Ailyex vs. Dogboyo

La Femme de la Ligne Claire

This rosy lady is one of the first from my new Rhodia series of prints, so called because they are all developed from sketches in my new favourite notepad - a Rhodia No.16, which looks like this -

I am tres particular about my materials, even the seemingly unremarkable. You want to use something other than a Staedtler HB and a chewed Bic biro? Psh . . . And one of my most loved materials has to be continental-style squared paper. Few British stationers carry it, so our French family holidays include choosing very special squared pads for the inevitable Holiday Diaries. I can’t explain the simple joy of writing and sketching on nostalgic gridded paper . . .

I doubt that Herge would recognise this lady as the ligne claire style as he perfected it through Tintin, but she is my tribute to simple lines, clean colours and the seeming innocence of Tintin and Snowy - although I don’t know what they’d make of an actual girl!* Lizzi and I loved The Adventures of Tintin - and still do! - and the penmanship, the whodunits and Captain Haddock’s ‘non-swearing’ expletives make me unfeasibly happy. As does this lady - I love her simplicity - intended to remain a tad unformed, a mere languid idea of a girl. From which you’d never guess that I drew her in BF’s last rehearsal!

I’m off to speak to a new printing place and brave the rain, before I finish some the Rhodia characters who’ll be appearing in Le Magasin in the coming days!

* Herge hardly featured any women and got Snowy’s original name - Milou - from his pet-name for an ex-girlfriend. How normal . . .

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Art & Design, Life and Times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.