This was a fun one to do with family and friends. I do need to keep an eye out for more examples of foreshortening and atmospheric perspective. I didn't notice it at the time but I heavily favor examples with heavy use of Overlapping. (Cosmic Odyssey- Mike Mignola, Blade Runner- Al Williamson, Fantastic Four- John Byrne, Empire Strikes Back- Al Williamson, Superman- Fleischer, King of Fighters- Shinkiro, Ghost in the Shell- Tatsunoko, Metal Slug- Shinkiro, Vision of Escaflowne- Sunrise, Return of the King- Alan Lee)
Assignments like these are what challenge my understanding of my own observational skills. I'm glad to be given that chance, even when I fall short of my own expectations.
Here's a few of my favorite works of art, from some of my favorite artists and I'll try to do my best to analyze them.
The first one is an environmental/background by Kazuo Oga done for the Ghibli film, "Only Yesterday", and I'd rate it thusly:
Diminution: 5
Convergence: 4
Foreshortening: 4
Overlap: 3
Atmosphere: 4
Next is a woodblock print by Hasui Kawase of Zojoji Temple in Shiba.
Diminution: 3
Convergence: 1
Foreshortening: 1
Overlap: 5
Atmosphere: 3
After this is one of my favorite works by Tolkien, titled "Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves".
Diminution: 5
Convergence: 4
Foreshortening: 2
Overlap: 4
Atmosphere: 4
And lastly, one I discovered from Maurice LeLoir, called "Opportunity Makes the Thief".
Diminution: 4
Convergence: 2
Foreshortening: 3
Overlap: 4
Atmosphere: 5
I'm still hunting down treasures when and where I can. I'm realizing I just haven't done that enough and that I've been missing out on a wealth of artistic inspiration. There's always so much more to learn.
What an interesting assignment. This assignment has taught me to look at a painting not just with admiration but with attitude to analyze , understand, and get inspired by a painting. Here is my submission. Three of the studied paintings
First---Thomas Moran
I could find 4 elements in this landscape of cliffs of Green River Wyoming by Thomas Moran.
D -Diminution -biggest cliff looks closest and the further away cliffs are smaller in size. Even the figures are getting smaller as they are moving further away. Size of trees is bigger in front than at the back.
C- Convergence -Cliffs are converging towards left same is with group of people, animals and trees.
F- Foreshortening- I could not find evidence of that here.
O Overlap- lots of evidence. First the Cliffs main subject of the landscape has cliffs overlapping. Figures and trees are also overlapping.
A -Atmosphere. Clouds in sky and their shadows on cliffs and bit of fog on cliffs is a way that Mr. Moran has depicted the depth in this beautiful landscape
Second---Andre Bouvard
Andre Bouvard’s –Venice
In this landscape
D--I see use of Diminution when artist made the right side building bigger and left side houses are much smaller giving illusion, we as an observer are closer to right building. Again the green door on right looks much bigger to the brown door on the big building giving impression that smaller building with tree is the closest.
C -Convergence one point convergence is very clear
F –Foreshortening. Here too I could not find any evidence of it. It might be I do not understand Foreshortening.
O –Overlap-Various buildings overlapping, pink sailboat overlapping yellow sailboat making it recede. Gondolas are overlapping.
A Atmosphere -Hazy sky and blurred building at the back.
Third --Jim Lee
Trinity by Jim Lee
D -Diminution Look at the buildings, building in foreground are bigger than ones in background. As the building are receding artist made them smaller.
C -Convergence - Artist made three figures which are converging. White rays in sky seem to be converging to same point.
F -Foreshortening – There is plenty of evidence. Superman figure, exaggerated fist, thigh of batman, legs of wonder woman.
O -Overlap- Overlapping buildings, plane overlapping buildings and three figures overlapping everything.
