Throughout this project, it will be interesting to explore how objects in front of others may be processed differently. In the study of visual perception, this effect is known as ‘occlusion’.
While occlusion can get a little more complicated when the surfaces are translucent or textured, understanding the basics of occlusion has many practical applications. For example, a recent paper by Barbara Gillam provides an excellent account of occlusion issues in early Renaissance art: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3485794/