Deciduous design

[dragunrot]

Hello all. Today I'd like to learn and hear more about your thoughts on deciduous bonsai design. I've seen some very inspiring trees, and some that aren't so interesting.
Here is a Cork bark elm I bought this year, and while it's been very pleasant to look at, I feel as if there's a better direction I could take it in. Seeing trees by Walter Pall and the like fill me with awe and make me feel as if I am small on the forest floor underneath them, and I would love to bring that feeling to my own garden. The idea of fairy tale trees is something I'm very enamored with.
Now, I want to know (and see) trees that inspire you all. Whether it be a tree in a pot, or a tree in nature, I'd love to see the trees that make others feel that fairy tale feeling

 

[leatherback]

Seeing trees by Walter Pall and the like fill me with awe and make me feel as if I am small on the forest floor underneath them, and I would love to bring that feeling to my own garden.

I am sure you realize this, but be aware that many of walters trees are seriously large, allowing for more detail & levels of ramification.

Your elm specifically seems to have main branches that are oversized for the tree to look realistic as a tree, and then drop into very thin leaf-carrying branches. There might be benefit to replacing the thickest limbs for smaller ones, and working towards longer, more gently tapered branches to build the tree.

I have a few pictures stored as I was impressed at first sight and try to learn what they do that draws me in & makes me look several times. These are 2 of them, the maple is from Kaizen, as made clear by the mug. The other.. Some website. No idea who made it or owns it.. :

 

[Canada Bonsai]

Here is a Cork bark elm I bought this year, and while it's been very pleasant to look at, I feel as if there's a better direction I could take it in

It looks like it is well set up to create 1 central trunk, with 2-3 'sub-trunks' vel sim.

They may look like branches now, but if you grow this tree out the 2-3 branches closest to the bottom will eventually emerge directly from the nebari (or close) as 'sub-trunks' or 'strong branches', something like we see with the trees in the images below. I don't keep images of elms, but here are some Arakawa maples. I suspect they are all about 60-90cm (24-36"). The last two pictures are an Arakawa that I recently purchased but have not received yet - I share it here because the 2 branches on the lower right might be interesting for you to think about. I wish I had better pics but this is all I've got for now. I don't know how maples and elms compare in terms of pace of development, but this Arakawa is 25 years old from cutting--just to give you some sense of the time scale that would be required

First 4 pics taken from here: https://www.instagram.com/kokufu_maples/

 

[dragunrot]

It looks like it is well set up to create 1 central trunk, with 2-3 'sub-trunks' vel sim.

They may look like branches now, but if you grow this tree out the 2-3 branches closest to the bottom will eventually emerge directly from the nebari (or close) as 'sub-trunks' or 'strong branches', something like we see with the trees in the images below. I don't keep images of elms, but here are some Arakawa maples. I suspect they are all about 60-90cm (24-36"). The last two pictures are an Arakawa that I recently purchased but have not received yet - I share it here because the 2 branches on the lower right might be interesting for you to think about. I wish I had better pics but this is all I've got for now. I don't know how maples and elms compare in terms of pace of development, but this Arakawa is 25 years old from cutting--just to give you some sense of the time scale that would be required

First 4 pics taken from here: https://www.instagram.com/kokufu_maples/

These pictures are great! And a lovely Arakawa purchase, I'd love to see what you do with it down the road.
I've definitely thought about that before, I think my elm would look best if I grew it out and tried to improve on the sub trunk taper, I would like to keep it on the smaller side though. I've heard that these cork bark varieties are easier to root from cutting as well, so the chops I'll be making on the trunks won't be wasted!