This is where my art lives @klararts-blog - Tumblr Blog

This started as a random sketch and then just,,, got a life of it's own lol.

I used a mic of coloured pencils ans alcohol markers for this one!

[ID: screenshot redraw of Amity from The Owl House in For the Future, playing with swirls of Abomination material she's levitating, as a warm Boiling Isles sunrise shines behind her. She's smiling brightly. End ID.]

#amity my beloved #amity blight #screencap redraw #the owl house fanart #the owl house #traditional art #mixed media art #toh amity #amity fanart #toh fanart #toh fandom #my art #klararts artwork

feefal

Gold, Silver, and Bronze!🥇🥈🥉

Now as sisters and with a complex sibling dynamic.

feefal

did you know 24k gold is so soft you can scratch it with a fingernail? Because bronze knows

#banger art #this is so funny omg

Another attack! The character on the left, Nolan, belongs to Yutous!

#art #traditional art #coloured pencils #alcohol markers #art fight #artfight2026 #artfight 2026

My first art fight piece this year!! I was kinda in a slump for a while 🥲

BUT! ☝️

I finaly managed to make this one, this character belongs to @sorrow--wolf! Thanks the attack, I hope you enjoy this revenge piece!!!

#artfight2026 #artfight 2026 #traditional drawing #oil pastles #klararts artwork #art #traditional art #art fight #coloured pencils #mixed media art #chilling and painting

alpaca-clouds

What is Solarpunk?

I honestly am wondering where all the people come from right now who want to have opinions on Solarpunk without putting even a smidgen of effort into researching about it. But you know what?

Whatever. Let's do this again. Let me explain Solarpunk to y'all.

Images are all from the Solarpunk Seed Library. The list of artists can be found at the bottom of the entry.

The Origin of Solarpunk

Three years ago I have written a little essay on the history of the genre. But to quickly go over it once more: there is this commonly held belief that Solarpunk originated in the UK and came from the Steampunk community there. Which is not true. There was an aesthetic existing in the UK Steampunk community that also was called Solarpunk and also used some Art Noveau visuals, but was otherwise quite different from what we know as Solarpunk. It was indeed literally an idea built from Steampunk.

The Solarpunk we now associate with the world originates from Brazil and grew largely out of the Amazofuturism movement in the early 2000s. By now the oldest reference I found to it was from 2006, though I am almost certain it likely originated from a convention in 2005. But I could never quite verify it. Either way. It grew out of Amazofuturism, though it also made it quite clear from the beginning that it took a lot of influence from a couple of non-Latin-American artists. Most notably Miyazaki and Ursula K. LeGuin.

The oldest stories that carried the Solarpunk label were in the Brazilian Anthology Solarpunk: Histórias ecológicas e fantásticas em um mundo sustentável.

Self-Definition

The Anthology above released in 2012, which if we assume that the idea for Solarpunk originated in 2005 or 2006 means the idea for the genre was about six to seven years at the time. The Solarpunk Manifesto would not be defined till 2014, which is kind of part of the reason why a lot of the earlier stuff for Solarpunk is somewhat fuzzy on where it wanted to be on the entire "Utopia to Dystopia" scale. You can see that a lot in the anthology above, which kinda spans the fully spectrum between anarchist utopia and "Soylent Green is People". (Literally, mind you. There is a sort of Soylent Green story in there.)

The general idea was kinda clear from the beginning: renewable energies, sustainability, land back. And the entire "Miyazaki + LeGuin" influence also emerged quite early. But of course Miyazaki and LeGuin also are a spectrum, with their stories tendencially trying to navigate the question of how to create a better world, while actually trying to stick to... realistic restrictions.

But over the course of those first couple years some core ideas emerged - partially no doubt due to who was involved. And this eventually ended in the Solarpunk Manifesto.

Core Ideas

I spoke about this a lot before. But once more: the entire core idea of Solarpunk is that the entire idea of Solarpunk is about being against capitalism, against colonialism, against the status quo, and against giving into despair.

Because here is the thing: Cyberpunk might also be of the general opinion that "yeah, capitalism is kinda bad", but then it shrugs and says: "But it is not like anyone can do anything about it." The entire point is that Solarpunk is post-capitalist, and decolonized, and anti-hierarchical (so anarchist).