A -Atmosphere – Blurred buildings in background and clouds in sky
I chose 6 pieces of art from my favorite aritist on Instagram. In order:
1. @arturodraws
A fantastic artists who works with the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA. He created this rendition of Rodrigue Beaubois on March 27, 2024.
Diminution (3/5):
The rock formations do decrease in size as you move further away from the foreground, and the Golden Gate Bridge does appear smaller because it is further away. However, this piece does not seem to focus on the use of diminution because the player is huge!
Convergence (4/5):
The rock formations and bridge all seem to converge at a point off of the left of the canvas. The player himself converges to a different vanishing point to the right side of the canvas. I do think that the top of the bridge does not converge well to the same point, and thought that the further side of the support should be a bit higher than the closer side of the support.
Overlap (5/5):
Rock formations overlap one another, as well as the player in relation to the bridge.
Atmosphere (4/5):
My favorite part of this drawing. The left rock formations, trees in the background, and the shorts on the player are all faded to different degrees. Arturo even uses a splash of water to create a misty effect which I really love.
Going to post the highlights of the rest of the pieces to keep it shorter
2. @artwithbryn
My favorite part of this piece is that almost everything is faded for the atmospheric perspective. The only solid parts are parts of the swords and the pommel of the large sword. This piece is largely driven by atmosphere and overlap, with use of convergence as well. (D: 3/5) (C: 3/5) (F: 1/5) (O: 5/5) (A: 5/5)
3. @nicolasvsanchez
Organic forms with very few straight lines, so not the best to study perspective, but I love his work and wanted to try! The piece wasn't rendered to be realistic and was left 'fuzzy', so it is hard to determine any atmospheric perspective. The forearm of the person holding the child shows foreshortening, and the child overlaps the person to create depth. (D: 1/5) (C: 1/5) (F: 4/5) (O: 5/5) (A: 1/5)
4. @paulheaston
I love Paul's work. His videos are so soothing because he has such confidence in building out his drawings with relatively accurate perspective. I rated everything except atmosphere as a 5, because everything converges to vanishing point in the back left, objects get clearly smaller as they move away from the foreground, the objects overlap in the foreground and background to establish where they are in relation to the viewer. Atmosphere I gave a 2, because the background objects dont have hatching which gives a similar effect to fading away. Last note - first person point-of-view makes it very easy for the viewer to recognize the major parts of the drawing. (D: 5/5) (C: 5/5) (F: 5/5) (O: 5/5) (A: 2/5)
5. & 6. @flo.creates.art
One of the most creative artists on instagram that preaches and teaches perspective. The first picture of the skeleton is interesting because the perspective grid is bent in a fisheye lens, but everything still works! The major focus is the foreshortening of the body starting with the shoes closest to the viewer and working its way up to the head which is tiny. (D: 4/5) (C: 5/5) (F: 5/5) (O: 3/5) (A: 0/5)
The second image also is a masterclass of foreshortening, in my opinion. The perspective grid seems to be 1 point landing somewhere in the torso, not curved like the first piece. (D: 5/5) (C: 5/5) (F: 5/5) (O: 5/5) (A: 0/5)
Quick analysis. I thought it was interesting which effects these tricks could have on the viewer e.g. establish scale, movement/action, leading the eye etc.
This my collection of perspective techniques, I rate them all with a 5/5.
Number one uses the convergence technique and I love the feeling of space around the two figures enjoying the view and the abstract shapes within the perspective grid for the distant constructions.
Number two uses foreshortening to exaggerate the depth of view from below the figure and the water making the viewer feel that they are about to be trodden on, along with being wet!. The technique works well with the idea of looking through water at distorted shapes.
Number three uses diminution for repeated shapes and keeps the distance even with red as a background colour.
Number four has atmospheric perspective on the background layer contrasting with the dark foreground and detailed middle ground. I like the way the atmosphere looks natural in the surroundings.
Number five is a painting by Carl Randall an artist in the UK. I like the overlapping shapes that are grouped to keep it easy to read and split the painting into three spaces. I also like it because I am it. I am the one who has shut eyes as I wasn’t very good at staying awake!
