Design Nomenclature / Composition
Foreshortening
This entry has not been translated yet and is shown in English.
The compression of a form's apparent length as it turns away from the picture plane — the same projection that produces convergence, applied to one object. A forearm pointed at the viewer occupies almost no length, and all its information migrates into contour, overlap, and shading.
In practice
Taught as a skill separate from perspective. It is the same construction; the difficulty is believing the measurement over what you know the form to be.
Not to be confused with
- Linear perspectiveA geometric construction projecting a three-dimensional scene onto the picture plane from one fixed eye point, so that parallel lines converge at vanishing points on a horizon set at eye height. Formalized by Brunelleschi and Alberti in the fifteenth century. It is a drawing system, not a description of vision.
- OverlapOne form covering part of another, which fixes their depth order absolutely: the occluder is nearer, and no other cue can overrule it. The strongest and cheapest depth cue on a flat plane, and the only one that works with no size, colour, or perspective information present at all.