There is this wonderful quote by Ursula K. LeGuin that kinda expressed the basic idea of the genre:

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

It is basically saying: "We imagine a world that is sustainable, non-capitalist, and decolonized, because if we do not learn how to imagine it we cannot archive it."

A bunch of the people refusing to do research keep complaining about it being too "rural", though frankly: actually it is the opposite. Technically speaking too much Solarpunk actually is more urban (especially if we talk genre), because a lot of people active in this space are queer, neurodivergent people kinda traumatized by rural life.

Originally a lot of the art was more urban, though that has admittedly shifted - though frankly, the reason for the art shift is that a lot of newer Solarpunk art has been done by smaller artists, who often struggle with those endless cityscapes.

What Solarpunk is not

Solarpunk is not ecofascist. If you think it is, you do not know shit about it and you kinda ignore that this is a movement in which the core voices who took part in defining this were largely non-white people - and still are. If you think Solarpunk is ecofascist, it says more about how you and how you view the world, than it says about Solarpunk.

Land Back, and decolonization are core values of the Solarpunk movement. Just as anti-capitalism is. Solarpunk is not achievable under capitalism, and most people who seriously work within the genre are quite aware of this fact. There is a reason why the world at large right now has not switched over to renewable, sustainable energies, despite those being cheaper by now than fossil fuels. And that is that capitalism is built largely on fossil fuels. In the moment in which we admit that fossil fuels are not longer sustainable, capitalism might not instantly fail, but it will take a nosedive.

And despite how pretty it is: Solarpunk is not necessarily Singapore style green sky scrapers, as those are pretty, but not sustainable, which in the end is the goal. Just as it is not inherently rural or urban.

Solarpunk is also not Sierra Club style environmentalism, which is not based in sustainable practices, and once upon a time indeed did originate with ecofascist ideas.

Do Some Research

Generally I am begging y'all to just... do some research, instead of looking at some images and a bloody commercial and then base your idea on what a fucking genre and movement are about on those things.

Look, I personally do actually like the commercial, because it is pretty, and it is well animated, and all of that. But it is still a commercial, and not a piece of actual Solarpunk media.

The only piece of actual Solarpunk media outside of stories that we have right now is the French movie Arco, which you should go and see if you have not done it yet.

But honestly, you do not sound as respectable as you think you are, if you think you can have an opinion on something that you did clearly not even do a small google search on.

Image credit goes to (from top to bottom): Daniele Turturici (first two), Dustin Jacobus, The Lemonaut, Commando Jugendstil.

sotrias-labyrinth-deactivated20

I feel like when I say ‘relatable’ what I really mean is ‘resonant.’ I don’t want characters who I feel are like me, I want characters who have emotions so strong I can feel them through the page.

secretlyatargaryen

I think this is important because a lot of us forget the power of stories to make us feel things about characters who are not like us, who have experienced things that we never will. The purpose of listening to someone else's story should not necessarily be identification, but understanding.

#text post

alpaca-clouds

Solarpunk and the Apocalypse

You know what I have been thinking about a lot? How Solarpunk art is often very closely related to post-apocalyptic art. Specifically one kind of it.

Because, there is a certain type of Japanese art that often gets shared under the Solarpunk name. And it looks something like this:

(Half of these are by an artist using the name tokyogenso, who has specialized in this kind of apocalyptic art. Check them out!)

What you see in this art visually is usually man-made landscapes like cities and such, overgrown by plants. In some of these artworks (like those by tokyogenso) the implication is clearly a "human have died out/abandoned this place and it is reclaimed by nature", while others are going more for the generally cozy apocalypse vibe, where some humans are still inhabiting the half-reclaimed landscape.

And it is very obvious how this shares a lot of the visual language of Solarpunk art. It shows urban environments, but there is a lot of green, and especially in cases where human or human-like people inhabit this landscape, they often are more attuned to the nature around than modern humans are.

I mean, Yokohama Shopping Log gets regularly recommended as Solarpunk. And I also have recommended Apocalypse Hotel and several of the Eve animated music videos on the basis of their Solarpunky vibes.