As I can see most environment concept artists use all the weapons available, but I found out that it's mostly the atmospheric perspective that was used the most. Convergences, I reckon, appear more in human-built environments. It's interesting that foreshortening can give more dynamic feeling to the piece, which I find mostly in comic books/manga and storyboards
This project made me realize I am drawn to works that use overlap, diminution, and atmosphere in that order to form a pleasing picture. I prefer landscapes and natural forms in art.
I don't know if it is a symptom of the works I chose or lack of training but I was hard pressed to find any foreshortening in the pieces. I looked in the organic forms (tree limbs and people mostly). The only example I could find is in the Booth piece with the chair on the left hand side. But even that I think is more convergence than foreshortening.
I am not overly familiar with a comic beyond Calvin & Hobbes. Looking at some of Waterson's work for the daily strips it is mostly overlap. But when he gets a bigger color Sunday strip he can definitely use all the tricks to bring a comic up to the level (in my opinion) of fine art.
Here is my attempt at analysing a few drawings. Im sorry for any bad english, its not my mothertounge and Im not used to writing longer texts in english
1 Kley, vergebene Liebesmüh
Diminution: 1/5 only few objects all close to the camera
Convergence:1/5
Foreshortening: 1/5
Overlap: 4/5 quite a lot of overlap, to show which part is in front of another
Atmosphere: 1/5
Volume and depth is mostly shown by overlap, since there are very few objects, that are all relativly close to the camera. The rendering also helps to show the threedimensionality, it helps to show the directions of the forms, also many of the renderinglines are crosscontourlines.
2 Kley, Fabrik
Diminution: 4/5 many of the same objects are repeated, and are beeing shown at different distances from the camera. Eg the „towers“, the chimneys, wagons etc
Convergence: 4/5 There is quite a bit of convergence happening, most importantly with the „towers“ and the wagons and the „railroads“ all beeing parallel
Foreshortening: 2/5 There is some of it since objects are seen at an angle, but since most objects arent close to the camera the effect of it arent crazy.
Overlap: 4/5 There are many objects overlapping each other.
Atmosphere: 5/5 Objects that are further are lighter, and more blue, the foreground is very red.
Having analysed these two drawings by Kley Im actually impressed by how the first drawing which doesnt has deep space and mostly relys on overlaps and crossconturrendering is, in my opinion even more volumetric than the second image, which has deeper space and utilizes more of the perspectivetricks.
3 Floyd Gottfredson:
Diminution: 2/5 Mickey and the tree are smaller than what they would be if they where closer to the camera, of course Mickey is also smaller in height than catnip, so him beeing further away enhances the effect of diminution.
Convergence: 2/5 the way is clearly converging.
Foreshortening: 2/5 Things like the streetsign or the faces of characters are seen from an angle, with the further away eye beeing shorter.
Overlap: 2/5 there is some overlap, especially with the dogs, and their leg beeing in front of their head/ being in front of each other.
Atmosphere: 1/5 The tree is drawn with light lines.
4 David Colman, Storyboard:
Diminution: 1/5 There arent really any objects that are similar in size tha are repeated in the distance.
Convergence: 5/5 I love the converging rain.
Foreshortening: 2/5 Dracula is seen from below, looking up at him, so his legs are bigger than the rest of his body.
Overlap: 2/5 Forground objects do overlap background objects a bit
Atmosphere: 3/5 Objects on the foreground are generally darker, especially where they overlap
5 Kim Jung Gi:
Diminution: 5/5 Many similar sized objects are repeated throughout the drawing, most notably many humans that are getting smaller as they are further away
Convergence:4/5 There is alot of parallel lines that show obvious conversion, especially in the buildings but also in the vehicles.
Foreshortening:2/5 Many objects are seen from an angle, but Foreshortening isnt the main factor in making this drawing 3D.
