An opinion poll, just for fun....

[greerhw]

Two pictures of the the same tree, one original and one I hacked up for my own enjoyment. Ok, would you leave it alone, maybe make some changes similar to my crude virt or would you separate it into two completely different trees ?

Harry

 

[Mojosan]

If they could be safely separated, that might make 2 very good trees.

I like this....

 

[Mojosan]

and this....

 

[JasonG]

Leave it alone!!! The original tree is phenominal the way it is. Splitting it will leave you with good trees but not as good as together.

Keep the deadwood.... killer tree.


Jason

 

[emk]

Since you asked...

While I like both of your images better than Mojosan's overall, those individual trees did bring to light a nagging issue with your original tree. While it's a visually appealing bonsai, it really doesn't look like a "tree". The extraneous deadwood that you removed in the virt makes me think that on some level you recognize that the original looks more like an interesting deadwood project than a real tree you might encounter in nature.

<understatement>Now I'm no expert</understatement> but I'm sure there are others here who could point out excellent examples of real-world trees that have a lot of surrounding deadwood that's not part of the trunk/branch structure of the main tree that might be composed in a similar manner to what you have here, but I think we'd find that it looks quite different than the deadwood on your tree. I would guess that it would mainly be an issue of scale.

So, in the end, I think the original image with some serious refinement of the deadwood could make a better overall composition, but as it stands now, the second image has a lot of potential on it's own and looks far more tree-like than the other.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

OMG don't remove the deadwood! Or else, if you feel you have to, sell this tree to me!

Here is what I think when I look at the tree. The virt is extremely heavy-handed and there are many things wrong with it (too much foilage, not enough ability to show foilage layering in virtual, etc) but it will hopefully show you an option to consider. Oh and ALWAYS display this tree against a dark background so the deadwood pops. Planting angle is important too - make sure that the jin on the left and the jin on the right are not the same height. I don't think it is bad right now, but if you are going to tilt it a little, make sure you go left and not right.

Recommended shift in planting angle:

 

[davetree]

Please don't separate, leave the deadwood alone except to refine it, the tree just needs to be styled. It would be a crime to cut this in two.

 

[king kong]

'morons' humble opinion

This is a great example of plant that had a pile of all the right ingredients. Beautiful deadwood, twisting vein of life, nice tight green foliage but......it is missing the main design element, form. No matter what way you turn it, no matter how many pieces you chop it into, it will not have the traditional form we look for in bonsai.

 

[greerhw]

I didn't buy it, it was too big for me to handle on a regular basis.
Harry

 

[king kong]

Holy smoke, I didn't know that! To me it's a interesting piece of dead wood with helmets on top to force you into thinking tree. It just doesn't have the mojo in picture. Maybe in person, it might be drop dead gorgeous. Keep looking Harry but let us know if you are going to sell the koi to buy it next time.

 

[greerhw]

Holy smoke, I didn't know that! To me it's a interesting piece of dead wood with helmets on top to force you into thinking tree. It just doesn't have the mojo in picture. Maybe in person, it might be drop dead gorgeous. Keep looking Harry but let us know if you are going to sell the koi to buy it next time.

I would never sell any of my girls, I love em, warts and all.

Harry

 

[Walter Pall]

I like very much what bosnainut did. And heer my enhanced version.

To divide or get rid of the deadwood would be a crime.

 

[Walter Pall]

Or how about this version?

 

[Mark]

Are you joking? Did you just get some new power tools you want to try out? Put them down and slowly back away! You can fix this tree without them.

Mark

 

[king kong]

flexibility

Nice work Mr. Pall, now Harry is going to kill me. The overall composition might not be classical in proportions but it does have an interesting image of wild trees. Make it fast Harry, I can't take pain.

 

[greerhw]

Or how about this version?

Nice Walter, makes me wish I would have bought it now !

Harry

 

[Bill S]

Definately leave it as the original, as far as too much dead wood, no way, if you want to see these hike to the tree line on some higher mts., or wind blown barrens, full of life for parts of the year, struggling against the elements in the rest.

 

[king kong]

I read somewhere these broken down twisted old trees are called krummholz. I just love that word. It's probably the German blood.
photo credit unknown shutter bug

 

[timgardnerapp]

Please listen to JasonG and DaveTree

Please do not seperate them!!!

 

[pauldogx]

I read somewhere these broken down twisted old trees are called krummholz. I just love that word. It's probably the German blood.
photo credit unknown shutter bug

You sure you didn't get that from Dr. Seuss???