Marjo bij een loket before 1946

This scene of a lady approaching a ticket window was drawn by Eddy de Smet with pen, ink, and watercolor. What strikes me most is the contrast between the black lines and the soft wash of blue surrounding the scene, like a hazy memory. I imagine Eddy, bent over this page, carefully rendering each line, each expression. There's a tension in the man’s face behind the glass, his eyes wide and questioning, so brilliantly captured through a few, economic pen strokes. And the light blue behind him, not quite filling the frame, adds to the cartoon-like feel. It’s interesting how artists are in this ongoing dialogue, borrowing and riffing off each other. We see echoes of Hergé, but rendered in a looser, more expressive style, with the little imperfections that come from the human hand. It’s a reminder that art is never truly finished, just abandoned at some point.