Schoen - Final

For my final project, I wanted to make an attempt to be closer to my brother. As I said in the critique, he is currently in Okinawa, Japan and I haven't seen him for about five years. I have never been to Okinawa and I was curious to see what it looked like, but through my brother’s eyes. What did he see that was cool or beautiful or common on the island? So I asked him to pick a place on the island that he liked. I made sure not to make any real suggestions, so he could pick on his own, outside my influence. And I did tell him NOT to send me any photos, but to describe it as best he could. I originally thought he would pick something around his work. (He is a mechanic for the planes.) I was actually kind of nervous that he would pick something easy like his toolbox, which wouldn’t be very pleasing to look at, especially for a final project. Luckily, he decided on a part of the landscape, a hill in particular. He described it, I tried to squeeze more information out of him, and I painted the best I could. And I’m happy to say that he thinks the painting matches pretty well! For this project, my brother was the eyes and I was the hand painting.

(Below is an edited version of my brother's emails)

Brother: There is this BIG hill on base that rises up at somewhere between 45 and 60 degrees on both sides, and the left kinda falls away as the land beneath the hill gently slopes down. There are one or two short, rectangular houses far to the right that are a light tan. Like a generic, boring, off-white color. The sides of the hill are thick, dark green jungle, and it has a wide swath of golf course that goes up and over the middle of the hill.

If you need more detail of surrounding stuff, I'll have to go look again

Me: So here's a stream of questions: Where are you in relation to the hill, are you at the bottom of the hill or the top, or from the side? Also how many stories are the buildings? How tall is the foliage on either side of the jungle (just a bunch of bushes or a legitimate jungle with 50ft trees and vines)? And does the jungle continue to the buildings or is there a clearing around them? (Told ya I needed a lot, but thank you for sending something :D)

Brother: Jeez woman x3

I'm looking at the hill, and yes, legit jungle but the trees are only maybe 15-20ft. The jungle more or less ends at the bottom of the hill, I think, and the buildings are just one story.

Me: I also finished the painting. Does it look ANYTHING like the hill you were describing??

Brother: Pretty close! Just the wrong angle :D