rockm

"It seems to me that many people in the bonsai community follow what's been done because that's the way it's always been done."

That's kinda the point that's being made about the oaks being too much like pines. The pine solution is a tried and true one that works with old trunks like this. Taking this material in a direction that doesn't rely on the layered, foliage cloud pine look would be a more "natural" for these oaks.

That would be a difficult thing to do, however, with such expressive trunks. An "oak" treatment with denser branching all over the tree might not do them justice. Hanging branches on such characterful trunks isn't an easy thing to do and not hide the trunk or obscure it. Karl's plans look pretty good to me overall.