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Comment by Daub | Hacker News Reader

> If somebody told me "image you are walking a winding path. To your right there is a wood, to your left there is a mountain".

As someone who paints landscapes, I have a huge amount of trouble with this prompt. I am trying to construct something that is topographically feasible and artistically agreeable. I can imagine walking through a wood, but not alongside one. I know (of course) that it is possible to walk alongside a wood, but every time I try to picture it, my mind balks. Also, combining a wood with a mountain I find tough, other that a mountain covered by trees. I think it is because of their genealogical dissimilarity.

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What part of the world do you live in?

Areas of the American west, with mountains above treeline and meadows, can have exactly this topography.

Example: https://www.google.com/maps/@44.051055,-121.796685,3a,75y,30...

I live in urban Vietnam. However, my visual imagination is derived heavily from paintings, particularly those of the romantic era (eg the Hudson river school). The promt suggest something very asymmetrical, which is anathema to the romantic schema (they avoid asymmetry but also too much symmetry). Not saying it's impossible for me to get there, just very difficult.

I guess the larger point is that vusualisation is as much fiction as it is recal.

By the way, I love the gmap link image, but I don't see it as an effective responce to the hint. I see it instead as a classic vista (I.e framed window-form).

Put yourself on the side of a mountain, with a steep drop off on the left.

Far to the left, you can see more mountains, but trees and hill block your view on the right. It's really common to see while hiking, though usually you turn to the downhill side to take a picture

Yeh... I can now see that. Thanks. Context is everything. Though I paint landscapes, I rarely stray outside the city. hence my knowledge of landscapes is mostly from paintings, not real life. The scene you describe is difficult to find in the painting lexicon (for it's asymmetry), though doubtless common in nature.

Huh. I have a lot of trouble visualizing things in general, I suppose I would be a "4" on the scale from the article, but this prompt is actually easier than most for me. Perhaps because I've spent a lot of time hiking in mountains?

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