Tintin Forums

What exactly is the Ligne Claire style?

I mean, I know it's the style that Hergé invented and used in Tintin, but I've read other comics purported to be Ligne Claire, but they look so different from Tintin that I'm not sure. Take Yoko Tsuno for instance. It supposedly is in the Ligne Claire style, but it doesn't much look like Tintin. It's more realistic, it has face lines, the noses and eyes are different. Besides, it uses a lot more shadow than Tintin, which I thought was the point of Ligne Claire. Also, look at Blake and Mortimer, or Gil Jourdan. Blake and Mortimer is a lot more realistic than Hergé's work, while Gil Jourdan looks like a cross between Ligne Claire and School of Marcinelle styles, but if you look it up, they are supposedly in the Ligne Claire style. Other comics, such as Barelli by Bob De Moor looks just like Ligne Claire as Hergé drew it, with the clean lines, cartoonish faces yet realistic backgrounds, and lack of shadow.

I just don't understand. What exactly is the Ligne Claire style?

I think that it is a matter of Ligne Claire being in the eye of the beholder. :)

Like many aspects of art, the views of critics can vary. When it comes to art, you do not necessarily need a firm set of rules, do you? For example, while Herge shunned the use of shadows, Leloup may have developed a style similar to his but decided to include shadows because he found them more realistic or atmospheric.

I think that the general rule is that while the School of Marcinelle (as popularised by artist Franquin and publisher Dupuis) tended to favour a rounded, cartoon-like style of comic, Ligne Claire (Herge and publishers Lombard and Casterman) is a more realistic type.

I always saw Maurice Tillieux's "Gil Jourdan" as Marcinelle, but if some critic sees it as Ligne Claire, then that is his prerogative.

Of course, artists develop their style over time. Leloup's early work on "Yoko Tsuno" strikes me as very Uderzo-like but later becomes more realistic.

Thanks mct16! That clears things up.

That's one of looking at it, but ligne claire is actually a set of academic "rules" defined and created by Joost Swarte in 1977, based on what he saw as the key features of Hergé's style.
I am sure I used to have something which actually laid out his rules, but I am blowed if I can find it so I will have to paraphrase, and apologies in advance if I mis-remember.
As I understand it, he proposed that lines should be of an even weight, and the only thing used to create form, thereby eliminating shading and texturization; and colour should be flat and without gradation.
It's sort of useful to have a term to give to the art of Hergé, Jacobe and others that, roughly, "look the same", but it's too often (to my mind) treated as a definitive statement of "this is how Hergé drew!", which it isn't.
I discussed it in this post, so I won't rehearse the argument again here.