LIGNE CLAIRE — HERGÉ — BRUSSELS SCHOOL

VISUAL STYLE: Ligne claire — the clear line style of Hergé and the Brussels School. Equal line weight throughout — no hierarchy of thick and thin. Flat colour fills. No hatching, no crosshatch, no shadow that isn't a flat geometric shape. Maximum readability at any scale.

COLOUR PALETTE: The printed four-colour offset palette of European comics from 1940–1980. Clean primary and secondary colours, slightly warm from printing on slightly yellowish paper. Blue (#0055A4) for sky and water. Green (#228B22) for vegetation. Red (#CC2200) for vehicles and accent details. Warm ochre (#D4A017) for stone and earth. All fills are flat — no tonal variation within a shape.

LINE QUALITY: The defining characteristic:every line the same weight. Outlines, interior details, facial features — all share a single confident line that never varies. This uniformity is what produces the clarity. Objects are legible at a glance.

SHADOW: When shadow exists, it is a flat shape of a slightly darker tone of the same colour — not a separate colour. The shadow has an edge, not a gradient.

ENVIRONMENTS: Richly detailed but never cluttered. Every object in a room is visible and distinct. Architecture is accurate in style. The world is meticulously observed and then simplified without losing information.

No photographs. No variable line weight. No gradients. No hatching. Only clear line, flat fill, and the precision of Brussels throughout.