Mugo #3

Adair M

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I like it even better if half of the foliage on the right is removed! Cover over the tight half of the foliage on the right. To my eye, it makes a more believable tree.

If the trunk moves strongly to the left, there must be something there that favors that side. Why would most of the foliage be in the other direction?

Trees slant to “reach for the light”, or some force has been applied (wind or trauma).

The left lean, combined with short left branches and long right branches just seems unbalanced. At least to me!
 

0soyoung

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The left lean, combined with short left branches and long right branches just seems unbalanced. At least to me!
I agree with the gist of this though I put it in different terms.

The initial 'image' I applied to this tree was basically the same as @Orion_metalhead is suggesting, except now with motion to the left and then back to the right added. The apex, though, is still sitting right over the nebari and what I call 'static', meaning like my posture just standing there in front of you. Generally speaking, 'static' images are calm or calming, stable = I'm relaxed, everything is safe, etc.

Some time ago, I decided this didn't please me as an image for this tree. I want it to be 'dynamic', meaning like the tilt of me rounding the corner on my bicycle or the forward lean of a runner. So I repotted it with the trunk slanting as it is now.The form sometimes evokes unsettling emotional tension: things like feelings of danger, adrenaline pumping, its going to fall over! ... the kind of image where one says WOW! on first sight (as opposed to, oh, what a pretty tree, sigh). There are so many things about this tree that are disturbing and cannot be eliminated; it will never look calm, IMHO.

@Orion_metalhead's suggestion made me rethink all this. In the end, it served to reinforced my aim to cast this tree into a 'dynamic' image (whatever that really means). Thank you very much.

Now, we are at the very limits of my capacity for artistic expression.
mama, dada
I am so proud.
But, me talk pretty one day.;)
 

Orion_metalhead

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I agree with the gist of this though I put it in different terms.

The initial 'image' I applied to this tree was basically the same as @Orion_metalhead is suggesting, except now with motion to the left and then back to the right added. The apex, though, is still sitting right over the nebari and what I call 'static', meaning like my posture just standing there in front of you. Generally speaking, 'static' images are calm or calming, stable = I'm relaxed, everything is safe, etc.

Some time ago, I decided this didn't please me as an image for this tree. I want it to be 'dynamic',

@Orion_metalhead's suggestion made me rethink all this. In the end, it served to reinforced my aim to cast this tree into a 'dynamic' image (whatever that really means). Thank you very much.

I'm glad I could do something suggestive, even if it reinforced your thoughts. I understand the dynamic feel you are going for with the tree. If you want the apex to be less static, why not leave off an apex totally, and simply develop the pads in places that feel natural and in keeping with the dynamic look you want for the tree? Example, thin, compact pads at a couple spots on the right, a larger flat pad on the top and a couple thicker masses of foliage on the left to support Adair's perspective on where the balance in the tree should be.

I like it even better if half of the foliage on the right is removed! Cover over the tight half of the foliage on the right. To my eye, it makes a more believable tree.

If the trunk moves strongly to the left, there must be something there that favors that side. Why would most of the foliage be in the other direction?

Trees slant to “reach for the light”, or some force has been applied (wind or trauma).

The left lean, combined with short left branches and long right branches just seems unbalanced. At least to me!

Your response is evidence of a deeper level of artistry than I can muster at this point, but running with your considerations, if we give the tree something to show why it's leaning, or that trauma is at the root of the slant, as opposed to growing towards the light, we will have a believable and natural looking tree. I think I agree with the thinner foliage on the right too. One thought I had is to give it a windswept look, and work to slowly grow the left branches back to the right (the tree growing towards the light to the left but constant wind pushing the branches to the right).

I kind of like this, highlighting the sweeping left branch individually, with some jin's or deadwork mixed in to explain the thicker foliage on the left. Then work the foliage into pads, even possibly pulling one of the left branches down low to the back and to the left in the back to fill in the negative space behind the trunk slightly.Oso Mugo 3.jpg
 

Bolero

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I just want to say that this Mugo is a Marvelous example of what can be done with a little creativity, I think it is going to fill out wonderfully and I apologize for being a little too critical in my OP....I also think everyone has good opinions as what to do next...but please don't overdo it and turn it into another Green Helmet sort of Bonsai...I believe Mugo's have a mind of their own and it needs to be allowed to show....I applaud your work...
 

Vance Wood

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I just want to say that this Mugo is a Marvelous example of what can be done with a little creativity, I think it is going to fill out wonderfully and I apologize for being a little too critical in my OP....I also think everyone has good opinions as what to do next...but please don't overdo it and turn it into another Green Helmet sort of Bonsai...I believe Mugo's have a mind of their own and it needs to be allowed to show....I applaud your work...
I agree, having grown Mugos for nearly fifty years I have found the best Mugo bonsai are created through collaboration with the natural tendencies of the material.
 

