Sketchplanations

Explaining one thing a week in a sketch

Anamorphosis illustration: the words "Tilt Me" are written in large bold letters on an angle, making it easy to read when viewed from an intended position.

Anamorphosis

Anamorphosis is a type of projection that looks distorted when viewed from a standard vantage point or means but can reveal itself spectacularly from the right point or using the right tool.

This is the technique responsible for making 3D-looking ads on rugby fields that players can run over as if they weren’t there, or how they create those amazing street art holes, or how S L O W painted on a road may look just right when driving towards it but weird and long when seen from the side; or how Hans Holbein the younger tucked a skull into his painting The Ambassadors in the National Gallery. However, others may require viewing with a mirror or a circular viewer to reveal themselves as intended.

Anamorphic art is referred to as intimate art, as even in an art gallery, the true picture may only reveal itself to one person viewing it in just the right way.

P.S. You’ll have to tilt your screen or move to quite an angle to see Tilt Me look like normal letters in the sketch.

Also see: one-point perspective, two-point perspective, 3-point perspective, draw what you see, not what you think, atmospheric perspective.

Keep exploring

Amphitheatre and theatre (or amphitheater and theatre): an open theatre like the Minack theatre is shown on the coast on the left, contrasted with a larger amphitheatre with seating on both sides (or all the way round) on the land on the right.
The Droste effect illustration: where the picture contains the picture which contains the picture which contains the picture...
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