ProfessorFarnsworth
Mame
Yeah I'm planning to just leave it as happy and healthy as possible till a repot next year then see how it reacts. I'm hoping to find a large deeper than typical but semi-respectable pot for round 1.@ProfessorFarnsworth
I have a couple thoughts.
You need to repot this into a training flat, box or a bonsai pot, before beginning work on this. You need to find out where the nebari is, and what it looks like. I would delay beginning work until after the repotting and root work is done, and the tree has recovered from the root work. During the wait for it to recover from root work, you can contemplate possible designs.
You have a very nice piece of material there. If this were mine I would absolutely abandon the designs you have been proposing. I would go with the design suggested by @Adair M , your tree has naturally pendulous branches, This is an attractive trait and it suggests great age. Most conifers, descending branches are an indication of great age, including in redwood. All you designs you have been proposing have ascending branches, which means you will be fighting the natural tendency of this particular cultivar of Atlas Cedar. While Ryan Neil is a good artist, the Cedars he was working with all had naturally ascending branches. In his design he was not reversing the natural tendency of the tree he was working with. Consider working with, rather than against the natural trait of your tree.
Of course it is your tree. But if it were mine I would seriously consider using the design with descending branches. The thick secondary trunk up high in the tree needs to be removed or at least jinned and reduced in size. If you train all those descending branches to become horizontal or ascending, you will make the tree look younger. With descending branches it looks older.
It is remarkably hard to find cedrus progression information so I guess I assumed they trained them to position like any other bonsai. The only video Ryan really has on cedrus was tree that had been developed for 40 years. I'm only trying to plan and I've just been using pictures of atlas cedar forest for inspiration.