heres a quiz. lets say you are on top of a mountain. where is eye level? i say eye level would be looking straight across to another mountain top of the same height. a certain party i know says its the horizon line regardless of the horizons lines relation to sea level. im prepared to be wrong here, but curious about the answer since this certain party is almost always right. heres all i found.
im wrong
depends on how strong your eyes are no??
When I learned perspective drawing the term was "horizon line" which meant eye level. The actual horizon exists only in the 3-D world and has nothing to do with the world of silly, 2-dimensional illusion.
The horizon is a perceptual result of living on a spherical planet of a certain size, and is limited by the curve of the earth. The higher up you get, the further away it will be, but it remains a straight line that appears to be at eye level. If you were to climb a rope ladder to the moon you’d eventually get to where the horizon would curve down at the left and right and you’d start to see the earth as a ball, but then it would no longer be horizon-tal, so the word would loose it’s meaning. It’s the difference between seeing the earth as an object and being in it as a place. Historically people didn’t have access to heights sufficient to reveal this, so it was easy to think the earth was flat. The early astronauts were impressed by this change of perspective, and the first pictures of the “whole earth” inspired Stewart Brand and his catalog. What I don’t get is how you could stand on that mountain while they called out hawks “along the horizon” and not notice that they were directly at eye level.
Depends.
Near Estes Park I climbed an 11,000 ft spire that sat right at the edge of the Great Plains. Looking west, there were taller mountains. Looking east, I had the distinct impression that the horizon was below eye level, since my perception of "eye level" was in part set by the taller stuff to the west.
Also related. One of the weird adjustments to moving to California from Houston (at the southern fringe of the Great Plains) was the realization that instead of almost always being able to see the horizon, I almost never see the horizon. There's always a hill or mountain in the foreground. At the beach and in the high Sierra one can see what is normally thought of as a horizon.
wait a sec. the worlds not flat?
tell that to the mustache.
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- bill 10-15-2009 1:04 pm
im wrong
- bill 10-15-2009 1:13 pm [add a comment]
depends on how strong your eyes are no??
- Skinny 10-15-2009 1:53 pm [add a comment]
When I learned perspective drawing the term was "horizon line" which meant eye level. The actual horizon exists only in the 3-D world and has nothing to do with the world of silly, 2-dimensional illusion.
- steve 10-15-2009 3:30 pm [add a comment]
The horizon is a perceptual result of living on a spherical planet of a certain size, and is limited by the curve of the earth. The higher up you get, the further away it will be, but it remains a straight line that appears to be at eye level. If you were to climb a rope ladder to the moon you’d eventually get to where the horizon would curve down at the left and right and you’d start to see the earth as a ball, but then it would no longer be horizon-tal, so the word would loose it’s meaning. It’s the difference between seeing the earth as an object and being in it as a place. Historically people didn’t have access to heights sufficient to reveal this, so it was easy to think the earth was flat. The early astronauts were impressed by this change of perspective, and the first pictures of the “whole earth” inspired Stewart Brand and his catalog. What I don’t get is how you could stand on that mountain while they called out hawks “along the horizon” and not notice that they were directly at eye level.
- alex 10-16-2009 3:26 pm [add a comment]
Depends.
Near Estes Park I climbed an 11,000 ft spire that sat right at the edge of the Great Plains. Looking west, there were taller mountains. Looking east, I had the distinct impression that the horizon was below eye level, since my perception of "eye level" was in part set by the taller stuff to the west.
Also related. One of the weird adjustments to moving to California from Houston (at the southern fringe of the Great Plains) was the realization that instead of almost always being able to see the horizon, I almost never see the horizon. There's always a hill or mountain in the foreground. At the beach and in the high Sierra one can see what is normally thought of as a horizon.
- mark 10-16-2009 6:32 pm [add a comment]
wait a sec. the worlds not flat?
- bill 10-16-2009 6:54 pm [add a comment]
tell that to the mustache.
- mark 10-17-2009 6:25 am [add a comment]