Foreshortening is Something Every Anime Artist Struggles with in Drawing Their Manga. Part 2

By Rick Feathers

Let us look at foreshortening from a mechanical aspect. The illustration of a railroad track as mentioned before fades away to a point in the distance horizon. This is called a vanishing point and commonly used in perspective drawings.

Everything in the illusion must taper to a point, in other words get smaller or shrink as it moves away from your line of sight. So if you are drawing a pole, a sword or a body part that is pointing at you, fix an imaginary point in the direction it is coming from and project the outer lines to that point. The outer lines will keep the object in the proper perspective and they shrink in size like a boundary to work in.

Another way to quickly help in foreshortening is to draw a side view of the object or person. The side view will show every detail with correct elevated locations. What you do next is draw light horizontal lines and position everything in the right location for the front view. Basically you draw front, side and top view like a mechanical drawing in drafting.

Foreshortening is something that takes practice, lots of practice, and knowing the subject well by studying extensively with pictures and models. This unique view of drawing takes dedication and discipline of time but once it is mastered the rewards to your drawing style reaches a grand level.

In all honesty, I am still working to improve my own skills in the world of foreshortening, I consider it to be an art form all its’ own, one that captivates every artist to perfection of realistic drawings.