow. The stem and two leaves utilize a few shades of green.
Close up of a bright yellow hibiscus bloom with a little bit of greenery and another bloom kinda blurred in the background.
Watercolor painting of a bunch of white daisies with greenery, in a purple pitcher. The daisies are unpainted except for yellow pollen centers. The greenery uses a mix of different tints of green pulling in some yellow tones and some teal tones, all mixed with kelly green. There are about half a dozen different green tints used in the greenery. The pitcher is standard unaltered purple, except that some line work has black mixed into the purple so it's darker.
My recreation of the professional minimalist art of the scared cat standing and arching its back.
My minimalist recreation of the professional art of the cat standing stretching its back legs.
A very minimalist controlled I'm not calling them scribbles but they are that but controlled and professional art of a cat standing and stretching it's back legs, tail arched up over its body.
Watercolor of a poppy on a stem with leaves. In this piece i practiced adding more ans less water to get different values of the same shade of red for the flower and green for the stem and leaves.
Photo of the woods. The trees aren't overly populated so there is lots of lush green ground cover and the sun peeking in through the branches and leaves.
Scenery photograph of the Blue Hills in Northern Wisconsin. This image shows fields of green with a scattering of trees indicative of Wisconsin being in the Northern Woods. Half the photo is sky which is a beautiful shade of what we've named sky blue, and the sky is full of white cotton ball clouds.
White and Grey oil pastel work on a black thick piece of oil pastel paper. Jaskier, the cat depicted, is a white and grey cat. This piece is focused on his head and is thus mostly white, but he has a grey patch up top and around back of his head almost like he has a head of blackish grey hair like a human might. There is a little touch of black for his eye included, as well as his little pink nose. The art does honestly look like the intended cat. It's fairly good beginner art.
Little grey and white cat curled up in a tight ball sleeping. His little nose is tucked under his arm.
Wrought Iron chandelier absolutely dripping with crystals. It's placed centrally inside the main theater chamber.
Central chandelier in the middle of the theater proper. It looks made of wrought iron and crystal. It has been upgraded to electric.
Video from when my lilac bush was just starting to bloom this past May. The purple buds mostly aren't opened yet at the time of this video. They are closed tight but show evidence there will be hundreds of tiny flowers in bloom, I believe only a day or two later.
Video showing how blue the sky is with a shattering of clouds. They are nice and white, as rain was not a threat when this video was taken. The camera pans around showing the sky in different directions. The tops of trees are also evident in this video. Some have yet to grow leaves, and some have started to. Certain views in the video make it evident this was taken in a neighborhood.
This is the reference first. A grey cat sleeping in a grey woven cloth basket. Piece of cardboard is sticking out of the side closest to the camera. Over the top of it you can see just the top of his stupid little head and his body curled up rising behind it. The basket is on a table tucked under a plant. The background is general livingroom with a sofa and some bookcases.
Colored in outline of a black cat laying down on the floor. Pencil was used to make a minimalist recreation of the blackes and piles on the floor. Soot 8s nestled in the pile and instead of pencil black oil pastels were used to recreate her shape, and then i colored her in with black because she's a black cat. Doen in the bottom right corner it reads Max 2024.
Selfie of me lying down in bed with a grey and white cat half wrapped around my neck. His arms are on either side of my head/neck and he's using my chin as a headrest. His body is going down my body his little butt ending on my belly, though not pictured. This photo cuts off mid way down his torso just under my chest.
There is a crate fully covered by a navy blue quilt. There is a white laundry basket full of children's picture books with a box on its side on top. Between these two things is a grey cat tail the rest of the cat hidden under the quilt because maintenance is here so he's scared.
View of the road ahead, bending to the left. A view of the tree covered hills is straight ahead, not too far back from the bend in the road. Trees line the road on either side. Ahead on the road is a (stranger) guy on a motorcycle. He really adds to the composition, and his license plate is far blurry enough i don't have to worry about him being doxxed.
