Behind the Scenes: Solarpunk (Patreon)

I've been doing these personal projects for quite some time now, but there are always new things to get excited for. And I'm not only speaking about new pop culture references popping up with new shows and movies. There are whole genres I didn't get the chance to explore yet and I'm always thrilled to stumble upon something new.

This one started as a mere suggestion in the comment section and it just struck me as a great idea on the spot. Solarpunk! Of course I want to do that. For those who struggle with inspiration, this right here is another stream of ideas. When you start publishing your work on a regular basis, your audience will start to request things they might enjoy. Not only you get a new input, but at the same time your probablity that you're hitting the spot will increase.

Visit the full Pinboard here

I fired up all the image search engines I could and searched for the topic. After saving some images, I saw some wider variety in them so I felt I need some more knowledge to be able to filter through. And it doesn't have to be a tome that you need to absorb, simple Wiki search is sometimes enough to get a glimpse of what it is your trying to portrait. 

Solarpunk is mostly defined as the opposition alternative to dystopian genres, such as cyberpunk or dieselpunk. In solarpunk, humanity is able to resolve all its environmental and economical challenges and is able to live self-sustaining life in harmony with nature. Of course, as with any other genre, this is over-simplification and every author will bring his own flavor to the mix. But I liked that sustainability premise alone to get going.

Since I already did a lot of cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic and other darker genre architecture dioramas, I decided to add to the series and create a genre-fitting building with a focus on green tech and modern architecture. This time, saving new references was much easier, because I knew what I was looking for and could avoid things that didn't fit my chosen narrative.

When doing architectural and environment scenes, the sketching phase is most challenging, but at the same time, most important. This is where you take all the ideas and inspiration you consumed, and transform them into something new and unique. So naturally, empty piece of paper is a bit daunting.

All you need, is to start with few lines. Imagine complete proportions of the building and try to roughly block out  where different parts would go and what shape they will have. Don't bother with precision or the final result. If you don't like it, start over.

When you look at the final scene here, it might look complicated but if you compare it with the sketch, you can clearly recognize the simple geometry parts it's made of. The mail rounded L shape with few appendages on top, following the main rounded shape. Finished with the one cylinder standing behind and a bit playful base for the wind turbine, again following the curves of the main L shape with a cutout on the side.

When you build your composition starting with a simple geometry, you end up with a scaffolding you can build on and ready to add details and play with secondary ideas.

You can watch the process video on Youtube