0soyoung

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I apologize for being a little too critical in my OP
Nope, no apologies. My perspective is that I'm trying to make something that talks at an emotional level. The trouble is that I know what I like when I see it, but have lots of trouble making images that I like and that 'talk'. It is a lot like being able to comprehend/read a language but not having the vocabulary to speak it intelligibly. Me speak pretty one day. ;)
please don't overdo it and turn it into another Green Helmet sort of Bonsai
Ironically that's where I started. I asked my wife what she thought about it and she screamed, that is was soooo boring! (decorated with a lot of nasty expletives). So I then made the first image of this post which was, to me, a disgusting giant comb over, yet the best I could do at the time.

But, it is a trunk with a whorl on top. Lower branches were gone long before I got the tree. It is situation that appears to occur a lot with yamadori pines and with upright junipers. What else can one do (I ask rhetorically) than make a lampshade/helmet on top? I keep studying examples, playing with virtuals, and vainly fiddling trying to find that aha-moment where I 'see it' and then make it. This sort of 'thinking out loud'/suggesting/tutoring is very helpful to me. Maybe it is also helpful to participants in this thread. Maybe it is helpful to others that are lurking. Maybe ...

I mustn't leave off that the nice words are good to read too. :)
 

Orion_metalhead

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Ive enjoyed participating in this thread. So you are absolutely right. Its a great tree. I look forward to seeing where it goes and what you do with it!
 

Adair M

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What I had in mind was some thing more like this:

9472447B-6D70-4707-B5B9-2C290FDCB823.jpeg

I apologize in advance for my lack of photo editing skills.

Move the apex to the left. The tree is moving to the left, so should the apex in this tree. You could shorten (reduce) the right side even more if you wanted.

Generally speaking, trees with long relatively taperless trunks look better with short branches. Or, branches that cascade down sharply so that the foliage stays close to the trunk.

The reason for this is long branches imply mild weather where heavy snows, mild winds would allow the tree to keep low branches. Heavy low branches build trunk, and taper.

This tree has no taper down low, and “something” happened to all its low branches, so the climate must have been harsh enough to either break them off at some time in the past, or they were shaded off at some point.

Mugo is a mountain pine, so, heavy snow is the most likely trauma, so long open branches in the canopy just don’t feel right. At least to me.
 

0soyoung

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Generally speaking, trees with long relatively taperless trunks look better with short branches. Or, branches that cascade down sharply so that the foliage stays close to the trunk.
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The reason for this is long branches imply mild weather where heavy snows, mild winds would allow the tree to keep low branches. Heavy low branches build trunk, and taper.

This tree has no taper down low, and “something” happened to all its low branches, so the climate must have been harsh enough to either break them off at some time in the past, or they were shaded off at some point.
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And then, if you like my image, put it in a much smaller round pot. With the trunk coming out from the center.
I've been thinking a soft cornered, square, semi-cascade pot with maybe rounded, but pretty much vertical, walls/sides.
 

Adair M

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I've been thinking a soft cornered, square, semi-cascade pot with maybe rounded, but pretty much vertical, walls/sides.
Why?? The tree isn’t a semi-cascade.

It could be a soft square, I suppose, but I think more shallow would be better. Maybe not as shallow as my poor drawing skills show. But a drum, nanban, mirror, or something. Even a slab. Since all the branches come from the top, it has more of a literati feel.

A semi cascade would mage the whole composition too vertical. It would tend to draw attention to the relatively unremarkable trunk.

Now that I think about it, a slab would work great! In that case, you would have a mound of soil on the right side of the slab, and have the part directly under the apex be bare of soil. Make it look like it’s growing in a rock pocket the way they do up in the mountains!
 

Adair M

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I found this image on google. I think it’s a Walter Pall tree.

Something like this, just reversed. And you don’t need to have the slab curve up. But here’s the general idea:

1179BD27-C878-4179-86EE-17F6EFEB5AA4.jpeg
 

0soyoung

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Now that I think about it, a slab would work great!
Since you mention it, YES, yes, yes, a slab!!!
Yes, this is one of mine.
Unmistakably yours, Walter.

Now I'm feeling that my clouds of confusion may be starting to break - that canopy! It is in the vein that I think @Orion_metalhead was pushing. I think I get it, now. It gives me a reason to smile at mugo#3.

Thanks for sharing this @Adair M. :D

btw, Is is unnatural to take my inspiration from one of Walter's trees instead of directly from nature?
 

Adair M

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Since you mention it, YES, yes, yes, a slab!!!

Unmistakably yours, Walter.

Now I'm feeling that my clouds of confusion may be starting to break - that canopy! It is in the vein that I think @Orion_metalhead was pushing. I think I get it, now. It gives me a reason to smile at mugo#3.

Thanks for sharing this @Adair M. :D

btw, Is is unnatural to take my inspiration from one of Walter's trees instead of directly from nature?
To get closer to Walter’s image, you’ll need to lower those long branches, wire them down to run down parallel to the trunk. Very do-able. Get the foliage close to the trunk.

Where does it say that inspiration must come from nature?

I’m glad Walter’s tree lit the light bulb in your head!
 

Paulpash

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This tree is slowly taking form and looking sooo much better. I like the removal of the armpit branch - it now shows off the movement of the trunk much more.

I also think Adair's version of less is more in the apex is the way to go - it makes the trunk look much bigger / more mature.

With a nanban or slab this image will really come together. Great stuff!
 
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