Marjane Satrapi style reference and prompts

A high-contrast black-and-white graphic-novel style built from expansive solid-black silhouettes, pale reserved highlights, and fine gray hatching. Crisp facial contours remain expressive with minimal features, while patterned peripheral detail fills the space without overtaking the focal forms. Soft localized light separates small white areas from heavy surrounding shadow. Dense ornament and simple dark masses alternate to keep a square composition readable. The result is austere, dryly humorous, and intimate, with a precise inked finish.

A square black-and-white graphic novel illustration shows a dark-haired couple seated together in a heavily patterned room. On the left, a tall, angular-faced man in a dark suit leans slightly forward with his hands joined near his lap. He looks sideways with an intense, reserved expression. On the right, a woman with long straight black hair rests her chin on one hand, her pale face turned toward the side with a cool, unimpressed gaze. Their clothing forms broad uninterrupted pools of black, allowing faces and hands to read as sharp white shapes. Behind them, framed pictures and dense wallpaper patterns occupy the upper wall. A small lamp and candlesticks sit between the figures, while dark drapery at the right deepens the enclosed interior. Fine black hatching models the faces, furniture, and wallpaper, but the bodies stay graphically simple. The image uses no color: cream-white paper, charcoal gray detail, and solid black ink create the full tonal range. Indoor light appears soft and localized around the lamp and pale faces, leaving the edges and clothes in heavy shadow. The seated figures share the same space but seem emotionally distant, a contrast reinforced by the gap and small objects between them. The square frame is packed with pattern yet remains legible because the black silhouettes are so clear. The overall composition feels austere, wry, and intimate, using economical facial expression and decisive areas of ink to turn an ordinary seated arrangement into quiet tension.