Design Nomenclature / Composition
Horizon line
Also called eye line, eye level
This entry has not been translated yet and is shown in English.
The line at the viewer's eye height on the picture plane, holding the vanishing points of every set of horizontal parallels. It is set by vantage, not by the landscape: it sits at eye level whether or not any horizon is visible, and everything at eye height meets it.
In practice
Routinely confused with the visible skyline. In a windowless interior the horizon line still exists, still sits at eye height, and still governs the whole drawing.
Not to be confused with
- Vanishing pointThe point on the picture plane where the projections of one set of parallel lines meet — the image of their shared direction at infinity. Every set of parallels has one. Sets parallel to the ground plane have theirs on the horizon line; vertical sets vanish only if the picture plane is tilted.
- VantageThe position a composition is constructed from — where the eye sits relative to the subject in height, distance, and angle. Vantage decides every overlap, every foreshortening, and every convergence in the image, and nothing later in the pipeline can undo the decision.