Before all, you need to set exactly your POV, height, distance etc. Then you create the rectangle with the texture on it and push pull it. Then you move and rotate it to be parallel with your POV and at the same height. Then you intersect the walls with it and you take the sample paint and select that texture which should be projected. Then you paint the walls.
Now if you go in Parallel mode it looks great, but we as humans can't see in parallel mode. Now you get back to your Pow and adjust the line on the distant wall so that they meet with the ones from the closer wall.
Now you make the applied distant wall texture a unique texture and you go and edit that in an external editor so that it follows the lines.

Hope it makes sense.

I also like the 1st, it's simple and effective. The second one seems a bit edgy and lost, imo.
Can you make the T come a bit over the HI orange background ? See how that works.

It doesn't matter the faces count if you can still work easily with the model.
For your model, you exaggerated with the curves segments, you could have kept them less segmented(you know that you can change the segmentation of the arcs, when you draw them).
Yes the far right model is the model achieved with the Curviloft. Keep in mind to work the settings of Curviloft to have more or less segmentation in your mesh and also to achieve a flowing shape. I added more segmentation for mine because the profile are far enough.

I have changed the arcs on a profile and then scaled that profile to match all the others(I believe you did the same with yours- push/pull and scale?)

The result is cleaner and you can play with the curviloft's settings as you want with a wonderful result.

1.skp

You still have some lonely and hidden edges here and there and they also cause that faceting(plus the weak shadowing sketchup engine).
Here's what I would do, I would keep about 8 profiles and I would create a mesh between them with the Curviloft plugin(the face button), nice and clean.

There seems to be something a bit odd about the geometry, is it free of extra edges or uncleaned geometry ?
Artisan is way easier but SubD is more rewarding, if you have built your geometry with quads !

What Charles said and also, you should draw the part near the origin and be in Perspective mode(Camera click on Perspective) because Parallel mode is strange to work with when orbiting around.
Also keep in mind that Sketchup can't create faces smaller than 1mm2 but it is not your case now. When you need to draw something even smaller, just draw it 100 times bigger then scale it down.
So, lets do it like this. You are near the origin, take the circle tool, click on the origin, type 0,47" hit enter, click again onto the origin, type 0,85" and hit enter, then take the Push/Pull and pull it up 1,5" . Now press and keep the scroll wheel and orbit around. Everything should be great! Also when you get lost, go to Camera and click on Zoom Extents(I have a shortcut for that-I am using it frequently).

Looks great !
What seems a bit out of the context for me:
-the pebble is bigger than expected and not quite random(I expect more like a dirty sand you fined on the edge of a side country road)
-I expected some cleaner areas on the walls that are covered and dirtier when they are not
-there is so few dirt/earth sedimentation for that strong grass to grow
But hey,,I am not that much of an artist as you are so.. I might be wrong!

Interestingly enough, I discovered Sketchup(v5) 10 years ago too. It also changed my life, as at that time I had nothing to do with 3D or visualizations or anything else, except for my love for cars(this made me to chime in).
I became an addict and slowly(in about two years) I saw the opportunity to make profit with it. Since then it brings my bread!

Long live Sketchup !

If you don't use the Sketchyphysics in a commercial way you can run the free version of 2015 on 32 bit.

From what I know they won't work on the same system.

If you have the SCF pluginstore toolbare you can save the plugins in a bundle and install it later.

Maybe add another loop.

The low segmentation of the outside arc is very bad. Also the arcs from the middle are not true tangents. And maybe you could have used roundcorner for the edges as they look to sharp for the overall look.

Maybe you just hide the model ?Or unchecked the visibility of the layer?

You can force axis inference with the rotate tool by tapping the arrow keys !!
You can edit the component settings in the In model components Edit !
You can change the component axes from the inside of the component by right clicking outside the geometry.

DUH!!

You can use Follow me for the outside edge and Curviloft for the main body.

q.skp

They appeared in the last version.
I usually keep them there, because I don't like to play with them. I somehow liked the way it was before.
You can however create a tray for each window you like separated and then move it around.
See this article-scroll down until you meet managing trays. https://help.sketchup.com/en/article/3000139
Maybe you should change the location Window/Model info/Geo Location ?

Click to play.
Those settings are under Styles now.
And I said Shadows window not toolbar.

Hoover over or click on the up right side on the Default tray button, then click on the small pin. Then go to the Style window and select your desired style or edit the actual one.
What Display settings are you talking about ? Maybe Window/Preferences/OpenGl.
You can adjust the shadow settings in the Shadows window which I believe you can find in this tray.
I haven't worked with locations so I don't know about that.

V5 to v2016 is quite steep you might consider reading the manual.

Lovely render, Box !

@garydorn said:

an hour!

shite, I've worked on this for atleast 12 hrs -

I have about 10 years of working with Sketchup(yet I am far from some people around here) and I first started with modifying the cars I found on the Warehouse. My first car was quite lame but slowly you make progress.
A body shape can be achieved fast but getting it to the right/perfect flow takes more than 12 hours.