Ligne Claire
- clear line
- bande dessinee
- clear line style
One line weight everywhere, flat unmodelled colour, and no shadow at all.
Opens an image model with the prompt in it. The price is on the page before you sign in.
What it is for
Refusing to model anything with light makes every object equally real and equally present. It is a world with no atmosphere and no distance, which is oddly calming to look at and very easy to read.
How it works
One pen width draws everything. Colour goes inside the lines in flat local areas, chosen for what the thing is rather than for the light falling on it. Nothing casts a shadow, nothing fades with distance, and the far background carries the same detail as the near face.
When to use it
Use it when clarity matters more than mood, and for anything that has to be read quickly at a small size. It is wrong for drama, because a style with no shadow cannot make anything look dangerous.
Told apart from its neighbours
Cel Animation keeps a hard shadow shape and paints the background a different way. Cartoon Modern breaks the line and stylises the shapes. Outline Weight is the single property this whole style is built on, taken on its own.
Where it is used
It suits a map, an explainer, a character sheet and anything that has to stay legible when it is printed small or shown on a phone.
- Franco-Belgian comics from the 1950s onward
- Modern editorial illustration
The prompt
Replace the blanks with your own character, keep the rest. Then run it on an image model.
<character>, ligne claire style, every line the same weight from the face to the furthest building, flat unmodelled colour inside the lines with no shading and no hatching anywhere, no drop shadow, the background drawn with the same care and the same line as the figure, everything equally sharp, clean bright local colour
What goes wrong
A model adds a soft shadow under the chin and a haze in the distance out of habit. Name both in the ban, and ask for the far background to be as sharp as the near figure.
Leave out
hatching, cross hatching, a tapered line, cast shadows, atmospheric haze, a blurred background, textured brushwork
Watch for
Equal weight is the rule and equal attention is the consequence. The background has to be drawn as carefully as the face, so say so, or a model gives the figure a detailed line and the street behind it a sketch.
Questions
Draw it
Pay for the one run. No subscription, and the price is on the model page before you sign in.
