hi all, the mirror trick is one i use quite a lot in my job as a dental ceramist mainly as a check for proportion and symmetry. when applied to my trees and in particular a large beech the resultant mirror image looks decidedly off balance and uncomfortable (to me). Now i,m a left hander with most of my trees showing movement from right to left. i tend to work right to left and draw right to left purely through neccessity not to smudge my work. When writing i find it easier to turn the page 90 degrees and write vertically. The questions i,d like to ask are, 1. do the (right handed) majority see my (left handed) tree as unbalanced and uncomfortable as i see the mirror image? 2. Has familiarity over the past fifteen years blinded me to the truth which an unfamiliar mirror image reveals to me (and everyone else can see already). Ron, I believe left handers have a measurably lower life expectancy than right handers mainly due to the potential head-on scenario, with the left hander turning left and the (more likely) right hander turning right a collision is more likely. regards to all and thanks for giving me things to think about, andrew

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Andrew, your tree doesn't make me uneasy mainly because your heaviest/lowest branch is on the left. So it reads as flowing. The tree that Hans used had a larger gap on the left and more weight on the right. The comfort of having the weight on the left, flowing to the largest part, and then empty space on the right is better.

Just like a sentence, bringing it back to the topic...

A sentence can taper off to the right and you don't mind....

.................................................. ..........................But start a sentence farther in and we tend to want to impart meaning to that. We want to know why it starts there. Now you could also consider that as a dynamic element, because sometimes making the viewer uncomfortable is what you as an artist are striving for. Knowing WHY it works is an advantage.

I wonder, too, how much is tied up in people and reading. Because people who read a LOT are able to "hear" the text and interpret clues (like where the sentence starts) on a more unconscious level. That's why the nonstandard fonts tend to bother some people, I think... they really do "hear" it on a lower level, subsonic as it were, rather than people to whom reading is not as innate. Focus on nuance and small detail will cause a person to be more troubled by such things on a very deep level. Just a guess.

Joanie

Andrew, that is a lovely tree and seems well grounded and balanced. It's a beauty!

Hi Andrew,

Your tree is in good balance indeed, it only seems to be off balanced when you looked at it in the mirror, dit 't not? So you are an obvius left to right vieuwer, like the most of us! In my opinion it is not necesary to look at your bonsai in a mirror as a check for balance, if the tree looks allright to you it will probebly look allright to us (if its a nice tree offcourse), there is allso the danger of overbalancing the tree , because of the mixt info you are getting from looking in the mirror. Knowing that allmost all people look from left to right makes it actualy a lot easier. I allso do believe that there is a lot to say for a litle off balance anyway! I allso believe that if there is any oppertunity to make your bonsai with movement to the left, you should allways do so, not in the last place because you have to approdge your way of thinking a bid diferantly then usual when styling the tree! Witch in the end will make it more satisfiyng if it all falls together!
Keep them small,
Hans van Meer.
[QUOTE=andrew lenden]hi all, the mirror trick is one i use quite a lot in my job as a dental ceramist mainly as a check for proportion and symmetry. when applied to my trees and in particular a large beech the resultant mirror image looks decidedly off balance and uncomfortable (to me). Now i,m a left hander with most of my trees showing movement from right to left.

and this is the true image, any difference?

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Yes there is buth it still is a nice tree.
Hans.

I think the left to right thing comes from checking peoples right hand as they come toward us,...a prehistoric weapon check.

The reason for writing direction is very simple.
The very old languages are written form right to left because they were carved in stone, if you hold the chisel in your left arm and the hammer in your right arm, the easiest direction to carve is from right to left.
The modern languages are written form right to left because they were written with ink and feather (or stylus), it is easier to writ from left to right because you can see what you are writing.
Just try it.

Hans, I believe that the majority of Western bonsai move from left to right, and I've often wondered if our reading had anything to do with it.
So my question to myself has always been, "why do the majority of my bonsai move right to left?" Is it because I've somewhat ambidextrous, or just confused?

Mike

It might have to do with dominant eyes. Anyone who's tried to shoot a bow and arrow (I know, not a lot of people) knows that one of their eyes is weaker than the other eye. I'm right eyed, and I think most people are, so most people tend to look to the right when they are searching.