I'm laying on my side in a teal tshirt. Ash is draped over my arm, debating continuing the biscuits he was making, with some meager attempts, fully distracted by whatever he sees outside the window beside my bed.
Watercolor photo of a purple lilac on a brown branch with green leaves. Maybe 4-6 different shades of green were used for tye leaves. The lilac bloom utilizes at least a half dozen different shades of purple, some darker and some closer to pastel.
Patch of lush green yard sprinkled with yellow dandelions. There are about 17 yellow dandelion heads. The rest of the image is grass.
Shows a flower bed of black eyes susans surrounded by the wooden deck of a 5th-story courtyard. The flowers are a deep orange-yellow, with a black center, and lush green leaves and stems. Around the edge of the courtyard are more beds with trees, lined with benches. The courtyard is up against a building, visible in the background of the photo.
Photo of a black cat we call Soot. She looks uneasy like she's not a fan of this photo being taken. She's lying down in the photo kind of hunched and is coming into frame on a diagonal. She looks ready to bolt by her body language.
Bouquet of watercolor flowers. I don't know flower types so I'm no help there but it's got about 6 different flower types you might find as wildflowers and put in a vase. The flowers are in an array of colors and each color uses a couple of different hues and saturations. There is a large yellow and yellowish brown flower front and center. To the left is a small navy flower with different degrees of saturation so it's lighter and darker. Up from there are different yellow flowers we'll see again on the right side of the bouquet. Up from there across the top is some greenery (also scattered through the middle of the bouquet), a white flower with blue edges, a different flower that has the same fluffy quality as a peony, and then another of the white flowers with blue edges. Going down the right side are more of those yellow flowers i promised would return, as well as a purple something. All these flowers have green stems that come together and are tied up in a bow with some teal ribbon. Going back to color use and saturation, none of the flowers nor greenery is flat color. Each is a complex mix of colors playing with, for example, different shades of green for the greenery. There are probably a dozen different shades of green used, all of them a slightly different shade as I add in a yellow here or a brown there, and now more green, the puddle of green paint I was working with was ever evolving. A similar process was used for each color and each flower. Though green is an outlier in the number of shades used. I also used different amounts of water to increase and decrease how saturated the colors are. Sometimes a flower might be just one shade of purple but the amount of water changes within the flower itself so some parts are darker and some are lighter.
Watercolor of a single pink peony in a blue glass bottle. What's it called when it's the same shade of pink (as an example) but there are lighter and darker bits? I did that with the bloom. The stem is an almost olive green and the leaves are a brighter green also playing with i guess different degrees of opaqueness. The blue bottle utlizes this practice too. It's all the same shade of blue but the edges are darker and the center more opaque because that's accurate to blue glass. This whole piece was dedicated to adding different amounts of water to a color to get different results and practice how that looks.
Watercolor of a blue hydrangea. It'sa workbook so the lines were there for me already, i added color. There is one bloom in various shades of blue including some with purple hues. They range from a pastel blue up towards a navy. The stem is a darker almost olive green and the leaves are a blend of the same almost olive green and a brighter but opaque almost kelly green. "Almost" because they aren't quite matching those shades of green, but they are close enough to help get it across. Down at the corner written in pen it reads "Max 2025".
Watercolor painting of a pot of pansies in a workbook. The pot is large and brown with an attempt at the light coming in from the right making the right side of the pot a lighter more yellowed brown and the left side a slightly darker but still slightly yellowed shade of brown. There is a tiny patch of green at the lower left corner of the pot. Not the pot itself but just outside it. Based on the lighting it could be shadow but the workbook suggested green and it looks like a patch of grass and I haven't worked my way up to shadows so it readily looks like grass. Inside the pot are 3 pansies. These pansies are blue and utilize a mixture of shades of blue from almost navy to a not-quite-pastel blue. Along with the flowers are the leaves and stems you'd expect to go with. Multiple shades of green were used here just different amounts of yellow and/or black added to the base kelly green (there is no actual kelly green used unaltered).