Overlap: 5/5 The drawing is jamfull with people and other objects, so there are countless example of things overlapping each other.
Atmosphere: 2/5 The persons in the very foreground seem to be a bit darker, and things further away are generally drawn with thinner lines.
hello !
This exercice gave me the excuse to dig through my favorite art books once again 🥳
There are so much beautiful / masterful painting to see, it was so difficult to choose which one I would analyse.
What I saw during doing this is that there is always a little bit of the 5 ways to create depht in a picture, but the accent is frequently put on 2 - 3 ways and not all 5 at the same time. (exemple : overlap, diminution, atmospheric perspective.). That gave me ideas of what to choose to have a winning composition :D
Tried to make the images as readable as I can (not a pro of graphic tablet/photoshop) :)
Thank you Marshall for this lesson and exercice, I just loved (!) doing it
Did some more studies.. This time of a James Gurney and a Kilian Eng masterpiece.
James Gurney piece:
Diminution: 4/5
Along with providing a scale for gauging the size relationship among humans and dinos in the foreground, he puts one in the background and subtly adds some flying ones in the distant sky to create depth. Also, the humans spread around the canvas diminishes with distance.
Convergence: 1/5
Apart from some obvious convergence of buildings and foreshortened figures, this trick seems to be not used that much.
Foreshortening: 3/5
Foreshortening is primarily used in the focal piece, the brachiosaurus( I guess). Apart from thst some boats and humans are foreshortened to create the environment.
Overlapping: 4/5
I noticed many overlaps in my shape study, the building in the foreground overlaps the dino, and the humans in the foreground overlaps it, too which also establishes the magnanimity of the creature. Some smaller dinos overlap the building in the foreground, etc.
Atmospheric perspective: 5/5
Atmospheric perspective is immensely used not only to create the depth but to create the value contrast in the focal point.
Kilian Eng piece:
Diminution: 5/5
Kilian establishes the size of the creature by placing a human on its back and then places the focal point in the midground. The diminution of this huge creature is evident as he fills the foreground with branches and trunks of trees.
Convergence: 1/5
Apart from the basic 1 point convergence of the overall composition and on the scattered objects in the foreground, I can’t find it being used to create depth
Foreshortening: 1/5
Some objects in the foreground are foreshortened to create not only depth, but variety.
Overlap: 4/5
In the foreground, he uses overlap of a huge no of shapes to create depth and variety. The piece still feels so coherent as the value group in the foreground is close-knit, as seen in my value study.
Atmospheric: 5/5
The value study shows how much of this trick is used to create depth. In my opinion, this is the main trick used in this piece.
1. A panel from a Dragon Ball manga
Diminution: 2/5. Some of the debris are smaller father out. But overall the buildings get bigger the farther out you go.
Convergence: 1/5, the buildings are altered for there to be no exact vanishing point. All lead to a certain direction but if all were perfectly squared, there will be a vanishing point.
Foreshortening: 3/5, not any extreme angle but has some foreshortening.
Overlap: 5/5, the overlapping of the buildings gives the illusion of what's farther an closer.
Atmosphere: 4/5, the buildings aren't changing, but the ground is changing from darker to lighter, depending on the distance.
2. A John Martin painting.
Diminution: 4/5, the castle, the trees in the background and the mountains cause Diminution.
Convergence: 1/5, no vanishing points
Foreshortening: 2/5 no extreme foreshortening
Overlap: 5/5, the main illusion of depth is the overlapping of the mountains.
Atmosphere: 5/5, The fog in the far distance mountains and sky give an illusion of depth.
3. Spiderman drawing.
Diminution: 5/5, the buildings get small as they lead to a vanishing point.
Convergence: 5/5, Same thing.
Foreshortening: 5/5, the buildings seem to get change shape as it gets closer to the vanishing point.
Overlap: 5/5, everything is overlapping.
Atmosphere: 1/5, everything is pretty much the same value.