I mean, Eve especially got recommended to me once as "a lot of their stuff has Solarpunk vibes", and I absolutely agree on it. It does have those vibes.

Or, heck. Another thing that I saw a lot of people talk about as "kinda solarpunky" is Pokopia. That Pokemon game with Ditto rebuilding stuff. (And I mean, I also have written in the past about how a lot of Pokémon stuff feels at least Solarpunk adjacent.) Oh, and also Bubble, that Netflix movie that I did not enjoy even thought it was pretty. Or even the other Netflix movie, what was it called? Maboroshi.

But I am... I am never quite sure how I feel about it at the same time.

Because here is the thing: we obviously do indeed not have a whole lot of media that is explicitly Solarpunk. We basically get two flavors of media: media that has a lot of Solarpunk-adjacent themes (like the Studio Ghibli stuff and a lot of the works of Ursula K. LeGuin) or media that visually does somewhat fall into the Solarpunk corner of it all. And the latter is often indeed things that fall under the "cozy apocalypse" banner.

I mean, heck. Arco, which is so far basically the one example of media that explicitly is being Solarpunk, also shows the Solarpunk future being post-apocalyptic. Yeah, sure, humans figured out the "living with nature" thing, but only after a good part of the world was destroyed.

Don't get me wrong. Outside of Pokopia, I love every single example I name here. Both the art, and the music, and the stories.

But I just... It is kinda depressing that for so many it still comes down to people struggling to imagine a world that is actually better - or if so to imagine it happening without a complete apocalypse happening fast.

I get why people are feeling like this. But also I am somewhat depressed by the hopelessness of it all.

I mean, admittedly, heck. I am not better. In my writing I have two Solarpunk worlds. World 1 is Urban Fantasy + Solarpunk, in which the timeline of that world diverges from our own in 2019 when Loki, in trying to prevent the apocalypse, kinda causes it, but it is fine. Sure, some people die but it could have been worse. But now the nature spirits are kicking everyone's butt if they dare to pollute the environment, so hooray, environmentalism has been solved on the basis of nature being very willing to kill you over it. And World 2 is a post-WWIII world, in which we ended up in a Solarpunk future after nuclear war, and a lot of unnecessary deaths.

And... yeah, man. I don't know. Because yeah, I admit it. I also cannot imagine us getting there on the basis of nothing but reforms and protests. I mean... *looks at the world* I think you all know what I mean.

But it is something that does strike me.

klararts-blog

I get that! My world I'm working on is kinda similar, bur for me it's kind of the power fantasy of nature outlasting any harm humans may do.

The worldbuilding in my comic functions that essentially magic seeps into our modern world and just absolutely fucks with the fundamental laws of physics leading to the collapse of a globalized society. I'm thinking of exploring how different communities adapt to this new world.

I think what commects solar punk and these apocalyptic settings is the fact that they are a power fantasy, where nature is the entity you project the power onto. And in a lot of those scenarios, current society *has* to give, because the way we live now just isn't compatible with nature that actively fights back.

#in general #cool stuff tho #for me it's less hopeless and mroe about the fact #that despite everything life will prevail #life and death are two sides of the same coin #and it's kind of a cosmic restoration of balance #text post

captainofthetidesbreath

WHO AT THE LIVE SHOW SNUCK A 3D PRINTED SPRINKLE INTO MY COAT POCKET

klararts-blog

I was in Nester Cosplay and I got a tiny traveler figurine (shaped like a penis 😌) from another jester!!!!

#the live show was awesome #critical role #critters do be great #i got gifted some dice #which then were blessed by holy water #by an italian lesbian #life is good

Tell me your worst crafting bad habit.

And I'm not talking normal stuff like being overly ambition, or lack of planning, not finishings

Tell me the stupid stuff.

I'll go first: I keep working with size 11 and size 15 seed beads in bed. And find them in my sheets when I'm trying to sleep

klararts-blog

I use my pinning needles in a way that sometimes makes them impossible to remove from the garment after sewing. I have found forgotten needles on the inside of a double layered sleeve and have had to gently operate it out as not to impale myself at random when I touch the sleeve wrong.

#crafting #text post #sewing #textile art

My 2026 Artfight-roster!!!

I'm part of team mystery hehe >:)))