Have you ever struggled to draw something in your art composition where the object was pointed directly at the viewer? This is a common struggle and requires the use of a perspective technique called foreshortening. While foreshortening can be quite tricky, with practice it gets easier and more intuitive. This blog post features information, a video tutorial, a free guided note sheet, and 2 drawing exercises for beginning artists to explore to build skills in foreshortening. Interested in learning more about the basics of perspective drawing? Check out my blog post here.
What is foreshortening?
Foreshortening is a perspective technique used to create the illusion that an object has depth. Foreshortening distorts objects to make them look shorter as objects angle towards the viewer.
A good example of foreshortening is a pointed finger. When the finger is pointed directly at the viewer, it distorts the length of the arm. It appears “shorter”… hence, foreshortening.
Take a look at this example of a crayon being angled towards the viewer at six varying degrees. Note that as the crayon angles more towards the viewer, it:
- Appears shorter
- Becomes less “parallel” on the sides and converges more dramatically
- The top becomes more visible
Below is a video tutorial for beginning artists to help understand the basics of foreshortening. There is also a FREE downloadable guided note sheet to complete as you watch the video to help you practice the techniques.
Video Tutorial:
Free guided note sheet:
Drawing Exercise #1- Cylinder
For this exercise, try to draw four different cylinders angled at varying degrees to the viewer. Explore how the objects get shorter, the sides converge more, and the top of the cylinder gets wider as they go from left to right.
Drawing Exercise #2- Pointed Finger
Figure drawing artists often encounter foreshortening as parts of the body angle towards the viewer. For this second exercise, try to draw the photo of the finger pointed directly at the viewer. Notice how the pointer figure appears short and we only see the top of it.
I hope you found this tutorial of foreshortening to be helpful! Thanks for checking this out!
Ready to take on 2 point perspective? Click here for a fun art activity.
-Stephanie Villiotis
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