I underperformed on the original gathering assignment so I gathered some more for this one.
I'm not sure I understand Atmosphere. Is it when air and space is represented and implied with the horizon? That's what I went with for my ratings here.
From left to right.
Rain Szeto
Diminution 2
Convergence 3
Foreshortening 1
Overlap 5
Atmosphere 4
Moebius
Diminution 4
Convergence 2
Foreshortening 1
Overlap 5
Atmosphere 2
Masaaki Nakayama
Diminution 5
Convergence 5
Foreshortening 2
Overlap 5
Atmosphere 2
Herge
Diminution 4
Convergence 5
Foreshortening 1
Overlap 4
Atmosphere 4
I loved dissecting these pieces! Some of these pieces lean less on certain elements and more on others, but it's good to know you don't always have to use every card in every piece.
Foreshortening, Convergence, and Diminution have been parts of perspective I've always struggled with; ESPECIALLY WITH CHARACTERS. Showing how much to foreshorten has always been my white whale. Having this organized into these 5 elements really does help a lot (and DC FOA is much more memorable for me than you'd think!)
___
Part 1:
1 - Mogoon 1
Diminution - 5/5 - This image believably portrays a sense of space by showing characters and environments becoming smaller as the image goes back in space. Due to the narrow focal length, aspects like the hood of the car appear far larger than the unimpressed girl in the background. The hierarchy of objects in the image getting smaller is uninterrupted and flows quite naturally.
Convergence - 4/5 - Due to the narrow lens, the 3 vanishing points of this image (3 point perspective) are quite close to the image itself. While not all lines meet up quite exactly at the vanishing point, showing that it was done mostly by eye, it also shows that Mogoon, the artist, is able to believably portray a sense of space throughout the image.
Foreshortening - 5/5 - This was the main reason I chose this piece. While the piece isn't fully polished, I wanted to see past that and look at it from a more technical point of view. Many aspects, from the characters to the car to the road itself, portray an excellent sense of foreshortening. The narrow lens here adds really well to increasing the high, tense energy of the piece. Really makes you wonder what crazy adventure they are having.
Overlap - 4/5 - The piece uses overlap to believably show the placement of different subjects in the image, from the building in the background, to the characters, to the window, to the front of the car.While arguably you can say that the characters get a little lost due to the amount overlap, you can also see it as intentional; the characters see, chaotic, so the assemble and overlap of the amount of characters in this vehicle should show that.
Atmosphere - 2/5 - This piece is mainly a sketch, so it didn't mind itself too much with atmosphere; that said, the railing and buildings in the back are faded as it goes back in space.
2 - Mogoon 2
Diminution - 4/5 - The power boxes believably move back in space in the background. Furthermore, the character's leg is slightly bigger in size as it is closer to the camera. The head is also smaller to account for that too.
Convergence - 2/5 - While this is still done in a wider lens, the lines do not necessarily converge to the same point. It is definitely done by eye. That said, I still think it is believably done.
Foreshortening - 4/5 - Mogoon loves his narrow lens. Other examples are posted below of his other work. Aspects like the legs and the wall makes her feel realized in her environment.
Overlap - 3/5 - This scene is more quiet than the other image I chose by the same artist. And it shows with less overlap. The main overlap happens with the electrical boxes in the back, as well as the character being in front of the steps.
Atmosphere - 3/5 - The use of blur and the wall fading to yellow (a higher value), as well as aspects of the environment and character slowly heading towards that yellow hue, shows depth in the drawing.
3 - Zero808 1
Diminution - 1/5 - The appeal of this image for me involves other aspects of the drawing in perspective; Diminution is not one of them. Showing a wider lens, the character is more flat in space, mainly showing some depth with the image closest to the left.
Convergence - 1/5 - You can tell the artist did this by eye. A lot of the lines meet up in places that far exceed the canvas. If I'm honest, I'm not quite sure how to properly figure out where lines converge in drawings with a flatter lens. I tend to overthink them so I may or may not be wrong in my findings.
