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Old Mister Crow
Join Date: May-2002
Location: Seattle, WA.
Country: USA
Posts: 3,197
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Fascinating thread, Al.
A comment about that jin.
I think you're right, it needs to stay.
But there is something that bothers me about it.
At first, I thought that it lead the eye in two different directions. I thought maybe my eye started at the base of the trunk, moved up, and then didn't know whether to exit stage right along the profile of the jin, or stage left through the direction of the canopy.
Then I changed my mind. The eye doesn't really start at the base of the tree, the eye starts at the canopy. (I think. Can anyone with a better understanding of these matters help me out? Following the "Natural course of the eye" through an image strikes me as akin to trying not to think of a white elephant.) I think my starts with the canopy, and sweeps downward as in the solid orange arrow in this picture. The problem is, once I reach the jin, the eye follows it instead of the wonderful curve of the trunk as indicated by the dashed arrow.
My proposed solution is to reduce but not remove the jin, so that it leads down and into the general line of the trunk instead out and away. I show this in the second image, where the visual flow is indicated in the red arrow. A bit of foliage further down helps, as does a redirection and shortening of the canopy.
Then you'll have an image with much better visual flow. Walter's advice with respect to the canopy is spot-on and will help as well. In retrospect even my second virtual left too triangular and upright of a canopy to harmonize with the trunk lines. I prefer the canopy as indicated with the blue lines in the second picture.
I'll try to put a virtual together at some point; right now I don't have access to my drawing tablet.
Best wishes,
Carl
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In love with trees
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