I recently started making solarpunk postcards again, and I had a lot of fun with a quick scene of a solarpunk cargo ship (a steel-hulled, four-masted barque) in a storm. I’d like to do more but don’t yet have any strong points to make or designs I’m excited to feature.
So what would you like to see? What scene is missing from solarpunk art of humans interacting with oceans, rivers, lakes, canals? What weird idea, or old, practical design should make a comeback?
I can’t promise that I’ll make everything but I really do try to include as many suggestions as possible.
So far suggestions from reddit and discord have included:
- Showing more of the mooring ropes and foundations festooned with underwater life (perhaps in another storm or low tide?)
- Boats or ships with soft wing sails which are apparently good (in theory) when it comes to performance as they maintain their shape regardless of wind conditions.
- edit to add: a clipper ship
I’ll state up front that I’m not a nautical kinda guy. I like to pick up terminology and learn but I’ve never sailed anything larger than a sunfish and I see the ocean maybe once every five years. So feel free to spell out practical considerations and realism stuff because I probably won’t think of it.
And thanks!
In your previous artworks, I really enjoyed your themes of reusing/repurposing things from an earlier time. So the first thing that came to mind for me was an offshore platform (one of those shallow water ones that’s anchored to the seabed) repurposed as living space, research area, or a hub for an offshore wind farm.
I don’t know of the technology level in your setting could accommodate this, but I also thought about nuclear powered cargo ships. Lots of safety and environmental considerations, but the potential to vastly reduce emissions (since cargo ships switch to the cheapest, nastiest, most bottom-of-the-barrel bunker oil sludge they can get their hands on as soon as they’re in international waters).
I like both of those ideas! I’ve seen a few cool takes on repurposed oil rigs, I’ll have to read up on them a bit to see what kind of resources they offer to long term residents, but I’d enjoy doing a take on it - maybe a ship charging station from windmills plus merchant hub/repairs like a bartering outpost from waterworld?
Nuclear powered ships are definitely proven and it’s be cool to see the tech put to a nonmilitary use - though the regulation/control aspect would be challenging to do safely.
Thanks!