Foreshortening - 4/5 - This and overlap are the main reasons I chose this piece. Foreshortening in places like the bodies as well as the jetpack (you can see the artist break down the jetpack in the process gif posted below.) a lot was considered when putting this together.
Overlap - 4/5 - The other reason I chose this drawing. This is a character design with a high focus on overlapping features, and I think despite the overwhelming amount of detail, I think Zero808 was able to believably put them together in different angles that feel consistent with each other. The image on the right further shows the overlap, with the arm and the gun she is holding being further in the background.
Atmosphere - 1/5 - Since this is a character drawing, there is little to no use of atmosphere to create depth. The main tricks you can see are parts of the body that overlap have a subtle fade to white to make different parts of the drawing that overlap much clearer.
4 - NIY_003 - 1
Diminution - 5/5 - The environment gets smaller as it goes back, as well as other elements such as the light. This piece also plays a real nice trick: Despite the monster in the background appearing smaller than the characters close to the viewer, the monster still appears to be much bigger, due to the context of how the walls, ceiling, and floor move back in space. Fascinating stuff.
Convergence - 4/5 - This was also an example where I'm not the best at figuring out vanishing points. However I do know that the vanishing point for the walls leads to the center, leading the eyes to the monster in the process.
Foreshortening - 3/5 - With a wider lens, this is much more effective for an environment shop. You can see objects bending in space though, like the floors, ceiling, walls, and the character bending over as she picks up the other character.
Overlap - 5/5 - Great use of overlap to show the depth of the environment and how far the figures are from each other in the image. Excellent use of a wider lens here.
Atmosphere - 4/5 - Looking solely at the values of this piece, the value gets darker as it goes back in space, a metaphor of a fearful fate.
Part 2 below.
Amazing immersion and devotion to this work, Espy!
And the "separating into colors" to simplify shapes, identify overlaps, etc... gives you a secret way to see composition as well. It's as if you've created your own kirlian photography to map the picture's aura.
You are taking this work seriously. Good to see.
Part 2
5 - NIY_003 - 2
Diminution - 4/5 - Plenty of examples of objects going from big to small, such as the staircase, the railing, and the path where the character is walking. Lots of rock rubble of similar sizes also reinforce the sense of space.
Convergence - 3/5 - This one I am quite confused on how to measure. Since the floor moves in space, as well as there being many different factors that come into play such as the character and the rocks, it can be very easy to get lost in the multiple vanishing points each object makes. I hope to learn how to simplify the thinking in this course
Foreshortening - 3/5 - The character is accurate in perspective, and aspects from their body to their legs accurately show it moving in space. The stairs and stair railing also show this.
Overlap - 3/5 - Plenty of objects overlap the floor such as the rock rubble, and the railing being in front of the staircase on the right shows the staircase to the left of the viewer is in front and higher than the staircase to the right
Atmosphere - 5/5 - The atmosphere is the best part of this illustration. The flashlight used to bring focus to the character but making everything darker really adds to the overall mood of ths piece. The staircase to the right of us being the darkest part of this illustration also shows that it is farther away in space than the staircase on the left. (edited)
6 - Zero808 - 2
Diminution - 4/5 - This piece feels mostly believable that the objects are going through space. The guitar feels consistent in size in the background, as does the boxes in front of the character
Convergence - 5/5 - The narrow focal lens makes the piece feel dynamic. The vanishing points are real close to the drawing.
Foreshortening - 5/5 - Also because of the narrow focal lens, almost everything in this piece has foreshortening applied to it, and with believable accuracy.
Overlap - 5/5 - The overlap of plenty of objects here gives the viewer plenty to look at. It also helps give off the idea of a messy room in space.
