Finalist Tree #2 Bunjin Comments

bonsaial1

Tiny Plant from Finland

Tiny has produced an image worthy of Bonsai Today. I said points would be awarded for extra details like tokonome, stands, accent plants. Tiny has gone the extra mile and put together a nice display. The canopy of the tree is in proportion to the trunk. The shape and angle lend themselves well to the direction of the trunk line. The use of the 2/3rds. of the shoji screen is beautiful as well as the dark stand. Pot size is in harmony with the plant, although I might have went with a traditional bunjin shape pot, the pot does not detract from the scene. For a virtual, the shading of the elements seem to all go together which is weird for a virtual. I'd like to know how he did it?

Runner up, OMC. Old Mister has submitted a fine bunjin. The foliage is well defined, and the use of the jin coming from the tip keeps the eye moving all the way to the end of the tree. The eye is directed back to the nebari for a second go around. Very ingenious. Lots of visual speed here.

Treebeard, this is also a fine entry. Nice difinition on the foliage. I would like to see the drop branch point the other direction. I think this could have been the winner. How bout trying that just to see what it might look like. Post it here, I'd like to see it.

Albin, very nice design also. The jin on the trunk detracts from the overall image. I like the use of the jins at the apex of the tree. Nice rustic appearance.

Stephentoddpope, Actually a very good effoert. Congratulations. Could have been in the running if the lowest branch had been removed. Superfluous branches sometimes detract from otherwise great looking bonsai.

The first designs by Karl and Rene are nice efforts, but the looping apex are hard to make convincing.

Harry did a nice job, but the crooked jin at the apex is distarcting.

Zeb has a nice crown of foliage but chopped it down to the point of losing the heart and soul of the trunk.

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Attached Images

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Carl_Bergstrom

An excellent choice by the judges - I have to say I agree entirely. It really is a fantastic image, and the tree itself has this beautifully understated grace to it that perfectly suits the backdrop. Bravo!

This is the one that I had to most fun with. Somehow it seemed the most open-ended, and creating trees in the bunjin style is something that I don't know how to do and would love to learn to do. ( I did my first one last week at a John Biel workshop! ) Somehow these seem to be among the most challenging where artistic design is concerned.

I did a lot of sketches trying to figure out a way to make this tree look elegant, which was great fun and very enlightening. I was a bit worried about the twin-foliage-ball appearance. But it seemed to be balanced nicely by the extending jin. Kudos to Al for picking up the key to making that tree work - the cycling movement of the eye induced by that long jin.

I really liked the design of Karl Thier's second effort - but with all due respect, I felt that the background and "special effects" badly detracted from that tree. Against a plain background it would have definitely been in the running for my vote.

Albin's tree was also extremely nice, I thought.

Best regards,
OMC

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bonsaial1

Did anyone notice the distinct simalarity in the crown of Tiny's bunjin tree to the original tree. The upper part of the original tree is the exact same shape as the crown TT used. Look at the vote thread for comparison. I was amazed.

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Carl_Bergstrom

Good point, Al!

But I like Tiny Plant's virtual much more than the original tree - too much distracting foliage on the original. He has exactly the right amount of foliage on there.

Actually, it was fun to see all the comparisons because I thought that the BonsaiTALK virtuals compared quite favorably with the originals in every case.

All the best,
Old Mister Crow

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Tiny-Plant

Whoa! I am allso suprised of that!It really looks allmost the same

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