Photograph of a piece of oil pastels friendly paper with a drawing of just the head of a black cat on it. There are no details for the face. It's just an attempt at the general shape of a cat's head, including the ears, then filled in with black. Bottom right reads Max 2025.
Closeup of a sweet wild violet that is white instead of purple. This photo is face on looking at the bloom at grass level and up close. Which means we can see inside the bloom. Which means we can see the white sweet violets have purple veins the same color as the purple blooms! So it's not totally white, it does have purple details, and this photo shows them. The background is green grass of the lawn. No other flowers happen to be in view.
Pulled back view of a section of the expanse of my yard. The photo shows nothing but lawn. An expanse of bright green spring grass peppered with thousands of purple wild sweet violets. There are also maybe a dozen yellow dandelions sprinkled through. The lawn is maybe 30-40% purple. Very purple.
Full view of the art installation. Four wavy panels bolted to the wall rising up. As they near the ceiling birds in flight cutout holes are in the panels until we reach the top where metal birds are taking flight up the wall and then across the ceiling. There are roughly 3 dozen birds flying out of the installation across the lobby ceiling. The wall the installation starts on and the ceiling are wood panels. The lobby is well lit with floor-to-ceiling windows bathing the lobby and especially the metal birds in light. Beyond the art, the lobby shows other things you'd find in a hospital lobby like wheelchairs, plants, and signage. You can see the entrance to the hospital just barely in frame on the left.
Video capturing different views from a stopping point on a path along a creek. The video pans the low creek bed, with water flowing. It also pans up to the opposite bank, still keeping the focal point of the water in view. It pans in either direction up creek and down. Trees and other plants can be seen on the banks of the creek.
A grey and white cat on a bed covered in a colorful quilt is used as a bongo drum. He rolls around a bit from side, to butt up and presented, indicating where he wants bongoed. His body language makes it clear his father was a drum. The snort you hear is due to his face journey of pure ecstasy. The video ends with side pets as he winds down.
Selfie of me lying on my back, head on a white with colorful floral print cased pillow. I'm wearing a bright lime green sleeveless shirt and purple glasses. The photo is cropped from about my chest up, cutting off the top of my head. The star of the photo is a little grey and white cat loafed on my chest. He is covering up the bottom of my face he is cuddled so close.
Selfie of myself in a yellow t-shirt and purple-framed glasses wearing a hat large enough that it takes up half the photo and goes well out of the bounds of the photo. I am a very pale white person with a slight flush to my cheeks in this photo. You can't see my hair.
The top of a bright purple, pink, and yellow a. The pattern is a simpler design of rows of large rectangles and smaller squares allowing the colors to draw the focus. There are other colors pulled in like white, black, green, and brown in the detailing. However, the quilt top heavily focuses on the main three colors of pink purple, and yellow.
Photo heavily focuses on the bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds filling the expanse. The bottom portion of the photo shows the green of the field below the sky, as well as two green trees sticking up from the middle of the green into the sky. As this was taken through a closed car window, towards the middle of the photo you can see a slight reflection of a believe the car's side mirror.
Montage of clips from my scenic drive through the blue hills of northern Wisconsin. Lots of fields, farms, woods, the road ahead, and of couse the blue hills themselves. The video is only 23 seconds long and is made up of short clips.
Close up, face on photo of a purple iris not fully bloomed, but getting there. While the bloom is in focus, the background of green iris leaves and the brown mulched flower is out of focus allowing the bloom to draw full attention.
Art based on the reference photo (second photo with alt text). The reference is more a line study and in black and white. The paper is white with a black circle in the center depicting an opening to the hide. The inside is shades of grey and black, with an attempt made to capture the nose shine and partial eye. Outside the dark circle in the center tree branches and an ornament have been penciled in. As explained in the second photo, this is a black cat in a hide placed under a year round Christmas tree. The art is fairly minimalist. While some details are drawn in, there is zero colorwork done.
Focus of the photo is an open bright orange lily photographed from a directly above looking down type angle. The background is a sea of green and more lilies (plus a tiny bit of the brick side of the house peeking through. Everything is in a softer focus than the intended focal point lily.