Atmosphere - 2/5 - Since this is a black and white sketch, there are minimal methods used to show depth. Mainly the white glow around the character to make her stand out from the background, and the faint reflection the mirror gives are the primary examples of atmosphere used in this piece. (edited)
7 - Krenz
Diminution - 5/5 This piece is a feast for the eyes. Krenz is truly a master of perspective. You can see plenty of objects getting smaller as it goes through space, such as the lakes getting smaller, as well as the similarly sized buildings getting smaller as it goes through space. Not everything is smaller though, the girl is one of the biggest aspects of this drawing, showing how she is closest to the camera.
Convergence - 4/5 - A wider lens helps to show environment drawings. I am also confused with this one, as there are plenty of objects in the environment that twist and turn; how does one simplify without getting lost in measuring individually? There has to be a way to save time
Foreshortening - 2/5 - Another aspect of the drawing that is slightly lessened by the wider focal lens. That said, buildings and railways are still believably in 3D. The railing especially that heads towards the viewer is a good example of foreshortening.
Overlap - 5/5 - A beautiful environment, with many objects at play that have overlap plenty of times. If organized into layers like below, they give a hint into how the drawing was organized.
Atmosphere - 4/5 The drawing follows the rules of darkest up close, lightest out front. While I do feel that the character and environment she is standing on could be darkened more, I think the outside environment organically goes from a darker value to a lighter value. (edited)
8 - Nier Automata -
Diminution - 5/5 As buildings go back, they head smaller, and have less detail, making it easier on the eyes. The buildings in front are massive in comparison. Also to note here is that the character in front is still smaller than the buildings surrounding him and in the distance, compared to other drawings where the character in front is larger. This is to put more focus on the environment and the scale of the world in front of them.
Convergence - 5/5 - Once again, a much wider lens is used for this environment. That said, I can still find the vanishing points for most of these objects.
Foreshortening - 4/5 - Lots of foreshortening used in this piece for the buildings and character. A question to ask is how much of the top of the buildings should be shown in an environment like this? This is what I hope to have answered in this course.
Overlap - 5/5 - Like the Krenz piece, this beautiful environment has many objects overlapping it to show depth and how close certain buildings are compared to other buildings this piece.
Atmosphere - 5/5 - The character stands out well amongst the environment, and the environment organically gets brighter as it moves back in space.
Here's my submission for the DCFOA assignment. I'm not sure that I correctly identified all the depth techniques when analyzing the images but it was cool to notice how much perspective affects even very organic forms.
I had a question about diminution and how convergence and foreshortening seem to stem from it. It seems to me that diminution causes the space between lines to become smaller which brings the lines closer together until they meet at a point (convergence). And then as a plane tilts away from the camera it moves away more, which makes the far end smaller, which make the edges converge more dramatically, which makes the plane appear shorter (foreshortening). Is this understanding correct or have I got it backward? (sorry for the super long question)
Also thank you @Marshall Vandruff for the lesson! It was super informative and helpful.
You've got it right, and whether you did it backward or forward is a chicken-and-egg issue – not important to chickens nor their loved ones. I read your sentences carefully, and you understand it enough to see that each of these phenomena affects the others — a worthy insight.
In your analyses, I think you're overestimating the amount of convergence in organic forms. But at least you are seeking it. When you draw your own characters and creatures, you will be aware of the receding lines like nobody else who didn't do this work. You'll see the scaffold in your imagination as clearly as the scale you created, and use it to gently guide your lively lines.
The same with diminution. I think the image of the warrior and boar on page 2 has very little diminution, almost none, but if you look for it, find it, exaggerate it, or hallucinate it... you get so sensitive to diminution that when you compare that scene with baseball pitcher above it, you see the differences quickly.
Here's how this will help you later: no-diminution vs radical-diminution is a key to creating distant, zoomed-in views, vs close-up, wide-angle views.
Good work Amu. You are learning.
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This exercise will help deepen your understanding of how these techniques are used to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface.
Deadline - submit by Dec 04, 2024 for a chance to be in the critique video!