First Juniper Styling

[one_bonsai]

This is my first attempt at styling a bonsai. I went for a formal upright. I would appreciate any feedback.

 

[one_bonsai]

Sorry I forgot to post the original photo.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Did you repot it as well?

The image looks pretty two dimensional. If you view it from the top down, do you see the branches going 360°? If so, then this could be a good start. If not, that's a thing to worry about coming spring. For now, it will need some time to recover. Nana branches can only bend a few times before the tissue breaks (and it takes 12 months to restore, darn it).

 

[one_bonsai]

Top down. Yes I repotted it as well. Bare-rooted half of it and left the other half until next spring.

 

[sorce]

It's nice to see green junipers this time of year!

The trunk exit angles on the left are better.

Certainly transformed!

Try to make your pads less uniform!
Now!

Let's give ripping that tissue a go!

Sorce

 

[one_bonsai]

The trunk exit angles on the left are better.

Try to make your pads less uniform!

Sorce

Yes I see what you mean about the exit angles.

With the pads you mean they are all similar?

 

[sorce]

With the pads you mean they are all similar?

Good question lol!

Cuz from above it looks well placed.

I think it is just the 2dedness. 2D Ed Ness.

It looks like Mario would have no question as to which branch to jump to next.
Make Marios life a little more difficult.
Actually, remove Mario all together.

Seems it just needs to grow out really!

Sorce

 

[Joe Dupre']

Just a thought. Later on, you might consider cutting it down to a little less than half it's height and wiring a branch to make a new apex. It would make a more powerful image with a bit more taper. It looks very neat and tidy now. Maybe a bit TOO neat and tidy. But, no matter what we say, it's your tree and you have to go with what looks best to YOU.

 

[Bananaman]

I like it... “arrowhead style”

 

[JerryMcconnel]

That looks really good I will be making my first bonsai this weekend at a class at my local nursery. It will be a juniper to. Why does your tree have that wire on it?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

This is my first attempt at styling a bonsai. I went for a formal upright. I would appreciate any feedback.

Ask yourself "does this look like a tree in nature?" The answer is "no". What is wrong? Too many low branches, not enough depth to the design.

In the wild, conifers grow tall and they start to lose their lower branches as they are shaded out. Additionally, back branches for bonsai are critical to the design - they make the design 3D and give it feeling. Your current tree design looks 2D and flat.

Here is an idea of what eliminating the lower branches and adding some back branches would do for your tree:



It "feels" more like a tree in nature... because I followed nature's rules for a formal upright. Try to make your bonsai look like trees in nature. If you struggle to have an image in your mind, go online and print out a photo of a real tree... and then print out the photo and have it next to you for inspiration as you style your bonsai.

By the way - I hope I do not dishearten you. I am sharing constructive criticism based on what I see. From where you started, with that material, it was good step forward. Now you just need to keep thinking like a tree

 

[one_bonsai]

By the way - I hope I do not dishearten you. I am sharing constructive criticism based on what I see. From where you started, with that material, it was good step forward. Now you just need to keep thinking like a tree

Nothing wrong with negative feedback if its constructive. So I hope people don't hold back.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

That looks really good I will be making my first bonsai this weekend at a class at my local nursery. It will be a juniper to. Why does your tree have that wire on it?

@JerryMcconnel Wire is used temporarily (for perhaps six months to two years) to bend a trunk or a branch into a shape or position that works for your design. After the tree has hardened into the new shape, the wire is cut off.

If you think about bonsai as trying to capture nature in miniature, in most cases a regular small tree will not grow in the zigs and zags that look like an old ragged tree. Rather, they tend to grow straight and leggy growth. So wire is used to bend the growth and make it look like the result of years of interaction with the elements. It has no impact on the health or well-being of the tree. It just makes it look crooked... or in some cases it straightens branches that were bent and which didn't work in the design.

In the case of the tree that is the subject of this thread, it was just a low-lying shrub. The OP used wire to take it from a prostrate line to a vertical line to fit his vision for a formal upright. Then he used wire to droop the branches, like you would see in an old tree in nature (versus a sapling, where the branches all shoot upwards).

 

[one_bonsai]

It "feels" more like a tree in nature... because I followed nature's rules for a formal upright.

Very astute observation. Yes that's exactly what I was going for, to mimic nature. I just prefer the natural look. The next one I do however, will probabaly be a cascade.

 

[one_bonsai]

What is wrong? Too many low branches, not enough depth to the design.

Here is an idea of what eliminating the lower branches and adding some back branches would do for your tree:

Yes I thought long and hard about removing the lower branches, but because I wasn't sure, I thought I've leave them on. I can always remove them if someone recommends it. Looking at your ammened picture, it doesn look a lot better.

Ask yourself "does this look like a tree in nature?"

Additionally, back branches for bonsai are critical to the design - they make the design 3D and give it feeling. Your current tree design looks 2D and flat.

When I looked at the pricture my first reaction was "Gee the camera really flattens the picture out". So each left and right branch actually comes at a forty-five degree angle towards the camera. The back branches are also comming away at a forty-five degree angle. It definetly looks a lot less 2D in real life.

 

[one_bonsai]

I removed the lower branches. My first reaction was "Gee, the tree looks a lot more mature than before". Such a simple change. Thank you for the advice.

 

[Music4cash]

Looks way better than my first attempt. I recommend that you look at pictures (or see them in person) of trees(natural or bonsai) and pick out one that you think you can "copy" with your tree. That will help you avoid things like the 2 dimensional quality, and the pattern you have in your branches. Nature is rarely that regular.

I'll also point out that from my short study this far I think the formal upright is probably the most difficult style to do well. It's deceptive because they look so simple, but because they are so simple everything has to be pretty perfect to get the illusion to work.

 

[one_bonsai]

Yeah I've been looking at many pictures of formal upright junipers and I basically

Looks way better than my first attempt. I recommend that you look at pictures (or see them in person) of trees(natural or bonsai) and pick out one that you think you can "copy" with your tree. That will help you avoid things like the 2 dimensional quality, and the pattern you have in your branches. Nature is rarely that regular.

Yes I have been looking at a lot of bonsai, particulary the formal upright. I noticed they the follow the "right, left, back" rule a lot, creation of a triangle and alternation of branches, which is what I sort of tried to copy. Is the alternation of the branches in my bonsai too regular?